Update: edited out a boneheaded mistake i made on the command line

i tried ppm2 and got similar results

C:\>ppm2
PPM interactive shell (2.2.0) - type 'help' for available commands.
PPM> install http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/DBD-mysql.ppd
Install package 'http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/DBD-mysql.ppd?' (y/
+N): y
Installing package 'http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/DBD-mysql.ppd'..
+.
Downloading http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/x86/DBD-mysql.tar.gz ...
Can't call method "gzread" on an undefined value at C:/Perl5.8/site/li
+b/Archive/
Tar.pm line 274.
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