gnubbs,
Perhaps you want to try the following instead. It may be a little easier to use.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my $ip_address;
open (NETSTAT,"/usr/bin/netstat -in |") or die "Unable to execute nets
+tat";
while (<NETSTAT>) {
    next unless (/^ec0/);
    my @fields = split;
    $ip_address = $fields[3];
}
print "$ip_address\n";
[download]

I took the liberty of changing the ifconfig to a netstat because it is much easier to parse. This code can be greatly simplified, but since you say you are getting back in the saddle - I wanted to make it as clear as possible what I was doing.

Cheers - L~R