You'll want to post your code if you want to get more meaningful responses.

You might try:

$ftp=Net::FTP->new("ftp.microsoft.com", 
                        Debug => 1, 
                   );
[download]

to catch more info from Net::FTP

Also, I have had problems using cron because the path and/or env and/or current working directory wasn't the same as when I ran it from the cmd line. This may cause the script problems in finding libraries, external commands, reading and/or writing files were you expect them to be etc. A simple-minded solution to the cwd problem is have the perl script cd to its own location at the top of the script.

Also, is the crontab that of the user that was logged in on the cmd line that you used to run the test?

-------------------------------------
Nothing is too wonderful to be true
-- Michael Faraday