A simple code:

  my $p = Net::Ping->new("icmp");
  if ($p->ping($computer)) {
      #run your checks
  } else {
       print"* Unable to Ping $computer *\n";
  }
  $p->close();
}
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Also this is strictly a choice of the person since there is no "real" noticible difference. But if you played with Connect option you could lesson some of your typing. As in:

if ($key = $Registry->Connect("$computer","LMachine/Software/Network A
+ssociates/" .
      "TVD/NetShield NT/CurrentVersion/" {Access=>KEY_READ} ) ) {
    unless ($version = $key->GetValue("szProductVer")) {
         $version = "Unknown";
    }

    unless ($dat = $key->GetValue("szVirDefVer")) {
         $dat = "Unknown";
    }
                    
    unless ($engine = $key->GetValue("szEngineVer")) {
         $engine = "Unknown";
    }
}
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But this again is the choice of the person. For me if there was a typo, I would have to work at the long lines because I have dyslexia. So the chopped up lines make it a easier for me to read.

Oh did you know you could toss your delimeter up in the use statement? One less line....

    use Win32::TieRegistry( Delimiter=>"/" );
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How about a piece offering. This code will go out to the mcafee downloads site and get you the current dat, superdat and engine info. You will need LWP::UserAgent, HTTP::Request, and HTML::TableExtract(this is a slick mod).

For some strange reason the engine info comes out with a bunch of lines. Can't tell if NAI did something to their website or it is a bug. I think it is their site because it worked fine in the morning. You can correct this issue by resaving the engine var as an int

#
# GetCurrentVersion will the Mcafee download page and grab the version
+ number
# for the latest DAT, superDAT, and engine.
sub GetCurrentVersion {

    my $key;
    my $dat;
    my $superdat;
    my $engine;
    my $html_code;
    my $row;
    my $ts;
    #
    # Lets access the Network Associates download page for the Virus I
+nfo.
    my $ua = new LWP::UserAgent;
    my $url = 'http://www.mcafeeb2b.com/naicommon/download/dats/find.a
+sp';
    my $request = new HTTP::Request('GET',$url);
    #
    # Do we need to login?
    #$request->authorization_basic('login', 'password'); 
    $ua->timeout(10); 
    my $response     = $ua->request($request); 
    my $responsecode = $response->code(); 
    #
    # Now we need to gather the information.
    if ($responsecode != 200) { 
        print "Failed to Access the Mcafee site!: $responsecode\n"; 
    } else {
        #
        # Load the HTML junk into a var.
        my @array = (split "\n", $ua->request($request)->as_string);
        foreach (@array) {
            $html_code .= $_ . "\n";
        }
    }
    #
    # It's time to use TableExtract. We use the File Version and Date 
+for
    # header info to locate our tables.  Once found; we look for certa
+in
    # names and assing the version info to our needed vars.
    my $te = new HTML::TableExtract( headers => [qw(File Version Date)
+] );
    $te->parse($html_code);

    foreach $ts ($te->table_states) {
        #print "Table found at ", join(',', $ts->coords), ":\n";

        foreach $row ($ts->rows) {
            #
            # DAT Version
            if (@$row[0] =~ /DAT File for weekly v4x \(DAT Only\)/) {
                #print "DAT = @$row[1]\n";
                $dat = @$row[1];
            }
            #
            # SuperDAT version which has both Engine and DAT.
            if (@$row[0] =~ /SuperDat File for v4x \(DAT \+ Engine\)/)
+ {
                #print "Superdat = @$row[1]\n";
                $superdat = @$row[1];
            }
            #
            # Engine only Version.
            if (@$row[0] =~ /Superdat File for v4x \(Intel Engine only
+\)/) {
                $engine = @$row[1];
            }
                #print "   ", join(' , ', @$row), "\n";
        }
    }
        return($dat, $superdat, $engine);
}
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So again I meant no disrespect. Sorry for such a wanky post.