I have been dillegently working on my first module, while testing it - I noticed a discrepancy in the values it returns depending on how its called. Here is my module code 
use strict;
use IO::Socket::INET;
use Socket;
use Carp;
package mship;
##############
sub connection
##############
{
    my $IP          = shift;
    my $TCP_PORT    = shift;

    my ( $ipadd, $port_name, $remote_name );

    $ipadd       = Socket::inet_aton($IP) or
                      croak "$IP is not valid\n";
    $port_name   = getservbyport($TCP_PORT, 'tcp') or
                      $port_name = "unknown";
    $remote_name = gethostbyaddr( $ipadd, 2 ) or
                      croak "Unable to resolve hostname for $IP\n";

    my %stats = ( 'IP'          => $IP,
                  'PORT'        => $TCP_PORT,
                  'port_name'   => $port_name,
                  'remote_name' => $remote_name,
                  'status'      => &stat($IP, $TCP_PORT) );
    print "sub connection port = $TCP_PORT IP = $IP\n";
    return %stats or
        croak "unable to return the value of \%stats\n";;
}
#############
sub stat
#############
{
    ( $ip, $tcp_port ) = @_;
    my $status   = "Up";
    my $sock     = IO::Socket::INET ->new(
                                      Timeout  => 5,
                                      PeerAddr => $ip,
                                      PeerPort => $tcp_port,
                                      Proto    => 'tcp' ) or
                                      $status  = "Down";
    return ($status, $tcp_port, $ip);
        croak "Unable to return the value of \$status\n";
}

1;

[download]
and this is how im calling it 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

require "mship.pm";
my %stats = mship::connection('xxx.19.208.27', '9101');

while (my ($key, $value) = each(%stats))
{
    print "$key = $value\n";
}

my $status = mship::stat->('xxx.19.208.27', '9101');
print "\nStatus is $status\n";

[download]
and here are my results 
port_name = unknown
remote_name = r_dairy.xxx.com
status = Up
IP = xxx.19.208.27
PORT = 9101

Status is Down

[download]
if I use port 80 in my test both calls report up.

any ideas, as to where I should look?

UPDATE
Im an idiot. I was making changes to a local file called mship.pm and mship.pm was installed. Here is the code - and it works fine... 
use strict;
use IO::Socket::INET;
use Socket;
package mship;
##############
sub connection
##############
{
    my $IP          = shift;
    my $TCP_PORT    = shift;

    my ( $ipadd, $port_name, $remote_name );

    $ipadd       = Socket::inet_aton($IP) or
                      die "$IP is not valid\n";
    $port_name   = getservbyport($TCP_PORT, 'tcp') or
                      $port_name = "unknown";
    $remote_name = gethostbyaddr( $ipadd, 2 ) or
                      die "Unable to resolve hostname for $IP\n";

    my %stats = ( 'IP'          => $IP,
                  'PORT'        => $TCP_PORT,
                  'port_name'   => $port_name,
                  'remote_name' => $remote_name,
                  'status'      => &mstat($IP, $TCP_PORT) );
    print "sub connection port = $TCP_PORT IP = $IP\n";
    return %stats or
        die "unable to return the value of \%stats\n";;
}
#############
sub mstat
#############
{
    my ( $ip, $tcp_port ) = @_;
    my $status   = "Up";
    my $sock     = IO::Socket::INET ->new(
                                      Timeout  => 5,
                                      PeerAddr => $ip,
                                      PeerPort => $tcp_port,
                                      Proto    => 'tcp' ) or
                                      $status  = "Down";
    return ($status);
        die "Unable to return the value of \$status\n";
}

1;

[download]
Ted
--
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved."
  --Ralph Waldo Emerson

In reply to different results from the same sub by tcf03

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