I'm using the ActiveState 5.6 on Win98 and Net::Ping doesn't seem to work either: It 'seems' that if the ping target responds the first time then the ping sub returns true, and if the ping target doesn't respond the first time then the ping sub always returns false, even if the ping target starts responding. I have not tested this out fully so I may be incorrect about this but I know one thing: It was funky so I stopped using it.