I was more than surprised to say the least - check this:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use Net::Ping;
$p = Net::Ping->new('icmp');
print "She's workin\n" if $p->ping("ns.online.no");
$p->close();
[download]

Works fine! HOWEVER

#!/usr/bin/perl
use Net::Ping;
$p = Net::Ping->new();
print "She's workin\n" if $p->ping("ns.online.no");
$p->close();
[download]

Will not!
JP