If you're using Windows 2000, chances are you're also using IIS 5. Is this correct?

If so, that's the problem! :) Seriously, it's an issue with IIS 5. IIS 5 interprets relative pathing from the root of the site, not the current directory. In your case, change

open (UPDATE, "../update/update.txt") or die "Cannot open update.txt";
[download]

to

open (UPDATE, "./update/update.txt") or die "Cannot open update.txt";
[download]

and it should work. This problem seems to be remedied in IIS 6.

HTH,

/Larry