Now I am remembering why I had such a hard time with the CPAN mod. It's a work server and it has proxy's set up. Anyway, I identified the proxy servers, but I got the following error:

You have no /export/home/vz291w/.cpan/sources/MIRRORED.BY
  I'm trying to fetch one
CPAN: Net::FTP loaded ok
Fetching with Net::FTP:
  ftp://ftp.perl.org/pub/CPAN/MIRRORED.BY
Fetching with Net::FTP
  ftp://ftp.perl.org/pub/CPAN/MIRRORED.BY.gz
Issuing "/usr/bin/ftp -n"
ftp.perl.org: unknown host or invalid literal address
Not connected.
Local directory now /export/home/vz291w/.cpan/sources
Not connected.
Not connected.
Not connected.
Not connected.
Not connected.
Bad luck... Still failed!
Can't access URL ftp://ftp.perl.org/pub/CPAN/MIRRORED.BY.
[download]

Even if I try it interactively:

ftp ftp.perl.org
ftp.perl.org: unknown host or invalid literal address
[download]

Also, I am ~99% sure the server will not allow ftp anyway as for other applications, I have had to use sftp.

Anyway, any recommendations? Is hope for using CPAN.pm a bit unrealistic? If so, what is my MO? My guess is to keep installing mods manually, note every failure for lack of other needed mods, and install all of those as well.

Does that sound about right?

Thanks again...

Tony