I tried that and it doesn't work because it only enters that part of the if condition, if $host (the machine you are logged into at that time, which I have set with $host =`hostname`) doesn't equal $system->{host}

if ( not $system->{host}{$host})
[download]

I need to be able to dreference $system->{host} so it will come up with the name of the hostname, but I don't think that will work because the hostname is the key rather than the value. I think I might have to change my hash. Thanks for your help anyway.