in reply to Re^6: Net::SFTP::Foreign mod perl
in thread Net::SFTP::Foreign mod perl

Rather than fight where the mod perl was killing off the password athentication, I just went to this:
my @back = `/usr/bin/perl sftptest.cgi file=$fullfile\\&name=$thisf +ilename`;
Thanks to the author of Net::SFTP::Foreign for all his help in this matter, but it's a config issue with the servers. I hope this helps anyone else facing the same issue.