Given I can telnet to the server from the same system that is trying to be a client, I don't see why it won't open the socket (ie there should be no firewall issue). I've tried it against a second Memcached server that is running on ubuntu and have the same problem.

--------- UPDATED -----------

To add insult to injury, if I install the memcache win32 SERVER on my WinXP system, I can connect to it from a Win 2003 client using exactly the same test code and everything is fine. However the windows XP system refuses to even connect to the localhost system!

It seems to me that the client library Cache::Memcache doesn't work on WinXP at all with Activestate Perl - can someone out there confirm that it DOES actually work fine so at least I know it's something about my system that is the issue?

I've tried un-installing and reverting to version 1.24 rather than 1.26 but the same fault remains

It is a little hard to follow which combinations of client version and OS version you tried and which have worked, but I think you are saying that you only have the problem under XP? eg. The client works on WS2003?

If so, the best I advice I can offer you is to ensure that your XP machine is fully updated.

Also, I haven't seen where you've checked the return from new Cache::MemCached?

I'd strongly suggest you change your test script to:

use strict;
use warnings;

use Data::Dumper;
use Cache::Memcached;

my $CACHE = new Cache::Memcached( { servers => [ "myremotecache.com:11
+211" ] })
    or die "$! / $^E"; 

print Dumper($CACHE->stats());
[download]

And see what if any extra information that provides.

No extra information from the "or die ..." catch unfortunately. It doesn't fault there.

Yes, the ONLY problem I have is with a fully updated Windows XP (SP3) client to (seemingly) anything. I've also ruled out any firewalls or anti-virus software

Are other people running it (the perl client) on XP without problems? I assume so - or am I doing something really peculiar in wanting to do that?