Can I do authentication without it? Otherwise, how do I go about installing it. (I'm a Perl user, not a server guru).

Better yet, can I copy the two or three functions that it has in it into my own code? It will move between servers better that way. I think I saw at the end of the script it is free to do that with.

Can I do authentication without it?

If Net::SMTP does not provide authentication, then it does not provide authentication. So no, probably not.

Better yet, can I copy the two or three functions that it has in it into my own code? It will move between servers better that way.

You can, but what's the point? Just call cpan Net::SMTP_auth on your other machine, and it will install for you. You can even install it to a different directory, such as your project's library. All you would need to do is change the way you call Makefile.PL:

$ cd ~/Desktop/Net-SMTP_auth-0.08
$ perl Makefile.PL LIB=/home/me/projects/myproject-1.0/lib
[download]

The rest is the same.

~Thomas~
confess( "I offer no guarantees on my code." );