I'm afraid that I get the same error with my Linux system also (Perl 5.005_03). When I mentioned it here I was told to upgrade Net::Ping; which was already at it's latest version.

I tried upgrading related packages such as IO::Socket and friends to no avail.

After I commented on that, I was told to debug it myself. Unfortunately, my debugging skills weren't up-to-snuff, so I was never able to resolve it.

If you discover the fix, please make sure you post it around here someplace; there are others that would benefit from hearing it.