Guy Alston wrote:
  Error message:
>  Can't call method "mail" on an undefined value at 
>  sys:/perl/web/mailtest2.pl line 6.
>   
>  It's always a line containing " $smtp = Net::SMTP->new("smtpserver")

Net::SMTP is known to work, though I'm not currently using it.
You could add

local $SIG{__WARN__} = \&Carp::cluck;
local $SIG{__DIE__}  = \&Carp::confess;

This will help tell you where in Net::SMTP you are having a problem.

Once you know that, you can try to fix it.

OR this works --

use MIME::Lite ();

sub email {
     my %args = @_;

     my $email = MIME::Lite-> new( Type => 'multipart/mixed' );

     $email-> add(To      => $args{to});
     $email-> add(BCC     => $args{bcc});
     $email-> add(From    => $args{from});
     $email-> add(Subject => $args{subject});

     $email-> attach(Type => "TEXT", Data => $args{data});

     MIME::Lite-> send('smtp', SMTP_HOST, Timeout => 5);

     eval { $email-> send };

     return $@;
}


>   
>  I tried many different scripts but it always seems to be a problem 
>  around the object  utilizing "Net::SMTP;.  Is there a known issue with 
>  this. My version of MOD_PERL is 1.01.00

Was I even alive when this version of mod_perl was out ?

Given that, more importantly, what version of perl are you using ?