Hi all,
 
I'm obviously new to socket programming, so please bear with me.
 
Generically, I've got a situation where I would like to write a PERL
script to check 'network connectivity' between two machines.
 
A bit more specifically, I need to check the network 'health' or
availability of a connection from a web server (Windows 2003R2) to a
mainframe (IBM Z/os) and all the nodes or hops along the way and have
that check report back the statistics in a log file.  Basically a
diagnostic script to try and determine where a problem lies in the
connection (i.e. a switch, a router, a firewall etc), when there is a
connectivity problem between the two.  Something that would take into
account multiple (known) port number possibilities as well.
 
What PERL modules would be recommended to accomplish this type of
script?  Are there any good tutorials or scripts that I could use/modify
that someone could point me to (hyperlink)?  I would like to try and
learn this stuff, as apposed to copy and paste, but I'm not really too
sure where to start.  I would really appreciate the guidance here.
 
Thanks,
Gary