how to read a file which is lying on any server ?

ps: I want to do this with perl.

you will need to use a sockets library for Perl - which will let you make TCP/IP socket connections to other servers, the use these connections to retrieve files from the other machines.

The protocol to be used depends on the URL - i.e. http or ftp

it will be always a link like http://www.anyserver.de/any.txt
Isn't it easyer to manage that ? I just want to read the file. I found a code which works (but there are strange ascii's in it):

use LWP::Simple;
$rc = getprint('http://www.anyserver.de/whatever.txt');
print status_message($rc);

PS: I'm new in Perl and don't know how to manage this problem. It would be cool to have some source.

regards
ItsMe

What do you mean there are strange ascii's in it?

If start the cgi my browser asks me for saving the file. If I saveit it includes I think line breaks at the end of each file. how can I read the file in an array of lines ?
perhaps by splitting with <cr><lf> as divider ? how do I write this in perl ?

@lines = split.....

regards
ItsMe

PS: Can you explain what the code above does ? (getprint ...)