On windows Access.mdb ->ODBC -> DBI->Proxy::Linux DBI<-Proxy<-Query<-Failed!

Hi all,

Have a access.mdb that needs to be connect via odbc to a
linux machine so on the linux machine I can run queries

on windows I have installed the following:
 
Activestate 5.6.x of perl
ppm install DBI
ppm install DBD-ODBC
ppm install Net-Daemon
ppm install PlRPC

I have setup the proxy serverscript
and when I run the following script
 
use DBI;
use Data::Dumper;
my ($dbh, $sth, $row);
$dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:Proxy:hostname=localhost;port=1522;dsn=dbi:ODBC:thedatabase','','',{RaiseError => 1, PrintError =>1})
or die $DBI::errstr;
$sth = $dbh->prepare('select * from focuslist');
$sth->execute;
while ($row = $sth->fetchrow_hashref)
{
print Dumper($row);
}

this all works :-)

then I have setup the linux machine
the linux machine is using perl 5.8.x

but now  when I run this script from linux
it fails because the perl version of is blix 2.5 and this dbi proxy server on windows is failing because it uses 2.4
:-((( (The quites with proxy server error _EOF)

The problem is how can I solve this?

Is there an other methode of connecting without going to
DBI->proxy? (maybe directly)

upgrading the perl on the windows to perl 5.8.x
I could do but then the package PlRPC is missing from the
new ppm :-(( and according to active state modules page
it faild to compile on windows platform.

Once again the connecting with this script from localhost
going thrue the proxy works.

ps. this is the manual I have followed:
http://www.awilcox.com/geek_stuff/perl/proxy.html

and I have cygwin installed which could contribute to the
solution.