I found a perl script CGI on the internet, how do I make it work?

First, you need to find out if your web site is hosted on Unix or NT server:

• If your site is on NT: The file should have an extension .pl - that's how the web server will know that it's a perl script. Unfortunately, most of the perl scripts you will find on the Internet are designed for Unix, not for NT, so they might not work.
• If your site is on Unix: Open the file in a text editor - the first line of a perl script should read: '#!/usr/local/bin/perl' without the quotes. Check if the script requires more files that need to be uploaded as well (e.g. if you see a line 'require "cgi-lib.pl";' you need to upload the file cgi-lib.pl as well). If you don't have a dedicated cgi-bin directory, the file should have an extension .cgi - that's how the server will know that it's executable. If you have a cgi-bin directory (note that you can't just create a directory named cgi-bin, it has to be there already) the files can have any extension (or no extension at all).You need to change the permissions on the script to make it executable for "everyone" (see the next question). If the cgi script writes to a file, that file needs to have "write" permissions for everyone. Make sure you upload the file in ASCII mode.