Perl file test help?

[andygates]

i'm avoiding madness and rage by cobbling together a Perl script.  It needs to check a bunch of network files for various file characteristics (SQL server backup dumps, to be exact, by age: we have a gajillion of them and I am *not* checking them by hand).  I'm having trouble getting my Perl script (I'm a Perl newbie but it had a badger on one of the books, and I'm taking my good omens where I can get them) to find files on the network.  Any ideas?

my @file_list = ("print.gif", "..\\wWwroot\\sql_server_backups.pl", "c:\\datix.log", "\\\\cm017320\\c\$\\DATIX.log", "r:\\leaverlog.txt", "r:\\everyone_test.txt");

$output .= "\n<ol>";
foreach my $testfile (@file_list) {
  if (-e $testfile){
    $output .= "<li> $happystart $testfile exists. $happyend</li>";
  }
  else{
    $output .= "<li> $grumpystart $testfile does not exist. $grumpyend</li>";
  }
}
$output = $output . "</ol>\n";

Gives:

SQL Server Backups:

1. print.gif exists.
2. ..\wWwroot\sql_server_backups.pl exists.
3. c:\datix.log exists.
4. \\cm017320\c$\DATIX.log does not exist.
5. r:\leaverlog.txt does not exist.
6. r:\everyone_test.txt does not exist.

...all the files are known to be good.  File 3 is the same as file 4, only with a UNC path.  6 has explicit "everyone = Full Control" file permissions.  All machines are windows boxes, and the server is IIS running with the local system account on my box (which is cm017320).  If I try to open a network file I get 'permission denied' so I'm guessing this is a permissions-looking-over-the-network kind of issue.  

There's a pint in it  :)