This is one of those "bang head here" issues. I was trying to install

Net::SSH::Perl, which basically drives SSH through Perl, on a Win32

client today. First I couldn't locate Net-SSH-Perl in the ActiveState

repositories. Odd, but we can overcome that. A quick search and I have

several locations where the .ppd file is. Great! Let's try that install

again with one of those URLs. It starts to install but then it failed

telling me it couldn't find Crypt-DES.ppd. I had the Net-SSH-Perl.ppd

from one of apache.org's web servers, so I tried a different site with

the Net-SSH-Perl.ppd. Same error. This couldn't have been a

coincidence. Okay, search on DES and sure enough, it's there. But try

to install it and get the failure to find the .ppd file.

So I did some more searching and came across this post on Pavleck.com.

Sure enough, under the ActivePerl FAQ for 5.8, there is a section that

lists unavailable packages. And the reason given is the following:

Unlike the United States, the Export

Control List of Canada places no significant restriction on the export of

cryptographic software; however, the Canadian Federal Government does require

that companies, organizations or individuals that wish to distribute

cryptographic software get a permit in order to do so. ActiveState does not

currently have this permission, so you must currently access other repositories

for the following modules:

    Crypt-Blowfish, Crypt-Blowfish_PP
    Crypt-CAST5, Crypt-CAST5_PP
    Crypt-DH
    Crypt-DSA, Crypt-RSA
    Crypt-GPG
    Crypt-GOST, Crypt-GOST_PP
    Crypt-IDEA
    Crypt-OpenPGP, Crypt-PGP2, Crypt-PGP5, Crypt-PGPSimple
    Crypt-OpenSSL-DSA, Crypt-OpenSSL-RSA, Crypt-OpenSSL-SMIME
    Crypt-RC4, Crypt-RC5, Crypt-RC6
    Crypt-RIPEMD160
    Crypt-Rijndael, Crypt-Rijndael_PP
    Crypt-Serpent
    Crypt-Twofish, Crypt-Twofish2, TwoFish
    Crypt-SSLeay, Net_SSLeay

ActiveState is based out of Vancouver so that means they need a permit

to "export." But they don't have one. Anyone can

download ActiveState Perl, use PPM and come right in to those

repositories, so I understand why ActiveState has to take this stance.

Grumbling, I connect to the University of Winnipeg repository and not

only do I find Crypt-DES, but I also find Net-SSH-Perl. Net::SSH::Perl

depends on Crypt-DES, Crypt-DES_EDE3, and a few others, none of which

are available from the ActiveState repositories. Run the install and

all is well. So if you're needing the Crypt packages or anything

depending on them in Perl, check the University of Winnapeg's

repository or another like it.