I am implementing a "buddy list" program where people can see others online - I have a webhost that only supports CGI. The basic plan for this program is as follows:
A user will go online, run the program and login - this sends the login data to a cgi script - My question, how can VB get the result back from the cgi script?
Now, after the login, the VB program tells the cgi script to add the user name to a user text file.
Now all other people using this software will download a list of all users online and parse the list for buddies on the list ( The data is also downloaded because the VB program needs to show a list of all users online)

Now - is there any way to implement this better or faster? I do have an accoutn on ewebcity.com - if I must do this in ASP, but I really want to do it with CGI and Perl (i am currently learning Perl)
Can anyone please help me - I need to get and decode the data sent back after a POST or GET to a cgi script. I am writing the CGI myself.
-Chris