Your problem is not the client machine, as there are many Perl-Modules out there doing the dirty work for you (including Net::FTP).

Your problem is the server side: you need one or more protocols there to make your files accessible to your client. If you manage to run FTP (or HTTP, or whatever) on your *nix and Windows machines and manage to access those files with standard client software, the perl stuff to automate that all is quite simple (if you read your documentation).

If you have chosen one or more protocols for your servers, managed to run them and still have trouble with your client side perl, come back and you will be helped.