Blimey, how about dropping the you've been signed in entirely and having a javascript alert to tell them they've signed in. You could generate the javascript from perl only if a parameter was passed to the page (to stop you getting the popup every time you loaded the page).

HTH

--
Don't Stand on your head - you'll get footprints in your hair
                                           http://charlieharvey.org.uk
                                              http://charlieharvey.com