use IO::Socket;
my $sock = new IO::Socket::INET (
                                   PeerAddr => '127.0.0.1',
                                   PeerPort => 7,      # echo server
                                   Proto    => 'tcp',
                                   Type     => SOCK_STREAM
                                  );
  die "Could not create socket: $!\n" unless $sock;
print $sock "Hello there!\n";
my $answer = <$sock>;
print "answer: $answer\n";
close($sock);