my $socket;
my $line;
my $child_pid;


$socket = IO::Socket::INET->new
(
  PeerAddr => 'server.com',
  PeerPort => 1247,
  Proto    => "tcp",
  Type     => SOCK_STREAM
) or die "Could not create client.\n";


unless (defined($child_pid = fork())) {die "Cannot fork.\n"};
if ($child_pid)
{
  while($line = <>)
  {
    print $socket $line;
  }
}
else
{
  while ($line = <$socket>)
  {
    print "Other side: $line";
  }
}

# never reach here -- WHY NOT?