use IO::Socket;

$sock = new IO::Socket::INET( LocalAddr => 'localhost',  #if i was to plug an IP in as the value for LocalAddr, wouldn't work
                              LocalPort => 1200,
                              Proto     => 'tcp',
                              Listen    => 10,
                              Reuse     => 1 );
die $! unless $sock;

while ( $new_sock = $sock->accept() ) {
    $clnt = $sock->sockhost();
    print "New connection from $clnt...\n";
    while ( $buf = <$new_sock> ) {
        print $buf;
    }
    print "Client disconnected...\n";
}

close( $sock );

##</code><code>##

use IO::Socket;

$sock = new IO::Socket::INET( PeerAddr => 'localhost',  # an IP here and the script fails to connect
                              PeerPort => 1200,
                              Proto    => 'tcp' );
die "Socket could not be created: $!\n" unless $sock;

$msg = <STDIN>;
while ( $msg !~ m/^\n$/ ) {
    $inp = $msg;
    undef( $msg );
    print $sock "MSG: $inp";
    $sock->flush();
    $msg = <STDIN>;
}

close( $sock );