eval {
   local $SIG{ALRM} = sub (die "timeout\n");
   alarm 5;

telnet_connect: #label for later handling of dropped sessions
   my $t = new Net::Telnet();
   # Even with the new() line above the alarm fires
   # Adding the lines below stop the alarm from working

   $t->open($host)
   $t->login($user, $pass);

   while (1) {
      # Interact w/telnet session until we're happy
      # This loop is always reached in testing
   }

   $t->close()
   alarm 0;
};

if ($@) {
   if ($@ =~ /timeout/) {
      print "Timed out!";
   } else {
      print "Received exception: $@\n";
      alarm 0;
      die;
   }
}