while (!(recv $connection,$z,1000,0)){};

#The following line prints the correct number of packets
#fetched
print "\nLength fetched:  ",length($z)," string ",$z if length($z);
my $g=0;
#$z=quotemeta $z;

#This while exits *before* it has finished the string
while (my $a=substr $z,$g,1) {

$g++;
#Process characters in this here