$SIG{ALRM} = sub { #Your code here };

eval {
    alarm(60);    # Your code will be executed in 60 seconds
    # do something here
    # anytime during this 60 sec you can cancel the alarm with alarm(0)
};


##</code><code>##

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use IO::Socket;

{
  my $timeout = 0;
  my $sock = undef;

  $SIG{ALRM} = sub {$timeout = 1; die};

  eval {
      alarm (2);
       $sock = new IO::Socket::INET(PeerAddr=> '10.1.1.18',PeerPort => 29,);
      alarm (0);
  }

 die "Can't open socket: timeout=$timeout\n" if ($timeout or !$sock);
 print "I would print to the socket now, if I knew what I was connected to\n";

 close ($sock);
}