I think your perl solution to this problem is neat... but there is a more general solution that doesn't involve perl, and is easier to implement. Is there a server on the internet you can ssh into? Then chances are, you only need a single invocation of ssh to accomplish the above, and it can be used for all sorts of other situations.

Let's assume that mybox is the address of the machine you want to test out. Assume that otherbox is an ssh-able server on the internet somewhere. Try something like:

ssh -L 9080:mybox:80 otherbox

This will open a port on your machine (9080) which when connected to will cause that data to be sent (encrypted, in this case probably not neccesary, but whatever) to otherbox. Otherbox will connect to mybox on port 80, forwarding that information through.

From the perspective of mybox, the connection will be no different from any connection attempt coming from that machine over the internet. In other words, run the above ssh command and then point your browser to http://localhost:9080/ and you will be connected to mybox, but indirectly via otherbox!

Sorry if my explanation isn't all that clear, ssh's port forwarding features are really handy but it can be a bit tricky to wrap your head around what all is possible with them.