$sockserv = new IO::Socket::INET( LocalAddr => '192.168.1.1',
                              LocalPort => $port,
                              Proto     => 'tcp',
                              Listen    => 1,
                              Reuse     => 1,
                              Timeout   => 60);
die "can't start server: ($!)\n" unless $sockserv;

$x = IO::Select->new();
$x->add($sockserv);
while(1)
{
   @handles = $x->can_read();
   foreach $handle (@handles)
   {
       if($handle == $sockserv)
       {
            $sockclient = $sockserv->accept() || warn "accept: $!";
            $clients++;
            if ($clients > 5)
            {
                print $sockclient "Sorry, we're full.\n";
                $sockclient->close();
            } else
            {
                $sockclients[$clients] = $sockclient;
            }
            $x->add($sockclients[$clients]);
        }
        ($cl) = grep($sockclients[$_] == $handle, (0..$#sockclients));
        if ($cl)
        {
            $n_read = sysread($sockclients[$cl], $buf, 1024);
            return 0 if (!n_read || !length $buf);
            parse_external_command($buf, $sockclients[$cl]);
        }
    }
}
[download]

something like that.. where parse_external_command() reads what the client said, and answers via the passed in socket if necessary.
C.