I will check it out, thanks a lot. Is there any reason why telnet is not a suitable solution? Because I find that Net::Telnet might just do the job, I don't know how to use it yet but it seems like it allows me to make client connections to a TCP port and do network I/O, especially to a port using the TELNET protocol. I don't know if it provides any I/O methods but like, so far I have these code at least these will work for connecting: use Net::Telnet (); $t = new Net::Telnet (Timeout => 10, Prompt => '/ksh\$ $/'); $t->open($host); $t->login($username, $passwd); is this correct? What to do after taht I don't know, hopefully I can find out by doing more research, but this seems like it owuld do the job, what do you think? Kelvin