Instead of forking, why not use IO::Socket::INET and the Timeout option? It's a standard module, so you should already have it. It'll make things much easier... Like, this easy:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;

use IO::Socket::INET;

our @port_range = qw(
  8080 6969 80 8081 8080 8000 3128 555 657 889 1180
  1181 1182 1183 1184 1185 11012 25318 25719 6969 886
);

# this will be populated dynamically from a DB
our @ip_list = qw(
  196.2.49.19
  grunt.mweb.co.za mweb.co.za
);

foreach my $host (@ip_list) {
  foreach my $port (@port_range) {
    my $sock = IO::Socket::INET->new(
      PeerAddr => $host,
      PeerPort => $port,
      Proto    => 'tcp',
      Timeout  => 10,     # 10 second time-out
    ) or next;         # Didn't work, so try next port

    print "Connection established to $host on $port.\n";
    $sock->close();
  }
}
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bbfu
Black flowers blossom
Fearless on my breath