i will look into Net::Telnet, but as for the STDERR i do not think that is correct, i will test it out, but shouldnt stderr have some sort of failure messages in it and not output that i asked for (admitedly sent to /dev/null) as removing the log_file("/dev/null"); line does not change my output at all. but i apprecate your assistance.

updated:implemented the stderr part, no dice sorry same problems. output stays untill i comment out the print statement