Have you looked at Net::EasyTCP ? It has encrypted connections, and is quite easy to use. Someone awhile back critisized me for saying it's secure, because the password was sent in the clear; but I recently tested it on my machine, and the password was never sent in the clear. One other thing, it automatically chooses encryption algorithm, to find a compatible one when the client connects. It will default to Crypt::Rsa which is very slow. Either comment it out of the EasyTCP.pm or don't install it, and it will use Rijandael,which is very fast. It also uses a port password.

Here is a sample client-server:
SERVER:
#!/usr/bin/perl

use Net::EasyTCP;

$server = new Net::EasyTCP(
    host  =>  "localhost",
    mode  =>  "server",
    port  =>   2345,
    password => "ztest",
    donotcompress => 1,
#    donotencrypt => 1,
    welcome => "Hi! Wecome to the test server!\n",
    )
       || die "ERROR CREATING SERVER: $@\n";

$server->setcallback(
     data            =>      \&gotdata,
     connect         =>      \&connected,
     disconnect      =>      \&disconnected,
    )
     || die "ERROR SETTING CALLBACKS: $@\n";

$server->start() || die "ERROR STARTING SERVER: $@\n";
#################################################### 
sub gotdata() {
my $client = shift;
my $serial = $client->serial();
my $data = $client->data();
print "Client $serial sent me some data, sending it right back to them
+ again\n";
$client->send($data) || die "ERROR SENDING TO CLIENT: $@\n";
if ($data eq "QUIT") {
$client->close() || die "ERROR CLOSING CLIENT: $@\n";
}
elsif ($data eq "DIE") {
$server->stop() || die "ERROR STOPPING SERVER: $@\n";
}
}
##################################################### 
sub connected() {
my $client = shift;
my $serial = $client->serial();
print "Client $serial just connected\n";
}
################################################### 
sub disconnected() {
my $client = shift;
my $serial = $client->serial();
print "Client $serial just disconnected\n";
}
__END__


CLIENT:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use Net::EasyTCP;

$client = new Net::EasyTCP(
mode            =>      "client",
host            =>      'localhost',
port            =>      2345,
password        =>      ztest
)
|| die "ERROR CREATING CLIENT: $@\n";

#Send and receive a simple string 
$client->send("HELLO THERE") || die "ERROR SENDING: $@\n";
$reply = $client->receive() || die "ERROR RECEIVING: $@\n";
print "$reply\n";

#Send and receive complex objects/strings/arrays/hashes by reference 
#%hash = ("to be or" => "not to be" , "just another" => "perl hacker")
+; 
#$client->send(\%hash) || die "ERROR SENDING: $@\n"; 
#$reply = $client->receive() || die "ERROR RECEIVING: $@\n"; 
#foreach (keys %{$reply}) { 
#print "Received key: $_ = $reply->{$_}\n"; 
#} 

#Send and receive large binary data 
#for (1..4096) { 
#for (0..255) { 
#$largedata .= chr($_); 
#} 
#} 
#$client->send($largedata) || die "ERROR SENDING: $@\n"; 
#$reply = $client->receive() || die "ERROR RECEIVING: $@\n"; 

#$client->close(); 
$client->send('Hello from Joe') || die "ERROR SENDING: $@\n";
$reply = $client->receive() || die "ERROR RECEIVING: $@\n";
print "$reply\n";

while(1){
$input = <STDIN>;
$client->send($input) || die "ERROR SENDING: $@\n";
$reply = $client->receive() || die "ERROR RECEIVING: $@\n";
print "$reply\n";
}
__END__
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