At first many thanks to sgifford and 3dan

And yes, I do use IO::Select with Nonblocking Handles and am waiting for can_read() has something for me.
Do I see that right that in my - lets call it "check_connected" - routine, I have to call sysread on the socket, and my connection status depends on its ( sysread's ) return values? Seems to make sense to me.

-trial 'n error with many thanks :)-
Abroxa