I found these well commented examples from the U of New Orleans very helpful in understanding Sockets. After reading thru these scripts, the IO::Socket perldoc is easier to understand. And it appears that IO::Socket, just uses Socket and makes the options more "understandable english". So Socket is IO::Socket without the overhead.

Anyways look at the Perl section here-> UNO

As a matter of fact, I recommend these scripts be placed into the tutorial section, with appropriate credit given.