As tachyon mentioned, nohup should work... I have used it before.. sample... 
@lines = $t->cmd('nohup sleep 300 &');  
print @lines;              
@lines = $t->cmd('jobs');  
print @lines;              
$t->close;

[download]
output: 
[1]     6962                                    
[1] +  Running                 nohup sleep 300 &

[download]

In reply to Re: Issuing commands to the background with telnet by dba
in thread Issuing commands to the background with telnet by han_perl

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