Thanks for the replies, they are very helpful! But I'm still lost.
The server should listen for incoming messages. When it receives messages it should then broadcast them to all the connected users. Also, the server is in charge of the connected users. This entails checking for duplicate usernames and informing the connected users of new and leaving users. The thing is that I don't know where to start in this whole diboggle. I'm not familiar with sockets and writing server scripts.

For the client it should connect to the server and share its user name. The users connection should be rejected if there is a similar username or should be forced to have a different name. with that taken care of, it should work just like a chat client does. you type and then the message is sent to the server where it is broadcast to all servers even the owner.

I have been trying to build the scripts from scratch and so far I have a client:

 #server
#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use IO::Socket;

my $SERVER = "Deadpickle-hobo";
my $SEND_PORT = 5152;
my $line;

my $send_socket = IO::Socket::INET->new(
                            PeerAddr => $SERVER,
                            PeerPort => $SEND_PORT, 
                            Proto => 'tcp',
                            Reuse => 1
) or die "socket: $@";

#ask for the user name and send it to the server
#in order to verifiy that its unique
print "Username:";
my $user = <>;
$send_socket->send($user);


$send_socket->recv($line, 80);
print $line;

$send_socket->recv($line, 80);
print $line;
[download]

and a server:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use IO::Socket;
use IO::Select;

#variables
my $LISTEN_PORT = 5152;
my $user;
my @users;
my $fh;
my @ready;

#open a new socket
my $listening_socket = IO::Socket::INET->new(
                            LocalPort => $LISTEN_PORT, 
                            Proto => 'tcp',
                            Listen => 1,
                            Reuse => 1
) or die "socket: $@";

my $select = new IO::Select($listening_socket);

#wait for a client to connect to the server
print "Awaiting TCP messages on port $LISTEN_PORT\n" if $listening_soc
+ket;

while(@ready = $select->can_read) {
    foreach $fh (@ready) {
        if($fh == $listening_socket) {
            
            #Create a new socket and get the user ID
            my $new = $listening_socket->accept;
            $new->recv($user, 80);
            
            #Check the newly connected user for copies
            if (my $new_user = grep($user, @users)) {
                
            }
            else {
                $select->add($new);
                push(@users, $user);
                $new->send("Hello\n");
                $new->send("@users");
            }
        }
        else {
            # Process socket
            # Maybe we have finished with the socket
            $select->remove($fh);
            $fh->close;
        }
    }
}

print "END\n";
[download]

I am requesting for help on implementing the ideas I mentioned above.

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