My apologies if you already know this (I'm saying this mostly for community benefit), but telnet is a horribly unsecure plaintext protocol. Everything you do (including sending passwords) is publically visible and interceptable. Not to dodge your question, but is it possible to use Net::SSH or Net::SSH::Perl against sshd instead? It is easier to use, much safer, and more spiffy.

I understand there are embedded devices that only support telnet, but in general I would be extremely paranoid about firewall rules and limitating access to them in those cases. A few times the word 'telnet' is overhead within my organization, and I am usually yelling over the cube walls "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" within 3 seconds. It makes me very popular with the locals :)