Do I need to use IO::Select somehow? I've contacted several sources (including perl.com and google) trying to figure out how to allow a server to deal with multiple clients and most of um seem to point to Select.

Yes, you need to either fork to handle each conversation, or use IO::Select (or the lower-level interfaces) to "thread" your interactions. There are examples in perlman:perlipc.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker