That code just sists there for me doing nothing.

It displays

server 1 please respond:

indefinetely. =(

Incidently the die is required (for the purposes of the script). The eval and die actually work hand in hand, when an eval is called the program takes note the exit bracket in the eval statement. When if a die is called within an eval the program will not fall over, instead execution will continue from the final eval bracket previously remembered. Hence the alarm should trigger a die which causes immediate exit from the eval.