There's a Net::Telnet module you can use. It implements a telnet client in Perl.

I'm writing an ssh client, Net::SSH, which isn't yet on CPAN but should be soon at some point. You can read more about it here.

Update: Petruchio mentioned that I should give some details on why you might want to use my Net::SSH module rather than the one already on CPAN. Here it is: mine is an all-Perl ssh client, and the one on CPAN is simply a wrapper around the ssh executable. Now there are advantages and disadvantages to both, but I find that the disadvantage of forking a process etc., when using the Net::SSH on CPAN, is a very big disadvantage. And that's why I think my module is good, useful, etc.