Establishing the TCP connection and resolving the host name are still done synchronously in your code

True. Again, if you use the native Apis for DnsQueries() and establishing TCP connections then this is easily resolved, but no access is provided when working through Perl's POSIX-compatibility emulations.

As I understand it, the alarm method doesn't work properly on *nix unless you disable safe-signals--and that's inherently dangerous to perl's internals.

That's why I was suggesting POE...

Kind of like recommending the use of an 18-wheeler to fetch the milk. Feasible but....

If POE had solutions to timing out the TCP SYN-WAIT and DNS Query problems on Win32, then it would be far better to extract them and make them available for use by non-event driven code, than to require a BSc (O.Eng.) to gain access to them.

Of course, it would require a Master's Degree in OverEngineering, and the patience of a saint, to wade through the 600+ POE modules trying to locate those solutions. Even if they existed.