I think the first step would be to tell us more about what server you're running. I guess by ParanoidAgent, you mean an instance of a LWP::ParanoidAgent object. So, can you reduce the program you're running to a simple stand-alone test case using only LWP::ParanoidAgent, or are other factors involved? Which request exactly is it that fails? Is it only DNS requests? Can you change the block from using select to synchronously using read or sysread? Is the socket a unix domain socket or a TCP socket? Is it a local connection or a remote connection?

These are, likely in that order, the questions I'd try to answer. We will try to help you, but we will need a stand-alone test case (less than 60 lines of code) we can run without needing to duplicate much of your setup.