I am using the Telnet PM to print out a stream from a device and it works fine.

use Net::Telnet;
my $t = Net::Telnet->new(
                                Time => 99999999,
                                Port => 23
                        );
$t->open(1.2.3.4);
while (my $output = $t->getline()) {
print $output;
}
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but I found I need to print/type something out every 60 seconds $t->print('HELLO'); Since this while loop waits for output, it can be idle for a long time so I can't issue the 'HELLO' on a timely basis. Any ideas how I could do this ? I can't timeout and reconnect, because it will cause the device grief. I need to wait for input yet issue 'HELLO' every 60 secs... thanks