UPDATE: -- Researching some more, I came upon IAC modes. I haven't yet found complete documentation on IAC modes but I found, http://cpansearch.perl.org/src/RJLEE/Net-TCP-PtyServer-1/lib/Net/TCP/PtyServer.pm, and pulled the following example.

    my $telneg = "";
    # Let's *try* to turn echo off on the remote side:
    $telneg .= chr(255).chr(254).chr(1); # IAC DONT ECHO
    $telneg .= chr(255).chr(251).chr(1); # IAC WILL ECHO
    # Also, we can't handle the GA signal:
    $telneg .= chr(255).chr(253).chr(3); # IAC DO SUPPRESS-GA
    $telneg .= chr(255).chr(251).chr(3); # IAC WILL SUPPRESS-GA
    # Try to turn off LINEMODE negotiation:
    $telneg .= chr(255).chr(254).chr(34); # IAC DONT LINEMODE
    $telneg .= chr(255).chr(252).chr(34); # IAC WONT LINEMODE
    # Ask for Negotiate About Window Size from the client:
    $telneg .= chr(255).chr(253).chr(31); # IAC DO NAWS
[download]

Which seems to set up my session and I added the line of code,

    $poe_kernel->post( $session_id => send => $telneg );
[download]

, just before

    $poe_kernel->post( $session_id => send => "CONNECT: $address/$port
+\r\n" );
[download]

, to negotiate my session. It is working, I understand what is happening but I don't understand the fundamentals. If someone could point me to a more detailed discussion of IAC modes and telnet I would appreciate it. Thanks.