[ ...snippet... ]
        my $port = shift;
        my $proto = getprotobyname('tcp');
        my $iaddr = inet_aton( '172.16.1.5' );
        my $paddr = sockaddr_in($port, $iaddr);

        socket(SOCKET, PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, $proto) || die "Cannot prepare socket: $!";

        eval {

                connect(SOCKET, $paddr) || die "Can't connect to $port";

        };

        close SOCKET || warn "Cannot close socket: $!";
        [ ...snippet... ]