IO::Socket::IP provides a protocol-independent way to use IPv4 and IPv6 sockets,
as a drop-in replacement for IO::Socket::INET. Most constructor arguments and
methods are provided in a backward-compatible way. For a list of known
differences, see the IO::Socket::INET INCOMPATIBILITES section below.

It uses the getaddrinfo(3) function to convert hostnames and service names or
port numbers into sets of possible addresses to connect to or listen on. This
allows it to work for IPv6 where the system supports it, while still falling
back to IPv4-only on systems which don't.

WWW: http://search.cpan.org/dist/IO-Socket-IP/