Controlling a client session with Perl/Expect

I'm trying to get a Perl script (with the Expect module installed) to 
control a session with the client. The username/password interaction 
works but everything after that (the escaped control key sequences) seem 
to disappear into the bit bucket. I've looked at the users Archive back 
to July 2002 but didn't see anything that would help. What am I doing 
wrong? Is there some config parameter that I've missed?
Conserver is running on Solaris 8. Conserver version 7.2.2; I know, it's 
old, really old, and I've requested that it be upgraded to the latest 
version. Will that fix my problem?

Perl version 5.6.1, Expect version 1.15
The Perl/Expect environment appears to work. I've been able to control 
FTP sessions with it. In trying to control a console session, the 
Perl/Expect script times out waiting for the "[ Enter '^EC?' for help ]" 
string after the username/password has been exchanged. I also tried 
using Perl/Telnet to do the same thing from a remote system and had a 
similar problem, the username/password part works but Telnet times out 
waiting for the "[ Enter '^EC?' for help ]" string. I turned on the 
Telnet logging to see what was going and the string shows up in the log 
but Telnet never responds to it.

Or maybe there is a better way to programmatically control a client 
session without using Perl? Any suggestions, ideas, help is greatly 
appreciated.

--
Paul.Waleski@Oracle.com  Office:(650)506-2376  Fax:(650)506-7406
Programmer Analyst - Server Technologies IT
Oracle Corporation 500 Oracle Parkway M/S 2op3
Redwood Shores, California 94065