problem with subroutines

Hello there,
     I have made a perl subroutine lik this

sub getSign {    
#use strict;
require 5.002;
use Socket;

#my(@input) = @_;
my($remote,$port,$iaddr,$paddr,$proto,$line,$retval,$beg,$end,$sign);
$port =  shift || 8888;
$iaddr =  inet_aton("9.184.192.17") or die "Socket S!";
$paddr =  sockaddr_in($port, $iaddr) or die "Socket S!";
$proto = getprotobyname('tcp') or die "socket $!";
socket(SOCK, PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, $proto) or die "socket $!";
connect(SOCK, $paddr) or die "socket  $!";
send(SOCK, "\%S\#data::Hellow\$\$\$\n", 0) or die "socket $!";    
$line = <SOCK> ;
if($line =~ /\#signature::/ )
 {
   $beg = index($line, "#signature::");
   $end = index($line, "\$\$\$");
   $sign = substr($line, $beg+12, $end-$beg-12);  
 } else
        {  
            $beg =   index($test,"\%");
            $end  =  index($test,"\$\$\$");
            $sign = substr($test, 1,$end-$beg-1);                
        }      
close(SOCK);
return ($sign);
}

This program basically opens socket connection to some system and sends a packet in format "%S#data::datato Sign$$$\n" and then receives the signed data.
       The problem with the above subroutine is if I am using it like this
$ret = getSign or $ret = &getSign or $ret=getSign( )
  it works fine and when I tries to pass some data like this
$ret = getSign("data1", "data2", "data3") or
  $ret = getSign(@myInput)
   the program files at connect saying Unknown Error: 0x0000274d at sign.pl line 21, what is the problem with this?.

      I am very novice at perl and my problem is  I have to submit this to our client urgently, please help me. And please try to make it as module and tell me how to use that module in regular perl programs .
     Thanks in advance.
-shivaki