From the documentation for Net::Telnet

This method reads until a pattern match or string is found in the input stream

So your program is stopping once it reaches the >, thinking it is the next prompt. You should probably change that regex to match something more specific. At the very least, try /[^-]>/ to avoid the specific instance you are seeing. But really, learn more about the modules you are using. The use of the /i modifier (which has no significance when matching only symbols) seems to indicate that you copy-and-pasted this code without completely understanding it.