Controling the Client.

I must be missing something really simple.

I have perl script running on a server talking to a real live peice of
hardware (using a telnet object).

It often polls the hardware for status.  The length of time for it to
return can vary.

The output info is going to the client in HTML with some JavaScript.

I want to be able to display a "standby we are talking to your device"
message until the script get it's info then "clear the screen" and display
the devices info.

It seems annoyingly simple.  There must be olny 10 billion ways to do this
and I can't find one.

any help is appreciated.

Ron Stephan