Simple TCP/IP client not working as expected - c++

Question

I am attempting to write a very basic TCP/IP client that will simply request user input, send that input to the specified IP, then read the output. The code below does not return any of the error codes but the output is still not returning as expected. For example, the device I am testing this on should respond like so:
some output here
>
Where the last ">" is returned by the device to the client to signify it is ready for more input. However, with my code all that is returned is the ">". Weirder yet, it only returns that char on every other command, with those in between returning nothing. I suspect this has to do with how I am handling the buffer; perhaps a conflict in reading the CR and/or LF chars? The device in question works perfectly over telnet (same machine, same port), and I'm not sure what I'm doing differently here. Let me know if there is any further information I can provide which might clarify my problem.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netdb.h>
int ethwrite(char hostname[], int portno)
{
int sockfd, n; // file descriptor, number of chars
struct sockaddr_in serv_addr; // device address
struct hostent *server; // pointer to host object
char buffer[256];
while(true)
{
// open socket
sockfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
if (sockfd < 0) return -1; // couldn't open socket
// parse host name
server = gethostbyname(hostname);
if (server == NULL) return -2;// host not found
// zero the server address array and parse
bzero((char *) &serv_addr, sizeof(serv_addr));
serv_addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
bcopy((char *)server->h_addr, (char *)&serv_addr.sin_addr.s_addr, server->h_length);
// connect to server
serv_addr.sin_port = htons(portno);
if (connect(sockfd,(struct sockaddr *) &serv_addr,sizeof(serv_addr)) < 0)
return -3; // couldn't connect
printf("Input: ");
bzero(buffer,256);
fgets(buffer,255,stdin); // take user input and write to buffer
// write command to socket
n = write(sockfd,buffer,strlen(buffer));
if (n < 0) return -4; // couldn't write to socket
// zero the buffer and read from the socket
bzero(buffer,256);
n = read(sockfd,buffer,255);
if (n < 0) return -5; // couldn't read socket
printf("Output: %s\n",buffer);
close(sockfd); // close socket
}
return 0;
}
int main()
{
int status = ethwrite((char *)"10.13.70.230", 23);
printf("Returned status: %i\n",status);
return status;
}