Zone.exe problems

[sianyde]

Lately, I've noticed some odd behavior with zone.exe on my system. I'm using DR6, with the correct patch situation. I'm using the 7/25 cvs release, with perl compiled, but no modifications to the code.

I 4-box with MQ and WinEQ on one machine, and two box and run world and zone on another.

Occasionally, when I #zone, to N Karana, for example, the zone server will load the zone, but the client won't enter. That instance of zone's title bar will read 9997:northkarana 0 clients (let's assuming this is zoneserver #4). The zone I've left drops the client.

At this point, the client hangs, and that instance of WinEQ must be killed. However, the instance of N Karana with 0 clients remains. Then, world starts another instance of zone (a 6th). This zone is sleeping, but has the same port number as the zone with 0 clients. It also has another zoneserver number (6). World reports that it is restarting a lost zone server. The clients will report Zone Connect: N Karana.

Once this happens, it is not possible to #zonebootup with either zoneserver using that port #. Any clients zoning into that hung zone also hang.

Has anyone seen this situation, or has a workaround or an idea where to start looking?