Sockets hanging in CLOSING state for hours

Hello,

I'm having trouble with sockets hanging in CLOSING state when lmule, which was listening on the port, crashes. This prevents lmule from binding to the port upon restart. I have confirmed that no part of the program is still running.

The socket stays hung in this state for up to several hours, and I can't figure out any way to force the socket to close. (Though I suppose rebooting would do it)

A search of the archive turned up a similar problem ages ago with Sendmail on kernel 2.1.

Kernel is Red Hat 2.4.18-19.8.0

Please CC all replies.

Thanks,
Jason