I saw this for a while. I have an NCD that logs into a slink i386 box. I suspected that it had to do with the complex topology of my local network. I use 100BaseT as a primary segment and 10BaseT for the NCD. There are lots of interfaces aliases, dns quirks, and routing shenanigans. This went away when either a) I reduced some of the DNS complexity or b) I upgraded to xfree 3.3.2.3a. I'd have to agree that it is either gone or in remote hiding.