> Thanks. I am actually already using the IP address. Do you have any inkling
> for what the JVM or OS config problem might be?

Bad garbage-collector settings? But even there it should not be 500ms...
I really have no idea - only that these numbers very strange. Can your
system be completely overloaded, so you don't get enough CPU-time?

If we assume that this is only bad log entries and Java runs ok, then I
would first try on that very machine following command:

telnet <db_server_host> 3050

(replace port number if you have changed it) and check how fast you get
the connection. You can start multiple telnets at once, to see if that
is somehow related to obtaining multiple connections (for example, some
timeout in xinetd config of the database server)... But those are just
guesses...

Roman