At 11:14 AM 28/10/2010, you wrote:

>It looks like there are a whole lot of fb_inet_server processes hanging around and not ending.

Yep. That's how Classic works: the [x]inetd daemon creates one process for each connection. The process ends when the connection is detached, i.e., the client successfully logs out and the client application properly tidies up any outstanding transactions.
./hb