My (easy) testscript looks like this: 
  require 'socket'
  soc = TCPSocket.open("localhost", 8470)
  soc.close()

Now this script runs for about 2 to 3 minutes (!) to complete. 
Note: The port (8740 -> drb) is NOT relevant.

I run it with Ruby 1.7.0 (but it also happens in 1.6.2) under Mandrake 
Linux 7.2.

/etc/hosts includes the '127.0.0.1 localhost'.

Any (linux-) hints?
Regards 
Clemens