Thanks - that seems to be what is happening, but it differs from what some of the perl docs say. eg:
http://perldoc.perl.org/perlipc.html#Sockets%3a-Client%2fServer-Communication

"Listen The Listen parameter is set to the maximum number of pending connections we can accept until we turn away incoming clients. Think of it as a call-waiting queue for your telephone. "

or

http://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/perl/cookbook/ch17_03.htm

The numeric argument to listen is the number of un accept ed connections that the operating system should queue before clients start getting "connection refused" errors.

In reply to Re^2: TCP server: How to reject connections when busy? by squirrel
in thread TCP server: How to reject connections when busy? by squirrel

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