ssh password delay

[darren]

I could use some help troubleshooting a problem that I am having with 
long delays before receiving a password prompt when I log onto my 
FreeBSD box via ssh.

I have done quite a bit of googling and I realize that the problem 
likely has something to do with reverse DNS lookups.  But, I don't know 
how to pinpoint the problem from there.  I've basically been playing 
with the /etc/resolv.conf and /etc/hosts settings.  In my hosts file, I 
have an entry for the private IP of my Linux box with its hostname 
(which is not a FQDN) and my resolv.conf file looks like:

domain myrealdomain.com //I just added this, but no noticeable help
search myrealdomain.com
nameserver my.ip's.dns.numbers
nameserver my.ip's.dns.numbers2

Here's a more detailed explanation of the problem.  To me, the problem 
seems very peculiar.  The problem only exists whenever I use my laptop 
(which is running Linux) from within my own LAN.   I can get around it 
by logging onto my ISP's server or my school's server (either one) and 
then logging back into my FreeBSD box from there.  If I am at school 
with my laptop, I can even log into my FreeBSD server at home directly 
without a delay.  But, if I try going directly to my FreeBSD box from my 
laptop when they are both inside the LAN, I get a very long delay (like 
3 minutes).  Sometimes the delay is so long, the connection times out 
and I never get a prompt.

I have set the logging level up to DEBUG3 in the /etc/sshd_config file. 
  But, I don't see where any verbose output is going.

This problem is on FreeBSD 4.10-RELEASE.

TIA,
backdoc

The /var/log/auth.log file just says:
... fatal: Timeout before authentication for 192......

Here's what my laptop spits out before the long delay kicks in.

root at laptop:/home/backdoc # ssh  -vl backdoc 192.168.1.4
OpenSSH_3.9p1 Debian-1ubuntu2, OpenSSL 0.9.7e 25 Oct 2004
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to 192.168.1.4 [192.168.1.4] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: permanently_set_uid: 0/0
debug1: identity file /root/.ssh/identity type -1
debug1: identity file /root/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file /root/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: Remote protocol version 1.99, remote software version 
OpenSSH_3.5p1 FreeBSD-20030924
debug1: match: OpenSSH_3.5p1 FreeBSD-20030924 pat OpenSSH*
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_3.9p1 Debian-1ubuntu2
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-cbc hmac-md5 none
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-cbc hmac-md5 none
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REQUEST(1024<1024<8192) sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_GROUP
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_INIT sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REPLY
debug1: Host '192.168.1.4' is known and matches the DSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /root/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug1: ssh_dss_verify: signature correct
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received