Bizarre TIME_WAIT socket buildup problem

[Tge B]

    Hi list!

  On FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE (GENERIC i386), I am experiencing a rather worrying
situation: connections to some ports (namely, 80 and
25) end up in a TIME_WAIT state - normal - but none have been removed
in the last 24 hours. My
net.inet.tcp.msl was set to the default 30000,
a few hours ago I changed it to 5000 to no avail - all new connections
end up in the TIME_WAIT line, at the bottom of which are connections
from almost
24 hours ago that have been in the TIME_WAIT state ever since.

  I have Googled for a clue to the origin of this problem, but have found
nothing - can someone shed some light onto why such a buildup could be
taking
place at all?

  P.S.: even after shutting Apache down the TIME_WAIT's remained, not a
single one dropped since yesterday.

  Any help would be very much appreciated!