knocking off a 'tcp' socket connection

[Stephen N. Spencer]

I should apologize in advance for posting to a group which I don't read.
I haven't ever gotten an answer to this question in asking around so
thought I'd ask the 'Net in general.

Suppose two processes have socket connections opened between them and 
one of the processes dies. (this is between a Sun running Sun OS 4.03
and an AT clone, BTW.)
Typing 'netstat -A' on the Sun yields:

ff67640c    tcp    a     a   grumpy.XXXX  fred.YYYY  FIN_WAIT_2

(grumpy is the Sun, fred is the AT clone)

Usually this connection takes between five and fifteen minutes to finally
go away, and the programs of which I spoke are barred from running until
the connection DOES go away.  

Is there any way to help this connection along to the big bit bucket in
the sky?

As I mentioned at the start, I don't read this newsgroup so if anyone has
any suggestions about this problem please send them to me via email.
Thanks.

steve
-- 
Stephen N. Spencer      | "You stepped out of the rain,
ACCAD, 1224 Kinnear Rd. |  You shook your hat off... 
Columbus OH 43212-1163  |  At the same time you shook me to my soul..."-K.McKay
spencer at cgrg.ohio-state.edu OR 71160.3141 at compuserve.com