Conserver Problems: Slow Start & SSL Errors

I recently setup Conserver 8.1.11 on a Debian Woody Linux system. The
system has a 200MHz Pentium I processor, 96MB RAM, and 48 serial ports
(3x RocketPort 8J PCI cards, 3x BocaLan BB-1008 ISA cards). This hardware
used to run Debian Potato with Conserver 6.x or 7.x (don't remember).

Conserver 8, for the most part, is working fine. But there are two
problems I have been unable to solve:

*) When I try and connect with the console client, even from the local
machine, it takes 2-5 seconds for the connection to occur. This is even
longer than it takes to SSH into the system in the first place. I have SSL
turned off, and I have DNS resolution setup correctly. From 'top', it
looks like a lot of CPU time is being used by conserver during the
connection start up. The older versions of Conserver was nearly
instantaneous on connection.

*) More seriously, when I connect with '-A' to display the last ten lines,
eight times out of ten, the last ten lines are displayed, and then console
exits with the error 'console: FileRead(): SSL error on fd 3'. As I said
above, I am not using SSL at all. Connections attempts without '-A' never
fail.

My configuration is attached (without all 48 port definitions for the sake
of brevity). Does anyone have any recommendations on how to solve these
problems? Conserver is excellent software, and would be perfect if I could
just solve these problems. Thanks!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."                    |
|                                            --- Philippians 1:21 (KJV)   |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   Ryan Kirkpatrick  |  Boulder, Colorado  |  http://www.rkirkpat.net/   |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

# /etc/conserver/conserver.cf :: ConServer Configuration

# Configure the server.
config * {
  daemonmode    yes;        # Run as a daemon.
  defaultaccess rejected;   # Unauthorized hosts denied access!
  sslrequired   off;        # Do not use SSL.
  autocomplete  yes;        # Able to use partial port names.

  # Log file for general messages.
  logfile       /var/log/conserver/__master__;
}

# Establish access control.
access * {
  # Only allow connections from this machine.
  trusted localhost,console;
}

# Default console configuration.
break 1 { string "\z"; }
group admins { users root; }
default * {
  master      localhost;    # This machine is console master.
  baud        9600;         # Standard baud rate.
  break       1;            # Standard break is serial break.
  type        device;       # All consoles are serial ports.
  device      /dev/ttyCx;   # Serial device name template.
  devicesubst x=p02d;       # x in above is port# as 2 digit decimal number.
  host        none;         # Trigger usage of port# in above substitution.

  # Options are no XON/XOFF flow control, use hardware instead, and use
  # no parity. Remainding options are left at default.
  options     !ixon;
  options     !ixany;
  options     !ixoff;
  options     crtscts;
  parity      none;

  # Log file per port name, rotated at 200kBytes, and timestamp added every
  #   17 minutes or upon activity (attach/detach/bump) or break.
  logfile     /var/log/conserver/&;
  logfilemax  200k;
  timestamp   17mab;

  # Default access control is admins, and admins only, have read/write access.
  ro "";
  rw admins;
}

# The consoles: Names are by the hostname of the machine connected to, if any.
# If not connected to any machine, then just the of the form 'port{num}'.
console switch        { port 1; }
...