remote port forwarding unstable

[Adriana Rodean]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is a bug or not, maybe someone noticed it also...

I always do a remote port forwarding with openssh on 1026 port let's
say ( ssh -R 1026:localhost:55555 ). Most times the port is opened on
remote machine. But sometimes i notice that ssh can't do remote port
forwarding to that port 1026. I looked on the remote machine (netstat
-an) and no one is using that port, so the port is free.
Only way to fix this is do a remote port forwarding to another port
lets say 1056, successfully done, then try again and do it for 1026,
this time remote port forwarding successfully works... Sometimes it
works if i try again with 1026, but other times i need to open another
port then try again with 1026 port...

What can cause this instability to remote port forwarding?
Is there another command than "netstat -an" to see if that port is
really free or something is using it?
If is a bug can it be fixed?

I use version of OpenSSH 5.1p1 on remote machine and the client is
OpenSSH for Windows 3.8.1p1

Thanks in advance,
Adriana