> Of course I made no changes to either client or server around
> that date  :))   (big smiley just in case)

Sorry for the delay but I just started work and am reading my nightly
email.

I had the same delay problem recently, one client suddenly would
finish in 30 hours (yes I let it run) instead of 20 minutes. I had not
changed anything on the client nor the server.

Though it happened that I had rebooted the network gears. When the
client reconnected to the network switch, Ethernet connection was
poorly negociated, hence the degradated network and dump performance.

Dunno if it was your case, just a thought.

Olivier