Pgadmin III loses connection with remote database and then hangs for a long time.

I am using pgAdmin 1.12.1 oct 21 2010 rev-REL-1_12_1 from Martin
Pitt's PPA on ubuntu maverick.

Often when I connect to remote database the program seems to lose
connection to the database and when this happens it just locks up
tight with a blank screen. It stays locked up for a pretty long time
and then finally comes back with an error message saying it lost
connection. It makes no effort to retry the connection and I usually
quit it or kill it at that point.

Normally when it hangs up like that I fire off another instance and
reconnect to the same database to finish what I was doing.

The databases I am connecting to are either not fire walled or have a
port open for traffic coming from my workstation.

I am wondering if there is anything I can do about this issue.

Thanks.