Figured it out. The http.maxConnection settings is not a limit on the total connections but rather the maximum connections to keep open after they were used. In my case I consistently have 10 simultaneous requests. So 10 would open, 5 would close, 5 more would open, 5 more would close, and so on. Those that close stay in the TIME_WAIT state for 60 seconds (OS Configuration). This causes TIME_WAIT connections to build up quickly to around ~600. By increasing the maximum idle connections (http.maxConnections) to something larger like 20, open connections are now around 10-13. Axis2 only opens one connection per port instance (no pool) whereas JAX-WS pools multiple connections as they are needed. View the original post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4270303#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...