Control Console

Good morning,
I am trying to telnet to a linux box and keep getting a “foreign connection closed” error message. When I logon as regular user, sometimes I get logged in and about a minute later get the above error message. Then, when I try to re-logon, I get this:
User Name : xxxxxxx (xxx is username)
Password : *******
User Name : xxxxxxx
Password : *******
User Name : xxxxxxx
Password : ********
“Access to the control console will be denied for 2 minutes.” I can’t find any support or documentation on this error (redhat.com, searchlinux.com, cnet.com, etc.) Has anyone seen this before and can it be fixed? Please help………..