Help! What is this error??

[Julian]

Hi all,
I am running the following command from winXP:
rsync -av -e "bin\ssh -i trans_key\access.key -l julian -p 2227" 
192.168.200.254::julian .\julian\

and getting the following output:

rsync: Failed to dup/close: Socket operation on non-socket (108)
rsync error: error in IPC code (code 14) at pipe.c(71) [receiver=2.6.8cvs]
rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [receiver]
rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at io.c(475) 
[receiver=2.6.8cvs]

Everything had been working for months, but suddenly I am getting this.
Removing the -e ssh etc.. part seems to make the problem go away, but I 
can only connect to this server through ssh, and it is on a vpn.

Anyone got a clue!!?? I am really stuck on this one!!

Thanks
Julian