I know similar reports have been filed, and no resolution could be achieved due to the bug origin being unknown (bug in XDebug or Netbeans)

I believe I've conclusive evidence to show it's a problem with Netbeans. I've tested on both Ubuntu Linux and Windows 7 with watches cleared, balloon evaluation off. I've tried Xdebug versions 2.05, 2.10 up to 2.15 and also built from source on Linux for 2.20-dev. The IDE log I get is similar on all occasions and OSes, attached to this message. Strangely, the IDE worked fine on Linux for a day, then become broken after a while for no clear reason (I didn't install anything extra)

To reproduce the bug, you create a simple web application, place a breakpoint and run it against apache with a breakpoint. The browser will hang, but Netbeans shows as connected. If you remove the breakpoint and put it back in a couple of times, the Socket exception will occur. The exception text is;

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Socket Exception Occured

If you have any Watches, try to remove them and restart debugger. If removing Watches doesn't help or you don't have any Watches, please file an issue and provide the exact steps required to reproduce your problem. Please attach the IDE log. Attaching your project would also be very helpful.
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Both IDE log and project are attached. The reason I think the problem is Netbeans oriented is that, I've tried running some other PHP IDEs and tools against the same XDebug and Apache installation and they ran fine. (PHPStorm, PHP Designer and the XDebug Client)

Finally, I'll add that the problem exists in all versions down to 6.7. 

Thanks in advance for any assistance!