Ping localhost:port failing

A configuration that was working in RDM 8 is no longer working after upgrading to RDM 9.

I have a connection profile that i use to connect to various servers when i'm at home and when i'm at the office. At the office the connection is direct, but when i'm at home i manually start an SSH connection that's configured with various port forwards. I'm basically using the linux box as a jump box since it's accessible over VPN while the other servers aren't.

Example:
server1
==> 10.127.127.50
==> Auto detect (ping) ==> localhost:65000

tunnel_ssh
==> 10.10.10.10 (available over vpn) + (port forward) 65000:10.127.127.50:3389

After upgrading to RDM 9 the connection pings 10.127.127.50 then attempts to ping localhost:65000 - the second ping attempt seems to fail and it never connects.

I have verified that i can manually connect to localhost:65000 so the tunnel configuration and the server are not the issue. I tried to disable ipv6 on my console and tried 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost but to no avail.

I tried to enable debugging to provide more info but even with the highest debugging level (3071) i'm still not seeing any logs relating to the ping attempts.

Is this a bug? I guess it could be considered a feature since RDM is now attempting to verify the status of the alternate host before connecting.

How can i resolve this and return to the previous operational mode?

Unrelated question:
Is there another support channel or is it limited to the forums? I'm currently using a site license but i'm not sure if there's a different support channel for licensed RDM.