Mysql 5.5.25 must be restarted to connect We have MySQL v5.5.25 running on Windows Server 2008 R2. Occasionally people are unable to connect, and the only way we have found to fix this is to restart the mysql service. This happens every 2-3 days.

Anyone have a clue on this? We have spent hours trying to fix it changing various values in the configuration, but nothing has worked.
Please keep in mind what the MySQL Documentation says about max_connect_errors

If more than this many successive connection requests from a host are interrupted without a successful connection, the server blocks that host from further connections. You can unblock blocked hosts by flushing the host cache. To do so, issue a FLUSH HOSTS statement or execute a mysqladmin flush-hosts command. If a connection is established successfully within fewer than max_connect_errors attempts after a previous connection was interrupted, the error count for the host is cleared to zero. However, once a host is blocked, flushing the host cache is the only way to unblock it.

MySQL 5.5's default value for max_connect_errors is 10.
I have two suggestions on resetting the connection error count errors besides restarting mysql:
SUGGESTION #1
Create a one line SQL script (such as C:\FlushHosts.sql)
Setup a scheduled task to execute mysql -uroot &lt; C:\FlushHosts.sql every hour
SUGGESTION #2
Goto my.ini and add the following line
[mysqld]
max_connect_errors=18446744073709547520

Then, login to mysql client and run this:
mysql&gt; SET GLOBAL max_connect_errors = 18446744073709547520;

After setting max_connect_errors this high, you should never get connection errors. Otherwise, you must running mysql in some parallel universe.
Give it a Try !!!