Those are modules for IPtables that can be loaded when Guarddog is running the ip_conntrack_irc is IP connection tracking for IRC which is what allows you to use IRC without problems when using a firewall. Here is what the modules look like on my firewal/router:
Code:
Last login: Fri Feb 13 00:02:28 2004 from happytux
stephen@SleepyTux:~$ su
Password:
SleepyTux:/home/stephen# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
ipt_TOS                 1080  34  (autoclean)
ipt_MASQUERADE          1304   1  (autoclean)
ipt_LOG                 3288 141  (autoclean)
ipt_TCPMSS              2424   3  (autoclean)
ipt_tos                  440   0  (unused)
iptable_mangle          2192   1
ip_nat_ftp              2832   0  (unused)
ipt_tcpmss               984   0  (unused)
ip_nat_irc              2256   0  (unused)
iptable_nat            15096  10  [ipt_MASQUERADE ip_nat_ftp ip_nat_irc]
ip_conntrack_irc        3056   8
iptable_filter          1668   1
ipt_multiport            632   0  (unused)
ip_conntrack_ftp        3728   1
ipt_state                568 175
ip_conntrack           17992  11  [ipt_MASQUERADE ip_nat_ftp ip_nat_irc iptable_nat ip_conntrack_irc ip_conntrack_ftp ipt_state]
ipt_limit                952 144
ip_tables              11096  14  [ipt_TOS ipt_MASQUERADE ipt_LOG ipt_TCPMSS ipt_tos iptable_mangle ipt_tcpmss iptable_nat iptable_filter ipt_multiport ipt_state ipt_limit]
msr                     1128   0  (unused)
cpuid                    936   0  (unused)
apm                     8896   0  (unused)
parport_pc             25032   0
parport                24608   0  [parport_pc]
keybdev                 1696   0  (unused)
input                   3296   0  [keybdev]
So you need to check the modules that are loaded when the firewall is running to see if it does not get loaded which would cause the problem when you are not using the xinetd.

I just checked the FAQ on the Guarddog site and it appears you are talking about ident not xinetd that was causing you the problem from the faq:

Code:
4.3. 

Why are my FTP/Mail/IRC connections slow?




 Many mail and IRC servers, when connected to, use the "ident" protocol to try to find out the owner of the incoming connection, and don't respond to the incoming connection until they have tried "ident". This problem shows up, for example, as delays when connecting to mail servers. The connection will be made with the mail server, but there will be a noticeable delay before any mail is retrieved. This is because the server tries to make an "ident" connection back, but has wait and time out before realising that it won't work. The solution is to just make sure that "ident" is being rejected for connections coming from the zone containing the mail server.
So it looks like you need to reject ident the protocol.