--- a/prosody	Sat Jan 09 07:03:48 2010 +0000
+++ b/prosody	Sat Jan 09 07:12:30 2010 +0000
@@ -202,6 +202,7 @@
 			log("error", "core."..ports_option.." is not a table");
 		else
 			for _, port in ipairs(ports) do
+				port = tonumber(port);
 				if type(port) ~= "number" then
 					log("error", "Non-numeric "..ports_option..": "..tostring(port));
 				else