background:

i admit my desktop may not be the most up-to-date one around
(1994, 60MHz no-name pentium, 40MB ram, hda 530MB, hdb 1.7GB)
but it has run linux from slackware 2.0 to rh6.2 with almost
no problems.  rh7.1 could never find the ethernet card, so i
was advised to recompile the kernel, but wound up getting a
compile error that was never circumvented.  (i.e. i hadn't a
clue.)

enter rh7.1 (got from cheapbytes, 2 disk set with book):

(1.) the installation went ok (apparently).  i reformatted the
root/boot partitions and brought it up from scratch.  however
when i try to boot, it percolates through all the startup stuff
including finding my adaptec 1542 plus the devices connected,
but after:

Welcome to Red Hat Linux
Press 'I' to enter interactive startup

it hangs.  retrying using the boot floppy works ok.  i'd really
like to have it boot from the hard disk.

(2.) the ethernet card is found ok and works fine to ping and be
pinged by the other linux boxes on my netgear 4-port router.  the
one problem i had under rh6.2 persists, however.  (i naively hoped
it might go away if i did a fresh reinstallation.)  from the rh7.1
desktop box i can telnet and rcp to/from the laptops, but not
vice-versa.  hosts, hosts.allow, hosts.deny, and hosts.equiv are
identical on all three machines.  since the printer is attached
to the rh7.1 box, remote printing doesn't work, though locally
it's fine.  so it's rcp the file in and print locally.  ain't
that ugly?

any sage advice?

tia,
dan