problem tunnelling cvs

[Michael Salmon]

hi folks,
im not on the list so please cc me on responses.. 
I searched the archives but couldnt find anything, so..

Summary of problem:
Cvs in win2k adv. server works from my work machine that is inside
the private network which hosts my cvs server, but not from my home dev box.
I can connect with linux clients from both networks. I am connecting to the
cvs pserver through an ssh tunnel.

My setup is cvs-pserver (private ip) <-> public ip box with ssh tunnel running
on it <-> home machine (dual boot, windows, linux).

In both platforms I create a tunnel with 
ssh -N -L 2401:192.168.1.128:2401: cvsserver.hostname.com -p 2401

In linux connecting to this tunnel works for all cvs commands.
With WinCvs and Cygwin though I can login but get errors on any operation other
then login.

/#cvs.lock): No such file or directoryctory for `/cvs/8ball/gfx
'vs server: failed to obtain dir lock in repository `/cvs/8ball/gfx
cvs [server aborted]: read lock failed - giving up

My CVSROOT is :pserver:address@hidden:/cvs, but the cvs clients do something
else crazy (both WinCvs and the cygwin cvs): they echo back

address@hidden ~/poo/src/8ball
$ echo $CVSROOT
:pserver:address@hidden:/cvs

address@hidden ~/poo/src/8ball
$ cvs login
(Logging in to address@hidden)

129.168.1.128 is the private ip for the cvs server, how it gets translated I 
don't know. 

thanks for the help,
ms