unrecognized auth response

[psychomachine]

hi, this is my first time setting up a cvs server and i've run into a 
difficulty.   when i try to log in into my remote cvs server, i am 
asked for the password and then i get

cvs [login aborted]: unrecognized auth response from my.cvs.domain.com: 
cvs: unrecognized option `--allow_root=/home/cvsrep'

Why is this unrecognized option?  /home/cvsrep is my $CVSROOT, so I 
don't understand what could be wrong.  any thoughts?

all best,
tench