pcl-cvs on os X over ssh (instead of rsh)

[Jonathan Whiteman <jon@cyberflowsolutions.com>]

Greetings all,

I'm sure you get this bonehead question alot so I apologize in advance. 
  I'm using pcl-cvs in the stock emacs on os X 10.4.6 (it appears to be 
version 21.2) and I can't seem to get remote cvs repository access 
working.  Every time i try to run M-x cvs-update or M-x cvs-status or 
such it outputs this in the middle of the normal cvs buffer instead of a 
file list or a prompt for a password (which i would expect):

Message: cvs [status aborted]: end of file from server (consult above 
messages if any)
Message: Permission denied (publickey,keyboard-interactive).

Has anyone out there got some advice for me on how to fix this?
my CVSROOT=:ext:me@dev:/home/cvs and my CVS_RSH=/usr/bin/ssh

I'm told that using rsh instead of ssh for the CVS_RSH isn't an option, 
and neither is :pserver: instead of :ext: due to security flaws in inetd

It should be noted that the command-line cvs binary prompts for a 
password every time and works correctly when supplied a password.  Also 
I am aware I might be able to sidestep this problem by using RSA 
authentication through a public ssh key but I don't want to do this 
unless its my only option.

anyway, any help is welcomed, thanks in advance,
~jon