Copy and Pasting in Emacs...

[googleaddress@yahoo.co.uk (Patrick)]

i have just started to use emacs and unixy things..so apologies if
this seems a little simple\naive

I am currently using XEmacs on windows

To copy a line in emacs i 
(a)put the cursor at the beginning of the line
(b)press CTRL+SPACEBAR
(c)put the cursor at the end of the line
(d)press ALT+W (where ALT = metakey)

now the line is copied...

and to paste the copied line...

(e)press CTRL-Y


Now I have recently needed to use emacs on a remote machine (running
under linux).
I ssh into the machine from my computer (running windows) using ssh
from cygwin.
I open up emacs on this remote machine.
But the steps (a) to (e) above will not work, i cannot copy a line.

Anyone have any ideas where im going wrong? Im sure its pretty
trivial, ive searched the net but to no avail.

any help greatly appreciated.

regards,

pat