In such cases I go with this practice. If I have to rsh w/o a password from nodeA to nodeB,

a) Login to nodeA

traceroute nodeB

It will say "Source should be xx.xx.xx.xx" make a note of that ip address

b) Logon to nodeA

host xx.xx.xx.xx

if it returns a host name, then use that hostname in the .rhosts file of nodeB. If it does not return a hostname, then you will need to either enter the ip address OR add a hosts entry either through a hosts file, DNS or NIS.

You need not enter the username in .rhosts to make it work , just the host name should be enough.

Regards,

Kaps