pop says 'starting' - getting error on commands

[Jason]

hey all,
    running into some trouble pulling mail from qpopper

myBox = redhat 7.1
    running qpopper 3.1

so if i telnet from the server to localhost, i can use normal
user myname
pass mypass
and retrieve mail,

But ( (
   when i try to connect from another machine either via telnet, all i see
is the message that qpopper is starting, anything i enter comes back as
error, unknown command

hmmm?

jason