xterm problems post kernel upgrade

["Aisen, Alex M." <aaisen iupui edu>]

I'm running RH5.2, which I have upgraded to the 2.2.1 kernel; I also updated
some other required pieces such as nettools and the module tools.

I have developed a problem with telnet and xterm that I do not understand.

With the standard 2.0.36 kernel, I was able to use nxterm/telnet to connect
to a vt100 box via telnet; the terminal emulation worked fine.

Post upgrade, I cannot do this.  I can telnet to Unix boxes that use "dumb"
terminal (text only) emulation just fine.  I can type commands, login, etc
without difficulty.   But, if I try and connect to a box that speaks vt100
(or maybe vt102), an appropriate vt100 console appears in the nxterm window,
but whatever I type is ignored. ( Netscape and much other networking
software also works fine.)

This all worked fine before I upgraded the kernel.

Can anyone offer any suggestions?  I admit to being rather new at this.