Clustering not working?

I have read through almost every doc there is on this forum, and I can't figure out what is going on.....

I am trying to setup a cluster. I have two nodes, tablinux1 and alcdl140a. One is in Reno, NV and the other is in Baltimore, MD. They are connected by a DS3 on an internal network, and I have verified firewall settings are good.

I do the configs and startup alcdl140a, no problems. Can connect to the vhost jabtest.testing.com with no problems. Shows one node.

Then i move to tablinux1. Do the install from the binary, say it's part of a cluster, etc.

I then go to /opt/ejabberd-1.1.2/bin/ and run:

./erl -sname ejabberd -mnesia extra_db_nodes "['ejabberd@alcdl140a']" -s mnesia

I get the following:

[ejabberd@tablinux1 bin]$ erl -sname tessco -mnesia extra_db_nodes "['tessco@alcdl140a']" -s mnesia
Erlang (BEAM) emulator version 5.4.12 [source] [hipe] [threads:0]

Eshell V5.4.12 (abort with ^G)
(tessco@tablinux1)1>
=ERROR REPORT==== 7-Nov-2006::17:16:59 ===
Error in process <0.51.0> on node 'tessco@tablinux1' with exit value: {badarg,[{erlang,list_to_existing_atom,["tessco@alcdl140a.tessco.com"]},{dist_util,recv_challenge,1},{dist_util,handshake_we_started,1}]}

=ERROR REPORT==== 7-Nov-2006::17:16:59 ===
Error in process <0.55.0> on node 'tessco@tablinux1' with exit value: {badarg,[{erlang,list_to_existing_atom,["tessco@alcdl140a.tessco.com"]},{dist_util,recv_challenge,1},{dist_util,handshake_we_started,1}]}

What is going on here? When I do the node status, both nodes show the other as down. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help....

Thanks,
Tom Callahan