Well, TALK is an old command so, maybe it's not
off topic....
 Can anyone tell me what's going on...
        When I "talk wolf(a)hera.dominion.net"quot;, it SEEMS to make a connection then
I
 get "[Checking for invitation on caller's machine]" and it sits there...
 mocking me. (Stupid machine).
        Talk works fine when myself and the person I am trying to contact are on
 the same machine.
        What is the deal?
  
1.  Talk has a problem.  It's byte order dependant and old.
    It only works with machines of the same byte order.  The fix is
    (I believe) ytalk which is a new version of the talk program.
Bill