[RHEL 4] - netcat or nc command fails to connect

Issue

• the nc does not function on RHEL 4 like it does on RHEL 5 according to the example instructions as explained in the manpage.
• Behavior is different from RHEL 5
• Starting listener in one window with 'nc -l 1234', and in another window 'nc 127.0.0.1' just returns a prompt. Chars type in either window do not appear in the other.