Are the instructions here:

http://www.netrek.org/cow/current/README.CVS

Up to date?

$ cat CVS/Root 
:pserver:cow at cowsrc.netrek.org:/cvs/cow

$ cvs login
Logging in to :pserver:cow at cowsrc.netrek.org:2401/cvs
CVS password: 
cvs login: authorization failed: server cowsrc.netrek.org rejected access to
/cvs for user cow

-- 
Bob Tanner <tanner at real-time.com>         | Phone : (952)943-8700
http://www.mn-linux.org, Minnesota, Linux | Fax   : (952)943-8500
Key fingerprint =  6C E9 51 4F D5 3E 4C 66 62 A9 10 E5 35 85 39 D9