> As you might expect most of my NIC cards that have Thin-Net are old
> and of questionable status.

Doesn't the -3/50 have AUI?  AUI-to-twisted-pair transceivers aren't
that tough to find in my experience.

Anyway, now that you have a working network....

> Then I attempt to start bootparamd daemon:
> # /usr/sbin/rpc.bootparamd -d
> I get the following message. Any ideas why I get this?
> rpc.bootparamd: unable to register BOOTPARAMPROG version 1, udp

The portmapper isn't running, almost certainly.  What it's called
depends on the OS on your boot server.  On the systems I'm familiar
with, it's called portmap, but portmap doesn't exist on my 3.1
machines; a little manpage reading indicates it's called rpcbind there
(nothing like compatability, eh?).  You'll need to start it before
rpc.bootparamd will be willing to start.  For a one-off, you can start
it by hand, but for a more permanent setup, you'll want to start it at
boot time.  This means portmap=YES in rc.conf (rpcbind=YES for 3.1 -
now *that* is a lovely little present for admins, upgrade and your
portmapper silently stops working, so much for "use rc.conf and
upgrades Just Work" - me, annoyed? whatever makes you think that?).

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