Hi,
You're using the right server, just the wrong branch. Branches allow
you to take a copy of the work off the trunk (main branch) and work on
it for a while without disturbing everything else. Then once all the
work's been done and is mostly stable, you can merge the branch back
into the trunk.
The particular branch I think you're after is BETA20 and you can view
it under sourceforge's ViewCVS module (at the bottom of a page that has
files under different branches you can select which branch you want to
look at). I don't personally know the CVS commands for checking out
branches, but the man pages are the place to find out.
Hope this helps,
Mike 5:)