OK, downloaded the ISO for cd one from the local mirror that a plugger was so
kind to set up (sorry, don't remember your name, but thanks).  Since I can only
have one peripheral plugged into my laptop at a time (cdrom or floppy or second
battery) I usually copy the files from the dosutils directory onto my c:\linux. 
Then edit autoboot.bat to point to the right location (and verify the \ instead
of / for paths).  I run autoboot.bat and loadlin spits back "not an Image file"
...

Autoboot.bat initially said:
loadlin autoboot\vmlinuz initrd=autoboot\initrd.img

both files exist and comparing the sizes of them to the one on VAlinux's mirror
shows them to be the same size.  I tried various things like:

loadlin autoboot\initrd.img
loadlin autoboot\vmlinuz
loadlin autoboot\boot.img  --> (copied from the images directory)

etc...

I wish I could remember how to configure the cdrom so that does could use it,
but I have a feeling that loadlin will just complain like it is now.  Any ideas
what I'm doing wrong and how to solve it, or where to look to solve it (tried
redhat's site, but didn't notice anything in the support or manual for 7.1).