emacsclient properties across network

[Harry Putnam]

Not a skilled emacsclient user but have gone over the basics in the
emacsclient section of emacs manual.

I've beenn using emacsclient to communicate with a running gnus
session on a linux box.

Suddenly things have changed in the process I've been using to connect
to the running emacs on the linux machine from a remote opensolaris

I communicate with the running emasc by ssh to the linux machine from
the remote solaris (from here on, remote is the solaris, local is the
linux boxes)

So first from the local, I've started emacs, and the daemon, then
started gnus.

Now from the remote, from an xterm ssh local, then `emacsclient -s nognus -c'
(the daemon is named nognus)

What happens then (from the remote) (or used to happen) is the gnus
session is pulled across the wire and what I see is an emacs frame in
X that is connected to the running gnus.  All good so far.

I've updated the os on both ends, and now when I follow the steps
above, what I get is the tiniest emacs I've ever seen.  Its connected
to the gnus session but unusable without resetting the default font
size.

Previously emacs/gnus  would appear the same on both ends.

The remote end is running a version of gnome desktop and the local end
is running xfce.  That has been the case for a good while.

Both ends have the same .Xdefaults file in ~/ but symlinked to
.xresources since that is what desktops seem to look for these days.

But the point is the .xresource settings are the same on both ends.
Resolution is different but not enough to cause the drastic reduction
in size.

It appears there is no way to specify the font when running
emacsclient.

Does anyone have an idea what might have happened to cause the drastic
reduction in size or failing that... know how to quickly enlarge the
font on the tiny end?

The font options available with Shift-leftmouse on the emacs frame
work but only for each buffer individually.

If I'm in the group buffer, and enlarge the font there, using
`shift-leftmouse', soon as I get to summary buffer, its tiny again.
Enlarge there, move to article, its tiny again.

So apparently I need to enlarge the default font size, but then I
guess it might be huge on the local end.