tsql -S works but tsql -H times out

Have freetds 0.91 compiled on a CentOS box
and trying to connect to SQL Server 2008 
in freetds.conf have
[shortname]
  host=123.123.123.123
  instance = tester
  tds version = 8.0

tsql -S shortname -U user   will connect right away
however

tsql -H 123.123.123.123 -U user
just ticks away until I get a timeout error

Is it because I'm not passing the instance when I use -H? --is there a way to do that? 

What I really want to do is talk to the DB server using an ant build script, but it was breaking. 

Any help appreciated,