Um, nevermind. The solution is to use jack_netsource, especially since i have static ip network. This works:
jack_netsource -H -i 8 -o 8
I have two machines. On master I do this- launch jack with firewire driver, then in a terminal type
jack_load netmanager
.....which returns a message that netmanager is running. Then on the slave I launch jack with the "net" driver. So far so good- I can then see connections on the master, hear Hydrogen, run audio from my fa-101 through Guitarix on the slave, etc. All good, acceptable latency. HOWEVER, when i specify 8 channels of i/o on the slave i still get only two channels in both master and slave connection diagrams. How can I get MOAR?