newbie questions

[Ferdinand Fuchs]

hello,

I got this week mac os x server 10.2. unfortunately I must recognize, 
that it isn't as easy as I hoped. the admin guide  didn't answer 
every question that I have, e.g. about open directory. so I would 
like to ask you to give me some tips for the following problems:

>  opendirectory
how should I configure open directory with the open directory 
assistant? the mac os x server will be used in the following 
environment:

cable modem -> zyxel router with fix WAN ip-address, LAN with NAT -> 
Mac OS X Server (a g4 power mac) with filesharing for 5 windows 2000 
clients and 3 mac os x 10.2 clients. a mailserver for our domain 
should be running, too.

in the opendirectory assistant I activated the following options:
- the server is using a permanent IP address and subnet
- the server will provide directory information to other computers
   (note: there are no other servers in the network)
- enable LDAP support on this server
- passwort and authentication information will be provided
   to other systems

I'm unsure, because I have the following problems with this setup:
- I can only log-in with a windows 2000 client, that have 
administrator-privileges. with username/password of a "normal" user, 
I always get the log-in window again without mounting the volume - 
I'm sure, that username and password are correct, so I don't know, 
why I have this problem

- because mac os x server is ldap-capable, I thought I can use it for 
storing the email-addresses of our clients and suppliers, every user 
in our network use in his email-app the ldap directory, so every user 
has the same source for email-addresses.
but how can I create a company-wide ldap email-address pool?

>  dsn-server
for using a mail-server, I read in the admin guide, I must have a 
running dns-server. I would like to know, if I can use the name of 
our domain, or can make this troubles?
Can I do the following?
- change the mx-record of our domain (that is hosted from my 
provider) to the ip-address of the zyxel router. with "port 
forwarding" should be our mac os x server reachable as mailserver
- I would create an www.ourdomain.com entry on our mac os x 
domainserver, with the IP-address of the webserver from our provider.
- ourdomain.com will get the ip-address of our router
- mail.ourdomain.com will get the ip-adress of the mac os x server
   (so mail.ourdomain.com should be used in our email-apps as
    POP- & SMTP-server-address)

is it with this configuration possible, that the mac os x server is 
mailserver and my colleagues can visit our homepage?

many thanks for your help in advance!

yours sincerely


ferdinand