Hi All, 
I'm trying to set up a Mail Server, James, from the Jakarta project.
(see http://jakarta.apache.org/james/index.html if you're interested)

I'm doing this for a software development project (read: I'm a developer and
not a sys admin...  this is my first problem...), and would like to use
Linux as the OS.
For the development environment I'm using a private network which I've
recently set up. I have two PCs, both running RedHat7.2 configured the same
way. So some day I'm hoping to send emails from MX Server A to MX Server B,
and visa versa.

I've gone through the installation of RedHat 7.2, I've installed the JDK and
James. I've gone through the build (and killed sendmail) and can run James
although it's not configured completely yet.

The trouble I'm running into is with the network I've created. I ping, I
SSH, but I can't telnet or FTP (not that I really need to telnet, but it's
more this sinking feeling that I'm not doing something correctly).

I'd really like help with two points:

1- Configuring my DNS servers correctly.

2- More generally, things to watch out for running my private network (like
what dragons lie in wait for me once I start trying to throw emails
around?).

I've been working on this for a while now, and the trouble I've run into
(repeatedly) with internet howto's and mail list archives is that they're
either talking about a different distribution or a different software
package than I'm using (or both).

Is anyone available with some experience configuring DNS and Email servers
that I can send a few questions to???

(I'm on the James mailing list, so the questions would be specific to DNS
and networks)

(This would be tomorrow, I've reached my threshold of frustration for today)
;)

Thanks,

Jeff

PS-
Oh, and a couple more newbie questions?:
-I burned two ISOs, one Mandrake and one Debian. I was under the impression
that they'd start installing when I rebooted. They didn't. Can I change the
BIOS like I would under Windows so that it would run from CDROM when I
reboot?
-I created a Mandrake boot disk, started it up, and it wouldn't recognize
the Mandrake ISO in the CDROM. The question is: How do I install Linux from
an ISO???