Need to share out /Volumes/Users in order to have Network Mounts ?

Hello all.

Is it necessary to share out /Volumes/Users via AFP, in order to have Network Mount of user home directories set ?
This is using Workgroup Manager on Tiger Server 10.4.5.

If I leave Network Mount set, but don’t share out Users via AFP, then on a machine that is not on our LDAP/OpenDirectory system I can easily mount my home directory via AFP using Finder.
I can even make this an automatic Login Item, as my password is now stored in the KeyChain, and it works fine.

BUT.

I have had 2 users toay (the school is in hiatus), tell me that when I turned off AFP sharing of Users/ they simply couldn’t log in, with that excruciatingly annoying "Your home directory is somewhere on an AFP or SMB server and I can’t find it so you can get lost" etc blah message.

Is it necessary to have the Users AFP share activated, or is there a way around this ?
I ask because when the users on LDAP/OD do login, its easy for them to see other users’ directories.
Please don’t come back with anything about directory permissions, that is a separate issue that we are dealing with for NFS.
The real issue is, is it necessary to share that root share, Users/, out at all via AFP ?
I would say, or assume, NOT, but then there is what actually works 🙄

Ideas anybody?

Jon