Convert to Open Directory Master & Portable Home Directories

Ah, I'm frustrated because I know the resources are here, but I can't find them/make sense of them. Please help a guy who's been using Macs since '85 to understand this fabulous tech. Here's my setup: Tiger Server 10-Client on an iMac G5 20" - standalone with user account 'misterme' (and other family accounts) Tiger Client on a PowerBook G4 - portable with unrelated user account 'misterme' (and other work accounts) I want to get 'misterme' on the PowerBook to sync with 'misterme' on the iMac. This should let me keep all my files the same across both computers. As an aside, if I can get this working, I may to the same with the xserve in the rack in the datacenter at work. Challenges: 1 - I've screwed the firewall down pretty tight on the portable and the server. I don't know what I need to allow. 2 - Last time I tried to go in and change the setting to Open Directory Master I lost control of the admin functions for a day and the family couldn't check email for a week. I'm thinking I could do this, being a Unix geek and all, if I could just find the specific docs and an overview of the _conversion_ process so that I have some context to understand the docs. Can someone give me some links to converting from standalone to OD, then from non-networked to portable home directories?