Netinfo broadcast protocol connection

Hi! Hope you can help - I've been tearing my hair out over this one. I'm new to OSX server, and trying to setup from scratch on a small network behind a router. I setup OSX server 10.2.6 from fresh, and set it to be an open directory and password server, but my ibook does not pick up the netinfo domain unless I explicity type in the IP address and network tag using Directory Access. My understanding was that the ibook should need no further setup - it should automatically find the server and try and authenticate if there is no user record in the local domain. I want to keep it on auto discovery, since if I enter a server and then wander off with my iBook, things really slow down... Hope someone out there can help this little beginners question! Kurija