Well, it works now. So far, my new/old Debian box is a DNS server for my internal namespace and Primary Domain Controller for a WinNT4-style domain. It wasn't all that easy to get there...
I have a new toy. Once upon a time, when I was considering taking up web hosting that would give me full access to a server (by way of learning how to run one), I tried to put the same distribution of Linux on a spare box I had at home. Unfortunately the box was spare because it had died, and attempts to revive it failed (even though Debian's installer is probably a little less arduous than the Win98 one).