In article <200009051143.NAA09545@courbet.kerguelen.org> you wrote:
> ypinit -m
> [enter server name]

From ypinit(8):

SYNOPSIS
     ...
     ypinit -m [domainname]

Try giving it the NIS domainname instead of the server name.
It's always a good thing to put that same domainname into 
/etc/defaultdomain first, then set it via domainname(8), before
calling ypinit(8).


> ypserv -d

Unless you have SunOS 4 clients, you probably do not want ``-d''.

There's also the usual set of NIS troubleshooting tips available
for all OSes, see #8 from http://www.feyrer.de/NetBSD/NWF/nwf_35.html#SEC35.


 - Hubert