> i don't know anything about nis. what's that? the current setup works
> and i just want to replace old server (~10 years old, and still works
> fine under netbsd) with a new one... but if nis would be "cleaner and
> easier" i'd give it a try. where can i find more info, examples, ...?

on a netbsd system you could start with the nis and ypinit man pages.  for
books you could check out oreilly and associates' 'managing nfs and nis 2nd
edition'.  there are countless linux docs as well that you could adapt for
your system: http://www.redhat.com/mirrors/LDP/HOWTO/NIS-HOWTO/ .  as
always, google is the ultimate solution.