could someone give me a quick rundown on the relationship between these.

i'm going to throw some linux boxes into a windows network.
i'll most likely be using mandrake.
i've used drake for a while, and i know i can see windows shares and mount them and such. i can also mount stuff with the fstab.

questions:
where do automounters come into play?
what happens when a share is not avaiablel on boot? but becomes avail later?
what is the equivalent of a windows networking log-on? the network is open (ie. insecure), and requires no pwds for shares, but requires specific usernames.

any relavent links to how-to's also appreciated.

thanks