Configuration help: behind linksys router

I've just set up my first Linux box (Red Hat 9, as a workstation),
however in the setup i chose to also install sendmail.

The system is rather simple. A Linksys BEFSR41 router/switch sits
between the ADSL modem and the inside. It is providing DNS to the class
C clients (have 4 machines currently, 3 of them windows).

One of the windows machines is assigned to a static IP: 192.168.1.110
The linux machine is currently set as follows:

eth0:
static ip 192.168.1.120
subnet mask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.2 (I changed this from the default
router assress 192.168.1.1)
Static net routes: blank

DNS is set as:
hostname: blank
primary dns: 192.168.1.2
secondary dns: 192.168.1.2
tertiery: blank
dns search blank

The linux machine name is linuxhost

If i ping localhost, i get 127.0.0.1
If i ping the machine name, i get 127.0.0.1

Questions:

1. If i set the machine i/p to 192.168.1.120, why do i get 127.0.0.1
(the loopback ip) instead? Shouldn't i see the .120 address? I can
ping it directly and it works.

Here's the routing table:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
169.254.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
127.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
default 192.168.1.2 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

Here's the ifconfig:

[root@linuxhost root]# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 000:B7:06:69:F7
inet addr:192.168.1.120 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:5936 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4696 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:4913264 (4.6 Mb) TX bytes:841580 (821.8 Kb)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x7c00 Memory:ed100000-ed100038

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:115 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:115 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:9928 (9.6 Kb) TX bytes:9928 (9.6 Kb)


2. I want to leave the limksys router as it is (the linux machine won't
be running all the time, although having it do dns is attractive). In
my configuration, is it possible to establish a private domain name? I
would like to use k1mgy.com How can this be accomplished? Do i need a
DNS nameserver running on the linux box to do this, or can i establish
some static routing?

3. With the private domain name, I'd like my linux hox to host sendmail
as an inside mail server (mail.k1mgy.com). As such, I'd like sendmail
to retrieve mail from a remote (Internet side of router) POP mailbox and
hold it for internal delivery to a certain INSIDE address
((E-Mail Removed)).

If it is not possible for sendmail to get mail on a POP mailbox, I'd
like to be able to forward mail (from outlook on a local machine on the
inside) to the mail.k1mgy.com sendmail host. Therefore I am hoping it
will be possible to establish an account in outlook the same way i would
for any pop/smtp server on the outside. I suspect some static route
would have to be established in outlook's email server setting for the
particular account, or maybe i'd have to reference it directly by i/p?
That's OK.

Actually, doing both (sendmail getting mail from an outside server and
sendmail hosting for inside client/s) would be nice.


I am hoping that the information I've given is clear and sufficient.
I've read many other requests here and i have found the narrative
approach to be a bit difficult to understand, so i hope that tabular is
better.

As everyone can tell, i am new to linux (not to windows) and a little
weak on my TCP/IP and DNS.

Hopefully the good answers here will also help others.

Thanks everyone.

Mark