[newtekie1]

1.) Yes, you should be able to type in the IP address of the server directly and access it, even accross subnets. Though this is not always possible.

2.) Don't know.

3.) You can setup a local web server, and access it directly from the internal network via IP. However, setting up a domain name would likely not work easily. If you register the domain like a normal domain, then the server would have to be accessable via an external IP, which yours is not. You can just put an entry in the DNS that your school uses that would point to your server, but you would have to be able to change the DNS, which is sounds like you can't. You can put an entry into the hosts file that points to your server, but you will have to do that on every computer you want to use the domain with.