Home directory ownership issues?

[oldog]

I set up a new SUSE10.3 machine to use as a server, and have run into a problem that is way over my head.

First, I ran into a login warning about HOME /.dmrc file ownership. Someone else ran into the same message here and even posted an image: here

I ran chmod 644 .dmrc and restarted the computer. The login proceeded without the warning message, but then the apache server would not start. The apache2ctl command was not recognized at all, and when I tried
/etc/init.d/apache2 start... here is what I got

Starting httpd2 (prefork) done
beorn:/home/beorn # [Thu Jul 24 15:31:38 2008] [error] (EAI 3)Temporary failure in name resolution: Could not resolve host name www.bemont.net -- ignoring!
(9Address already in use: make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:80
(9Address already in use: make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs

I'm in way over my head, being an inexperienced user of linux. Hopefully someone can lend a hand.

[gogalthorp]

Are you trying to start it under a user account? You should be root to start Apache.

[oldog]

Are you trying to start it under a user account? You should be root to start Apache.

This command was given as su

I can now go in as su or as root and start or stop apache, but it hangs up for a many seconds (more than that usual moment) when starting, and all pages are "access denied" from a browser, which makes no sense at all. Nautilus shows that the permissions are fine.