Joerattz - Let me try to help with some things that I have figured out with the AD module. I to have struggled with some of the questions and I'm thinking that maybe some of these answers will help you.
2. When I login, I have to specify my domain name in the userid...domain\userid. I just don't believe for a second my users are going to know to enter the domain followed by a backslash. Plus it will be redundant as there is only a single domain here. Is there a way to make it default to a specific domain?
You can set the default domain on the authentication tab in the DNN (Admin -Authentication) you will be able to set your default domain.
3. I added a Security Role that exists in AD after I logged in with my account. My account is in that AD group, but I don't seem to have that role attributed to my user account. What do I have to do to get around this or resync for my user account? I see this as a problem in that I will have users and once they become knowledgeable enough with DNN, I will want to add them to an AD adminsitrative group that has more privileges in DNN. So, I can see this being an ongoing issue.
You have to make sure the that security role is set up in both the DNN Portal and also AD. Once you set this your users should be able to logon and be in the security roles that you have set up for them.
4. I keep reading that when I open a browser and go to my portal, I should already be logged in if I am logged into my windows workstation. This did happen the very first time I went to the portal after configuring AD, but once I logged out, it hasn't done that since. What is wrong?
This is the one that stumped me the most. I tried for days to get this one working and I finally, by sheer luck came across this solution. This is not a problem with DNN, this is a setting in Internet Explorer. If you go to your security zones (Tools-Options-Security Tab-Custom Levels) there is a selection, at the very bottom, that will allow you to set it where IE will automatically login with the current user name and password that they are logged in the workstation with. Once I did this I was able to logon by just pointing my browser to the main page.
I hope this helps you in your quest to get AD and DNN working.
Troll Smasher