New install -- MTA mail needs to be reconfigured

["Benjamin Sher" <sher07@mindspring.com>]

Dear friends:

I finally installed my first Debian system earlier this morning and I 
am very pleased with it. The install was flawless, but it was not 
quite as easy as I thought because there were plenty more 
questions AFTER the downloading of packages than I thought. 
But all is well. However, as one would expect, there are always a 
few issues that come up after a first install. I hope you can help 
me with them. These are quite minor. But let me ask just one or 
two at a time.

1) All of my devices seem to have been configured correctly, 
including my sound and video. That is, the video and sound work 
fine. However, I can't find a specific listing of my video card and 
sound card. Where precisely are they listed?

2) My first really critical issue has to do with mail. During Install 
MTA, I was asked which mail system I wanted. I was advised to 
select Smart? (can't remember the second part of the word) 
because I have a dynamic DHCP ADSL connection. So I selected 
this option but it's clearly wrong because I am told 

"Cannot connect to host localhost"

("localhost" is what I chose"). 

How do I access the mail configuration utility and how do I correct 
my settings so I can receive and send mail?

Thank you so much.

Benjamin