One of the problems with "hard" mounts is they can lead to hung processes if the device stops responding (manually mount an nfs share then disconnect that box from the net, then try to access the share). Automounter is the more robust solution.
For more info, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automounter
HTH,
Roy
For more info, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automounter
HTH,
Roy