Digital BW, The Print

After many years of darkroom BW work I am currently in the process of 
switching to digital and having quite a struggle with it. I've 
purchased a Nikon8000 scanner (I work primarily with medium format BW 
negs) and Epson 2200. I hope someone will help me out by answering a 
few 'novice' questions:
1. What are the optimum settinngs on the Nikon8000 for BW negs; i.e. 
positive vs negative, grayscale vs RGB, color management ON/OFF, 
gamma?
2. Should I do any tonal correction using the Nikon software or leave 
it all to photoshop?
3. When opening scanned BW images in photoshop7 what profile should I 
assign them?
4. For BW, what should I enter in the photoshop7 'Color Settings' 
dialogue box? At this point on my 'learning curve' I am using Epson 
Archival Matte paper and Ultrachrome inks. Should I set a custom dot 
gain (if so, where can I obtain values for this paper/ink 
combination) or dot gain percentage (if so, what value)?

I would greatly appreciate some help/advice.
MARC.