How do I get the lava in my lava fountain to flow?

I am on a multiplayer server and am trying to create a lava fountain in front of my door. I have it enclosed in an area so the lava won't block any routes. The only problem is that I can't get the lava to flow. I've been told that I just need to put a bucket on top of a block and it should start flowing if I've got a step layout going down around the lava, but it doesn't work, the lava just disappears. Please let me know if I need multiple buckets or am missing something. Thank you.

The Multiplayer in minecraft isn't quite working fully at the minute. What you're trying to do would work in single player survival, though.

To do this you use the bucket (right click) on the lava source to get a bucket of lava, then use the bucket again where you want the source to be dropped.

I'll be adressing both water and lava in this answer.

First of all, Lava sources, unlike water does not spread on the overworld. (more info..)

Now, SMP still has several bugs, one of which is a problem with the bucket handling on the server. This is typically shown, as your bucket emptying and the water or lava you just placed suddenly dissapearing.

Luckily, the Modding community has already made a fix for the server for this problem as a class replacement for the server(as part of llamacraft)

This class replacement has to be done on the server by the server administrator.