Greetings,

On our home network we have a server running SuSE Linux 9.2 PRO (512MB RAM, PentiumIII), 2 laptops running SuSE 9.2 PRO, one Laptop running Windows 98 and one running Windows XP.

I would like to have one set of username/passwords across all the computers, so that there's one password to remember, and one place to change it.

Furthermore, I'd like to share the 120GB harddrive on the SuSE server to all users across all machines/os'es together with the printer...

I've understood enough to see SAMBA is the starting point, but

1. When the XP laptop is set up to authenticate against the Samba server, will I be able to login when the Linux server is not there (ie when travelling) ??

2. How do I configure the Linux boxes to authenticate against Samba instead of /etc/passwd?

3. Any performance issues running samba server on a Pentium III with 512MB RAM alongside mySQL ? (the SQL-server is used only for a huge amarok audio library)

Thanks in advance for listening!

1. When the XP laptop is set up to authenticate against the Samba server, will I be able to login when the Linux server is not there (ie when travelling) ??

A: Samba is serving as your PDC here. You should be able to login locally provided a local account exists on your laptop.

2. How do I configure the Linux boxes to authenticate against Samba instead of /etc/passwd?

A: Look at pam smb authentication. On Fedora boxes you can simply launch "authconfig" and configure the client.

3. Any performance issues running samba server on a Pentium III with 512MB RAM alongside mySQL ? (the SQL-server is used only for a huge amarok audio library)

A: Should be fine.