I am somewhat of a newbie at *nix. I've asked some questions about Debian in the past, but I decided to just go ahead and start simple, with Ubuntu, then moving up once I've got the hang of things.

So, I want to use Ubuntu 9.10 as a fileserver for my network, which consists of 3 Windows PCs and 1 Mac. I have a few ideas on where to go, Samba being my first package install, but I'm not too sure where to go from there. Could someone help me out? I love to RTFM, so if you'd point me kindly in those directions, I'll be glad to jump right on that too.

Thanks in advance!

Samba will allow Ubuntu to be both a server and a client. Here are two tutorials that should get you going in the right direction.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...k_File_Sharing

http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...amba_is_UP_NOW

Samba will also allow you to share a printer connected to the Ubuntu system with windows PC's. I don't have a MAC, but I believe they can do windows file sharing as well.

Take a stab at it, and see how far you can get on your own. Search the forum for answers, if you can not find the answer, then post a question, providing as much detail as you can.

I would suggest you install SWAT at the same time you install Samba. Swat makes administering samba shares easier. There is a lot of doc with swat, it helps a lot in picking the correct parameters for your configuration file.

Keep it as simple as possible at first. Get a share working, then you can slowly add to it.