Hi-
completely new to Linux, but willing to learn. Big OS X fan, actually.

I was hired a few months ago to be a computer teacher at a grade school. My lab has 25 PCs running XP Pro, and one Win2KS set up as domain controller and fileserver. I hate the Win2KS box, as it freezes and crashes often, has slow authentication, doesn't show shares right, etc. In the next month, I either have to wipe this box, reinstall and update Win2KS, and re-setup all the AD data, or I will switch the box to Linux and dive in.

My big question-- is it reasonable and possible to set up Linux to provide authentication and authorization for a network of XP Pro boxes? I am rather new to the whole network admin stuff, too, but the school is very poor, so I am it. Currently, each grade has a shared login (grade7, etc) and then a network share (grade7) shows up for the students to grab files out of and drop files in. Trouble is, they get into each others' folders all too often.

I want to set up the older kids with their own logins so they can access their own private directories securely and a read-only shared directory for their grade, obviously all stored on the server, and obviously accessible from any lab computer, necessitating a central directory.

Can Linux handle all that? Or is this one of those regrettable situations where Windows 2KS AD is just more practical? Especially since we already have a licensed copy?

I have been researching this for hours online, and it looks like it CAN be done, but no one has answered my question of whether it SHOULD be done.

By the way, if it is important, the network is connected to the internet, and I would also like to (pipedream?) have the login set up a custom collection of apps authorized for their grade and set a homepage also customized for their grade-- this stuff is of secondary importance, however, since they do not have that set up now.

Thanks for any help!! ToeKnee

what you wanna use for this kinda situation is samba...

on the samba site there's some links to documentation:

http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/

yes it is possible. in addition to samba you will also need to setup ldap for the querries and login security IIRC to make linux work somewhat like the 2k serve and its AD.

as for your slow authentication on the 2k server some things to check.

1. the DNS on the server and the name it uses. should be some name like school.local
2. the primary DNS on all of the workstations would be the IP address of the 2k server.

that will resovle a lot of the slow authentication.

now for the lost shares... that could be to a currupt AD or just that the DNS is not working properly. for the lock-ups and freezing, either the OS has been infected with something, the AD is completely corrupt, or you have some bad hardware.

i would check for viruese first, then i would check for bad hardware. unless the AD was built bad from the start and has not had to much mucking with since it was built, that should not be the issue.

win32sux- thanks - do you know-- would the Samba only provide the CIFS for the Windows shares, or does it have something to do with the authorization (permissions?) too?

Lleb_KCir-
also thank you - I do not recall the DNS settings on the server, and the lab is apart right now for cleaning. The funny thing about the authentication was just how it was not always slow, just sometimes, often at important times. Nothing to do with the number of people logging in-- sometimes all alone. And then it would often clear up for a while.

I have decided I will wipe out the whole Win2KS config and rebuild it if I keep Win2KS. I don't know where the problem was, but I quite sure it wasn't a virus or spyware, as I ran regular scans and updated the software. I did not do the initial config, that is now two years old, but there were so many little bugs. 99% of the time, I coudl not get into any AD admin stuff-- it would come up with an error which on MS site said was a known problem that should be solved with SP 2. Well, we were up through SP 4, so that was no help.

It's probably my predecessor or some consultant set something very wrong or installed some bad software. In any case, I don't know my way around W2KS worth a damn, and I'd rather spend my time learning Linux.

Bad hardware is possible, but I won't know until I get another OS installed! I tried a Knoppix CD, but it gave the error which the website indicated it might not be compatible and the same error on several other lab computers (they are all Compaq Evos- yeah).

So I still have to decide whether I go back to a fresh W2KS install or venture out with a Linux distro (an easy one, nothing too fancy for starting off).

Thanks again

good luck either way. for a distro, there are several that are rather easy to pick up and learn.

i like Whitebox as it is just a fork of RedHat Enterprise 3 that uses yum for installing and updating software. it will have a supported life span out to 2008 so that is an other bonus IMHO.

any distro will/should work well for you, but as you are having issues with knoppix, it would be a good idea to hit that distros eb page and check out thier HCL before downloading and burning the ISO.

... my silly ideas ...
try to find out what this possible hardware problem or possible incompatibility is ... and post it .... maybe someone can help ye with that ....
a Linux or a Windows reinstall wont be of much use if the hardware is no longer alive ....
maybe the different speeds for authenications/logins were due in some way (I am now completly guessing and it might not even be physically possible ... Im a Nbee cant trust me 2 much) to hard-disk problems .... I have a drive that was possibly struck by lighting in some way I think (wasnt there) & from then on the hard-drive read speed has varied very much ... sometimes normal speed sometimes terribly slow .... I am using it just for swap right now .......
... maybe ??????????

Da Wini G