I am looking at putting in a Linux / BSD computer lab in a school. I want to have a server in there that any of the students can save files to, authenticate into, etc. I want both the server and workstation to be running Linux or FreeBSD.

Here lies the problem. I don't even know where to start, I am going to need shared directories, login scripts, permissions, etc. I want that based on the users and all (with home directories located on the server, etc). I don't know how the authentication works or how the relationship works with the server and workstations.

I can do all this on Windoze, but I don't even know where to start or what to Google to find tutorials.

Could someone give me a rough overview of how this works, nothing elaborate, just enough that I know what information to search for specifics.

well fundamentally you're looking at sdamba for your main functionality. it was primarily written for SMB network share, but is also used a lot to act as a PDC for windows networks, inclluding some capacity for login scripting and such. http://samba.org

I am not concerned about Windows at all.

I want to use a Linux or BSD server and Linux workstations, but I don't know how to configure authentication through the server, or shared directories, scripts, etc.

Google for LDAP authentication -- most modern distros come with ready to work LDAP server and client packages (MS active directory is based on of LDAP too, FYI). You could also use NIS for shared authentication, but it's older and not anywhere near as secure. I use it, but only in a very trusted environment. I think LDAP is better in your environment.

As for shared filesystems, look at NFS and (optionally) automount (if you want the remote filesystem mounted only when a user logs in as opposed to just leaving them mounted all the time).

uggh i strike again.... readey before typey