First let me say that I a newbie so forgive me for any 'faux-pas'. I'm doing some work for a youth helpline charity in the UK and they need to centralise the way they work.

I've installed redhat 9 and got samba 2.2.7a working, but when trying to use roaming profile I encounter several problems:

1. When logging in to a computer as USER1 it loads up the profile of USER1 but it does not load up the My Documents folder that USER1 created on a different computer. Also it does not load up any changes that have occured on the desktop. When checking the \\server\USER1\Desktop server it does not seem to save the changes which I made.

2. It seems to take longer and longer to login each time as it is copying all the profiles back to the computer from the server. Is there a way that it can load up but rather than copying files to the local machine it links to the files on USER1 directory on the server (//server/USER1).

In essence, the charity wants the following:
- that user can work from any machine having access to all their files
- to centralise the emails so that when an email comes to the charity main email address, everyone can access it, but also see if it has been responded to.


Below is a copy of the samba.conf file currently in use:

[global]
log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
load printers = yes
passwd chat = *New*password* %n\n *Retype*new*password* %n\n
obey pam restrictions = Yes
socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
logon drive = n:
domain master = yes
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
encrypt passwords = yes
hosts allow = 192.168.0. 127.
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
logon home = \\%L\%u
dns proxy = No
netbios name = newserver
server string = file server
printing = cups
invalid users = bin daemon adm sync shutdown halt mail news uucp
logon script = logon.bat
message command = welcome to GBS Youth Helpline
unix password sync = Yes
workgroup = charity
logon path = \\%L\profiles\%u
os level = 30
preferred master = yes
domain admin group = @admins
max log size = 1000
log level = 3
pam password change = Yes
domain logons = yes
add user script = /usr/sbin/useradd -g 1004 -d /dev/null -s /bin/False %u
time server = yes


[homes]
comment = Home Directories
path = /home/%u
valid users = %S
writeable = yes
browseable = No

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
printable = Yes
browseable = No

[profiles]
comment = User Profiles
path = /home/profile
writeable = yes
create mask = 0600
directory mask = 0700
;nt acl support = No
browseable = No

[common]
writeable = yes
invalid users = bin,daemon,adm,sync,shutdown,halt,mail,news,uucp
path = /home/common
force group = charity
create mask = 0770
comment = Common
directory mask = 0770
valid users = root, erin, charles, beacky, ronald
allow hosts = 192.168.0. 127.

[web]
comment = websites
path = /var/www/
valid users = web, erin, charles
force group = charity
writeable = yes
create mask = 0775
directory mask = 0775

[netlogon]
path = /home/netlogon
#logon script = logon.bat
read only = yes
write list = @admins

I'm not a Samba expert just yet.... However, until I am, you may want to give http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/samba...ook/index.html a read. It's been helping me out with all of my problems so far.

As far as having everyone able to check status of e-mails responded to by others, I'm not sure Samba will offer the solution to your problem. A web-based e-mail script (similar to a "ticket-system" script) may be what you're looking for.