We have two offices and several workstations at each office. We are also migrating to a Windows 2003 server at office 1. This server happens to be located at office 1 and there are no servers at office 2. For now, the clients at office 2 have to logon through the internet and authenticate that way also, so it takes much time every time data is sent or recieved over the internet. I am going to build a server at office 2 to handle this authenticating so that it won't take so long to send or recieve data. I also don't want to spend a fortune on another Windows 2003 liscense so I am planning on going with Ubuntu 6.06. This linux server would have to create a permanent gateway between it and the one at the first office. I would like to find out how to accomplish this. Note that all of the clients are running Windows XP professional. Thanks

Look at Samba. You will need to complete a lot of research referencing an endeavor of this nature.

Why don't you look into getting the Action Pack from Microsoft. With a bit of imagination you can supposedly use the software for internal purposes virtually for free. That could save money on a second Windows 2003 Server license.

Unless you know a lot about Linux I would think that the time you're going to spend on trying to do this will almost cancel out the amount spent on an additional Windows license.

Another thing to bear in mind is that Windows 2003 RC2 supposedly solves some of the issues surrounding having to deploy branch office servers. I would have a look at that before making a hasty decision on going for broke with a Linux "domain controller", which I think is essentially what you're planning.

Sounds like an interesting problem to solve in any case - I'm ever so slightly intrigued...

What sort of connection speed between the 2 offices are you talking about?

If you manage to pull this off, then I hope you will document and post what you've done somewhere on the Net - I for one would be very interested in this kind of scenario (I'm new to LInux so don't actually know if it can be done, but the concept sounds very interesting indeed).