hi

i'm new to linux but do have a wide experience in XP. however, not much networking beyond basic workgroups

i'm looking to revamp my home network now the kids want their own PCs and i'm looking at configurations

what i want to be able to do is:

* store all the various people's data on a single server and back it up from there as appropriate * map the various 'My Documents' folders on the PCs directly to folders/shares on the server * share some printers on that server * i don't need true 'roving profiles' as such (but that /is /a possibility - my only concern really is the bandwidth overhead associated with XP syncing on logoff) * what i do need to do is have the various user folders read/writeable by the users *and *readable by the server admin group (ie: me) * any password changes that the XP users make need to be automatically synced with the various server accounts

most of the PCs will be 'single user' only but one will need to allow 2 users access to their files - so if i go for roaming profiles fine, if not it's 2 users on that PC i guess

i've done a fair bit of reading around this and am currently tinkering with fedora 5 trying to get it to act as a PDC - with spectacular lack of success thus far it has to be said !!

so, first question i need to answer is - given the above functionality needs do i go down the workgroup or domain route ? once i know that i can practice on the fedora box and try to get it to do whatever i need to and take it from there

(of course whatever route i go down i'm bound to screw up and come begging for help - but let's leave that for another day !!)

thanks for all and any advice/suggestions

neill