I have a requirement of setting up a network of 8-10 users. I am looking into linux (Fedora 2) as file server. Few questions i like to put forward to experts; 1. samba or nfs 2. fedora 2 or something else 3. whic firewall, have no idea of how to run firewall in linux, other security aspects to consider 4. can apple OS access the server Thank you in advance for any feedback. Cheers. simon

1: If you want to share to Windows machines, then use Samba, as that uses the same protocol as Windows. If your network doesn't have Windows machines, use NFS (it's easier to configure). 2: Fedora 2 should be OK. you could also use Gentoo, Mandrake, Debian, the list is endless. Whichever you prefer, really. 3: The Linux kernel has firewall capabilities built in. Setup normally gives you the option to set up a basic firewall (Mandrake did for me anyway). There are more advanced (many of which are free, of course :) ) firewalls available. 4: Sorry to be honest can't fully answer about MacOS. As MacOS X is based on BSD Unix, i don't see any reason why it wouldn't support NFS or SAMBA, but i'm not claiming it definitely does. Can't comment on MacOS 9 and below. Hope I've been of some help Nick

I suggest SUSE Enterprise Server 9. Everything is GUI based so even an idiot like me can get it working. It was the only distro that I could get SCSI RAID to work on Firewall is GUI based...no worries there. If you can do zone alarm or Sygate personal then you can handle this. Includes SAMBA server and client setup...again GUI Includes apple talk (I think it's called) for MAC's. Jimi_l

Thanks for the excellent feedback, for file server couldn't my normal Suse 8.2 version be enough or must i need Suse enterprise server as Jimi says and if so any idea how much it is, since its enterprise. Just one thing, I tried samba but when i try to access it from windows 2k laptop even i could see it listed as a share on my network, but was not able to access to it. Like setting up windows file server, you have to create user a/cs that match the client, does samba work this way as well. create matching user credential details ? just thought maybe reason i couldn't access it. simon

It's free :) You even get 30 days of support. Here is a clip from the E-mail they sent me after I posed the exact same question before downloading it. Hi Jim, Thank you for your interest in Novell SUSE Linux products. The free eval download will not expire at the end of 30 days but the support will. In order to continue with the support you will need to purchase a license after the 30 days trial. Please call Customer Response Center, 888-321-4272, and ask to speak with your Novell Inside Sales Rep. for pricing and the best solution for your customer. How can you lose?? Even if I never get another update or support it will do what I need it for which beats the pants off Windows 2003 server. Jimi_l

"...but was not able to access to it..." You have to check your security level and make sure that encrypted passwords is enabled in smb.conf and also that the windoze user has a linux user account which has also been added to the samba users database (smbpasswd -a username).