I am managing a small office with 4-5 computers. I would like to use an (kinda) old computer running linux to be my router and DNS, firewall, http/ftp server. I want to run samba on it too. But from what I heard, Samba 3 cannot work as Primary Domain Controller for Active Directory. Does the PDC have to reside on this routing machine which will work also as DNS to resolve name in my LAN and gateway to the internet? Or can I use another computer running win2k3 (only got one license) as PDC and this linux machine's samba as a member server?

oh...one more thing...the linux box also DHCP-d

i would not put your pdc on the same box as the firewall/router. could be a big security problem if an exploit was discovered, or not closed up when you install. all your passwords, user id's, shared folders, etc. sitting there so close to the whole world. but samba can be used as a pdc, ibm has a great web site for instructions on doing so. if your already running 2k03 then why not use the pdc you already have?

Yes, that is actually what I was talking about. I don't want to run it with samba unless I have to because what I heard is that samba 3 doesn't support the new Active Directory that Win2k3 uses (is this true?) So if my linux box is the DHCP server, and my win2k3 is one of the machine that's on static IP but basically on the same subnet as the linux box, can the win2k3 machine acts as PDC for the whole network?

well, one is an apple and the other is an orange. samba is not made specficlly for pdc but can be made to do it. it is more of a windows network service running on a linux machine. allows linux and windows to share folders printers etc. i have 2 linux machines running samba and a win2k pdc, dns, dhcp, wins, etc. on the same lan and no problems. think of samba as just another windows share on the lan. you prolly won't be able to put the linux box in ad due to windows not being written to accept anything other than another windows os. but it should still work with all other types of windows shares. if i were you i'd let the 2k03 machine do all dhcp, ad, dns, and that other stuff and just use the linux machine for the firewall/nat interface to the internet, as well as the web, ftp server. thats what i have here and no problems with the 2 on the same lan.