users and server access

Hello all,

I guess I have alot to learn! But can someone ilucidate me a bit.

I want to setup a computer as a file/print server to start with. So I started with the basic NFS server. So far I have learned to make it share, and mount on the clients. However the users on the client don´t have any permission rights (cannot do anything in the shared folder). Yes, it was shared with rw rights.

I think (from what I have read so far) this has something to do with user synchronization. If this is true, then what good is NFS, SAMBA, or other file sharing servers without the use of NIS, LDAP, or other user authentication server?

Should I be setting up both servers? Does not make sense to me to be creating users more then once in a network environment! However, since NFS is not use dependent, shouldn't I be able to read it at the client side even if the users don't match (confusion here)?

What about if I have a folder on the server that I want everyone to have access to? How is this acomplished?

Using FC3 full install and Webmin on the server side.
Using FC3 for workstation.

i am still faily new to linux but I had this problem as well. I thought it was because NFS cannot write, but only export directorys. If this isn't it, then it very well might need a samba server. I recommend running samba in place of the NFS as you can do much more.

Since I am not yet accesing the linux shares from ms windows, I do not need samba. However I have learned that you can use samba as well in a linux only environment.

The problem I was having had to do with access rights. But I still need some sort of authentication services.

I have been investigating, and am to a point where I will star to experiment with OpenLDAP, as it seem to the mostly used and feature rich authentication method.

Once I get OpenLDAP to work in a linux-only environment, then I will have to some how link it with samba so as to login from ms windows clients.