Setting up a home network with user accounts shared throughout the network

[painball]

I'm not sure how to exactly say what I want to try to do. I would like to setup a network so that each person has only one account throughout the whole network. I have 3 PCs running XP Pro. How would I go about doing this?

I'm pretty sure I could use Novell, but are there any better programs to use?

 

[HighHardOne]

Whew! Don't go out and buy Novell just for that.

Now, I do believe that WindowsXP has the option of installing LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), which is a simplified version of Novell's eDirectory and Microsoft's ActiveDirectory (which are extrapolations of the X500 networking protocols). If you designate one of the machines as the LDAP server (Windows Components Add/Remove Dialog Box) and create accounts there, and set the other machines to use LDAP authentication (client NIC setup screens), you should have what you want. Of course, the LDAP server would need to be on always.

Alternatively, you could setup a Linux box as an LDAP server also.

Are you sure you need to go through this much trouble? What are you trying to do exactly? Is security an issue?

 

[XOR != OR]

openldap is a pain in the ass, and for this purpose, would probably be overkill.

Get a box, doesn't have to be anything special. Any old 233+ will do the job just fine. Load up linux, configure samba to do domain logins. Viola. You are done.

Further, you can setup samba to do roaming profiles. Be warned, windows does very stupid things with profiles. For instance, they load the entire profile across the wire at login and log off. Even if you only changed a piddily little 1k file. And as My Documents and Application Data reside in your profile, this could take a long time.