School Intranet Servers (was: Re: [Lias] Thanks for help re Proxy)

[Les Bell]

Andrew Dorrell <andrew.dorrell at cisra.canon.com.au> wrote:

>>
2. I have also made a modified /etc/skel.  In the shareing of home
directories via smb and netatalk I make it a rule _not_ to share the
home folder but one or more subdirectories of it - in particular
"Documents" and "public_html"
<<

Why was that, Andrew? I've shared home directories directly, as that's
particularly easy to do - it's the Samba default behaviour, and the Windows
workstations then go ahead and create the "My Documents" folder, etc. The
only problem I see is the visibility of some Linux-related hidden files,
but those can be made to disappear (with a Samba setting? I need to
document this for my *own* benefit as much as anyone else's!).

Doesn't sharing the subdirectories give rise to more complex drive mapping?
E.g.

My documents -> H:
My website -> W:

or some such?

>>
3. On PCs I can then have a startup script to map the users
$(HOME)/documents to h: and leave a shortcut to "My network folder" ->
h: in the global desktop configuration.
<<

This is an area I've found confusing and not all that well documented. When
I converted our local Samba workgroup to a domain a number of surprising
things happened, not least of which was the complete wiping out of my CFO's
(aka SWMBO's) work files. So, I'm looking for a good description of how the
Windows NT/2K Domain maps the "My Documents" folder on the 2K/ME/XP desktop
to the server. Any pointers to documents at the Microsoft Knowledge Base or
elsewhere would be a godsend, here.

Best,

--- Les Bell, CISSP
[http://www.lesbell.com.au]