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

[Andrew Dorrell]

Les Bell wrote:
> 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!).

This is true and I was perhaps over-zelous about this but I didn't want 
people to be able to remove their public_html folder or Mail folder for 
example.  Providing a drive mapping (as per your suggestion below just 
seemed more robust.... while directories such as Mail are only visible 
to the applications that actually use them.

It may have been better to use the veto files options... but there is 
setarate setup of that for both mac and windows file sharing.  The pros 
and cons are worth fleshing out.


> 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.

I haven't played with that - rather I just put the shortcut to the 
network folder in the local machines "My Documents"... a cop-out perhaps 
  ... but its because I don't know the answer to your question ;-) (Plus 
I think its quite different between 98 / 2000/XP and I just don't have 
that much time to put into learning MS stuff)


-- 
Andrew Dorrell PhD.        Senior Research Engineer
Canon Information Systems Research Australia     Phone: 61 2 9805 2224
1 Thomas Holt Drive,  North Ryde,  NSW 2113.     Fax:   61 2 9805 2865