Thank you for all your responses to my grumpy bit of self indulgence. It was great to realise that I am not alone in wanting a more user friendly approach. I personally don't have a problem with becoming a more proficient computer user in order to use linux - but I don't think I should need to become an expert in order to do pretty basic stuff. I like the fact that if I had more time, I could use all the bells and whistles available in Linux. As it is, I have a professional job and a family, which leaves me about 2 hours a day where I can do stuff which doesn't relate to either. There are some days when I'm happy to spend my 2 hours glued to the PC screen. Setting up linux initially was a lot of fun and very satisfying, the problems I had were fairly easily solved and each time I felt I had gained valuable insight into how Linux works. The point where I realised I had spent two days when I would have been working trying to sort out samba, then every evening for a week made me think I had to either abandon my partner, my toddler and my job or throw in the towel with samba until I have more time. I have been using computers for a while - I started at school with a commodore pet (not alot of GUIs around then) and worked my way through the Apple II +, used Sun workstations at University and was appalled by the first version of Windows I saw, so it's not the comand line stuff or modifying config files that cause me stress. I think the problem is in the documentation - partly because it's written by experts who don't realise how little some people know, and partly because some is obviously translated and a little grammatically confusing. The thing that became most apparent in all this is that there is some hostility towards people, like me, who just want to use the damn thing. I feel as if I need to justify my computer experience (why?) and let you all know I built my own PC and write little games in Visual Basic for my toddler - as if by saying ' look, I do work hard' justifys the fact that I want help with a problem. We are in danger of being unwelcoming to people who have little time for computers - either because their lives are so exciting and full of chandelier swinging parties, or just because when they've got in from work, cooked dinner, helped with homework, done the dishes and put the kids to bed they don't want to spend hours studying. If we only want people to use linux if they have enough time to really understand it to use it, then this needs to be made apparent. I don't think that is the case though. Anyway, after several of your very kind and encouraging responses, I haven't given up on Samba completely. I'll give it another try over the weekend, and if I don't have any luck I'll send my config file to the list for comment. I am beginning to think that maybe there's a problem with the way my NIC is set up as I'm sure I've done everything right with samba. If I don't get it sorted this week, I'll leave it until I have more time, and in the meantime use linux for stuff that works well for me and use W98 for the rest. I have to use W98 for work at the moment anyway, until Quark Express is ported to linux, which I expect will be fairly soon as the new Mac OS is Unix based, and Quark is primarily aimed at Mac users. At which point, if I've got Samba working I can abandon W98 completely. Julia -- Julia Maddocks O O O O O O O O O \|/ \|/ \|/ \|/ \|/ \|/ \|/ \|/ \|/ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ Playwork and Childcare Consultant phone: 01865 247499 mobile: 07803 044986