Hi fellow listers! I'm starting on a little project; my home network! I have put together a server from newly bought parts and some old parts I had. (Athlon based PC). For now I have a 80 GB Harddisk, but plan to add a 120 GB disk later this summer. Cables (cat5) and switch. What I want to achieve is this: I want to store a lot of data (some text, some GIS data (GRASS and ArcView shapefiles), some video, some pictures (jpg/tiff)) on this server. Then I want to have Postgres running for my database's. This I want to have access to from my two other PC's (a Athlon 2000+ workstation and a HP OniBook XE3 laptop). Both these are dual boot XP(home and pro) and Suse 8.1 Linux. Both will connect to the server through a 3com office connect 8 port switch. Later I will add an wireless access point so that I will connect through WiFi (811.b) from the laptop. Printer(s) (will by a cheap laserprinter later this summer) will be connected to the server so that I can print from all PC's. But; how to partition the servers HD(s), and configure this so that whatever OS I have booted on the two other PC's I still have access to my data and databases on the server? (Samba, NIS, NFS, LVM??) This must be said; I'm a total newbie when it comes to actualy set up a network; but have some experience from using Windows (and UNIX) on networks, as a user/poweruser, and about 4 years exp. as a Linux (SuSe) user. So far I have studied "How to set up a Linux network" from About Debian site, + the suse books from 8.1 pro. Besides I have Mat Welsh et.al "Running Linux" 4th ed. But I need some advice on what to choose, and then on how to implement it. If this turns out to be something of general interest I will write about it (somewhere -> WWW?) I think I will not use DHCP, but fixed IP adresses. I will also want to connect to the internet through a modem conected to the server. And set this up with a firewall and on demand connect/shutdown. This I think I can achieve without to much questions on the list. Tall order this, but I think it's i a more and more common question; and will be more as time goes by;-) Regards LarsF ----------------------------------------------- Lars Forseth Nord-Trøndelag Fylkeskommune County Council of Northern Troendelag ------------------------------------------------