My current network looks like this; 1. A 'file server' running Debian Stable exporting a media share and home directories via nfs. Samba was working on here the last time I had a windows machine on the network., 2, My old desktop running Debian testing, 3, My new desktop running Kubuntu. (Thanks, Samir) 4, I will soon be adding a windows XP machine, that will need to have access to at least the samba share on the 'file server'. I have 4 users. (Parents and two kids), right now, all 4 users have an account on the old desktop. I just remembered, I might have a couple logins on the file server for friends to log in from outside the network. Rarely used, SSH only. Keeping /etc/hosts and uid/gid information has become unwieldy. I know my nfs share is a permissions mess right now, but I need to get the uid/gid information synced across all the machines before I really have a hope of getting that cleaned up. What system should I learn about that best fits my network size and the scope of the problem? LDAP? NIS? rsyncing the appropriate files from a common place? Pointers appreciated. Mark