setting up a home network

[swingerofbirch]

Hi,

I have a lot of free time this summer and am curious about setting up a network. Our family has three Macs, and two PCs.

So, in my room I have a PC which is connected to the incoming DSL modem/wireless router. I also have an eMac in my room which connects via Airport to the Internet. Then on the other side of the house my sister has an iBook, my mom has a Cube, and my dad has a Dell laptop, which all connect wirelessy to the router.

On the Macs, is there a way to pick a computer, like say the Cube, and tell it to store the home directories, such that on any other computer at the Mac OS X log in screen you could log in to your home directory. IE, if my home directory is stored on the Cube, I could with my password log into it from my sister's iBook or my eMac? Is this Netboot? How fast is it?

Thanks!

 

[Str8edgepunker]

You could always share your files by enabling personal file sharing in the Sharing sytem preference pane.

 

[thewhitehart]

I don't think it would work unless you were running an Apple server.

 

[cjc343]

The easiest way to implement that would be Open Directory, but I'm not sure if it's even possible to to use on a non-server version of MacOS (I've never tried).

1. Read about it a bit. A good starting place is Apple's Open Directory info page. After that, I'd head to Google. Try to find a way to run it on a standard version of OS X. If you can't, it's always possible to buy MacOS X Server and install it on a computer.

2. I have never run or used Open Directory, and I only know anything about it from having to attempt to let Macs print to printers shared on an Active Directory without storing passwords in plain-text.

3. Don't even bother researching Active Directory.