I've never done it with a Mac server, but I use linux servers, and both
Linux and the Mac server use SAMBA to get it done, so other than the tools
used to manage it, I'd think the capabilities would be similar.
There are a lot of ways to get this done, depending on just how integrated
into the network envornment you want the PC to be. On one level, you can
just fire up the PC, log into a local account on the PC, and manually map
drives to folders you've shared on the server, using the server's accounts
to authenticate the connection (you can either have an account on the
server have the same user name and password as the local account on the
PC, or you can use "connect using a different user name" on the PC's map
drive dialog box). That's sort of like using connect to server in OSX to
connect to your server. Or, you can set SAMBA up as a domain controller,
and join the windows XP computer to the domain in the control panel's
system applet, then when you fire up the XP machine, the accounts you use
to log into the machine in the first place are the accounts on the mac
server. In that case, you can write scripts and put them in samba's
netlogon share, assign the scripts to user accounts, and the scripts run
when the user logs in, so you can automatically map virtual drives to
connect to applications, and do all sorts of other things to make things
simpler for the users.
BTW, here's the crucial difference between XP home and XP pro: XP home
machines can't join domains, so for the XP home machines, only the first
option I mention is available. If you have any control over technology
purchases at all at your shop, ban XP home!
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