seting up a network file/print/dhcp/nat server HELP!

ok im not exactly a linux noob but im not to crafty in the ways of linux. ive read several articles i found with google searches and im having a hard time determining the best route to take.

so to bring my question ill describe what id like to do. i would like to take an older computer of mine and slap a nice fat hard drive and an extra 10/100/1000nic into it. i would like to have the shares avalible to all my other computers which will be a mixture of windows(2k pro and xp pro) and linux. id like my HTPC to store all its recordings onto the file server(htpc will be running MythTV). id like the server to act also as a DHCP server for my network as a few of my friends come over regularly and aren't technacly minded to have to deal with switching back and fourth from DHCP to static ips. and lastly but absolutly most important. i would like this system to act as a NAT.

ok so i know im going to be getting my hands into SAMBA but am not sure if with the situation im aiming for wether it would be best to have it setup as PDC or just another share on the network. my wife is not very technical so the simpler i can make it for her to access shared files the better she is good at remembering passwords so thats not an issue. i think im leaning to PDC setup because i feel it would allow more automation of initating shared resources but i need advise.

alright the next question is what software suite will give me the easiest configuration for NAT services. we play online games and use a pop3 email service. i previously had a proxy server running in WIN 2k and it was a PITA to get most things working properly so i definatly prefer NAT.

and finally lets be honest static ips are a pain if your network changes regularly which mine does. so i would like this system to run DHCP services and have it automatically assign this system as the network default gateway.

so now that you know where im comming from here, the questions are What mode in Samba will work best for my network PDC or non domain, what software packages are recommended for the easiest configuration but reliable NAT and DHCP services. and do you have links to any guides that are easy to understand to configuring these services.

Do you REALLY need it to be a single unit doing all of that???

simply put yes. none of these tasks are particularly taxing unless there are alot of users loging and accessing resources but since this is only for my home network it would not be an issue. doesnt have to be a sinlge aplication but all has to run on the same computer

Dhcp is really easy to setup and configure. You can get it from your distro (dhcpd) or get the source from isc.org. Samba has a web interface SWAT for its administration, which makes the configuration a litte easier. You can setup the shares to only show for specific users or groups on a non domain, unless you want everybody to authenticate through your domain (which can be an overkill, and little bit difficult in my imo). Setting rules with iptables is what I've done in the past for nat, but currently using smoothwall.

I'd use only network shares. No real need for a PDC. As for NAT and DHCP: any common distro can do NAT easiy and most/all of them come with dnsmasq.

Just set up samba so no one from the internet side can access it.

alright, and anyone have links to fairly decent howto on any of the packages. all the ones ive read on samba have ben long winded or to brief and were designed only to show you how to setup 1 mans network. i hear samba with DHCP is kinda a pita although the server is going to be at a static ip. also i know with windows how i can get it to automaticly mount a network drive. but is there a way to do this in linux as well?

just add more users with smbpasswd and samba works for more than 1 person. For mounting a samba drive automatically in Linux: man fstab

filesystem type is smbfs.

thanks for that, oddly enough i got a faster reply on here than i did on both the linux forums that im a member of... anyways ill keep that in mind. because as i said the more automated the process is the better. id like to limit it to only 1 password so as to minimize the hell to get online and such but well see what happens. once i get this rolling its going to make my network so much nicer.