1. Find a beat up old PC that used to run Windows 98.
> 2. Buy a SATA card and two SATA 160GB HD's for under $250
> 3. Install in system obtained in step 1
> 4. Download Debian Sarge (Or Centos if your tastes run Red Hat)
> 5. If Debian, apt-get install samba
> 6. Setup your Samba shares.
I'm not sure you would even need a server anymore, look into the many small NAS (Network Assisted Storage) boxes out there now. Use the box, hard drives, and connect to the network.
For example, Netgear has the SC-101 for about $120, the box takes one or two IDE hard drives, it can mirror the drives, combine them into one large drive, or just use one drive. The drives can be partitioned if you want, partitions can be shared with the network and password protected if you like.
-- Gary Breuckman