--=-pkMxaMsH5k3JVUwL7PkV Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable > 1) there are no other realistic options besides > the above 2 for centralized authentication for > users Those are the two that will get you the most extensibility. If you are using filesystems like AFS or CODA they have their own authentication systems (it would seem like you could tie them into an LDAP/NIS solution, but I've never heard of it). But I would say that there are more tools, and it is more common to do LDAP/NIS. Remember with PAM, you could also have someone log into AFS/CODA and NIS/LDAP at the same time, and have the change password command change all their passwords in sync :) PAM sure is cool. I'm a fan of LDAP, but one thing about NIS is that it's got penetration into the market. If you install Solaris, Irix, or AIX (some of the more 'traditional' unicies) you'll find they all have NIS. I have no clue what the LDAP support in those is like. I think Solaris uses PAM now, but I don't know about the others... > Multiple logins Well, that is an issue. You won't have to log into get to network shares, in theory they would be already mounted on the machine you are on (a more traditional Unix way, but (as if I haven't sold PAM enough) there is a PAM module to mount drives as you log in :). As far as logging into other machines you can set up SSH not to require a password on 'trusted' hosts. Basically saying that if you can login into one computer as 'ted' you can log into any on the network. Now that probably doesn't work for non-shell users... Good luck, Ted --=-pkMxaMsH5k3JVUwL7PkV Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name=signature.asc Content-Description: This is a digitally signed message part -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iEUEABECAAYFAj2jjO4ACgkQLE335pRPGp27rQCXcJZLt0jekWy3oaN3kvAA0Gw8 jQCfcvACamI2TyLJHMZJkRAvBudPOLI= =uYKE -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --=-pkMxaMsH5k3JVUwL7PkV--