Secured Linux box for Windows access

[Matthew White <jbloggs000 () yahoo com>]

Hello all,
 
Having been a Windows administrator for many years I've finally taken
the plunge and started in earnest to learn about Linux. So far I'm
enjoying it as I've gotten all of the crucially important services to my
test box - games, office apps and Wine. Seriously however I'm really
curious about how to set up a remote data service for my Windows
clients. 
 
Ideally, if I could have my Windows clients to be able to map a drive or
use a UNC share to the Linux box that would be perfect - this way I'd
not have to greatly retrain them.
 
The difficult parts are that I'll need the server to accessible over the
Internet, for it to be Open Source or low cost and to be able to
administer the box remotely also.
 
 
Here's what I've picked up so far:
I need a form of encryption and preferably a form of authentication.
* On the server I think I need: Linux, Samba, OpenVPN server (or similar
VPN server), Webmin (and therefore Apache).
* On the client I need OpenVPN client (or other VPN client).
Authentication, however, I don't know what to choose.
 
 
Q. I'm using Mandrake and finding it easy to use. Generally though I'm
the one telling people that Security is inversely proportional to
Convenience so I wonder if the ease of use with Mandrake comes at the
price of being less secure. If so is there a better flavour of Linux to
use? (eg I've heard of Trustix but know almost nothing about it).
 
Q. Would it be feasible / recommended to only store PGP/GPG files on
this datastore location as it is just sitting out there on the net and
not under daily scrutiny like my client machines, or is there some flaw
in my strategy that makes this just misplaced paranoia?
 
Q. What sort of protective logging can I do for it? Is it wise to have
it notify me of possible security abnormalities? If so what products
would you suggest?


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