[seul-edu] Linux computer lab

[Greg <gfischer4@mediaone.net>]

I'm helping my mom, a teacher in a Detroit-area school system, set up and run 
a network of about 25 linux machines.  She's teaching C++ (and eventually 
Java next year), and Linux looked attractive because it's A) free.  B) 
stable. C) fast. D) runs well on old hardware.  

This year, we installed Mandrake 7.1 and it worked reasonably well.  RPMs are 
an administrative nightmare (in my opinion), so I'm going to switch to Debian 
2.2 this summer.  My brother set up the networking infrastructure at the 
beginning of the school year and I'm a little hazy on the details.  I know 
it's rather complicated and doesn't function quite the way we'd like it to.  
I have been charged with the task of finding a simple, effective replacement.

I'd like all of the home directories to be stored on a central server so that 
each student can access his/her data from any of the other 24 terminals.  
Ideally, it would automatically mount the directories when they log in, and 
unmount on logout.  However, I'd rather not have unencrypted passwords flying 
over our network, so some form of encryption would be desired.

I've heard that NIS works well, but does not support encryption (easily).  
Does anyone else know of a good, simple solution?  Thanks.

--Greg