I started out trying nfs but the limitation I ran into with nfs was that it doesn;t allow you to mount subdirectories easily, from what I remember you have to expicititly state each subdirectory you want and create a seperate mount point for each subdirectory which seemed like a major pain in the ass.

the client machine is also limitied on space, so ftp isn;t really a good option. Also i don;t want to duplicate the files between machiens.

the server is in one room with a ton of mp3s and movies on it is varying directories and subdirectories. the client machine is in another room and basically I want to be able to play movies and music on the client machine while the files still reside on the server. after installing smbfs on the client machine Samba seems to adeqautely handle that, giving me the ability to mount an entire drive from the server and browse files in all subdirectories of that drive.

unless I missed something with nfs being able to handle subdirecty samba seems to eb what I need.