Hi
Can some one help me please and confirm or point me in the right direction

We have about 5-7 computers

I have set up a small workgroup with an xp pro machine acting as simplified
server.

I not too sure how workgroup authentication works but is there a way via a
piece of software or through login on users on to a local machine to then
authorise through the same user name which appears on the local machine and
the server so they obtain the groups and right off there..
or altenatively have like a script that which the users logon to a local
account on the machine it then go off and grabs all the users and groups on
the so called server copies them local so like a push user managment
situation.

My main aim is to be able to get the security to control the groups for
network apps on the server and the other thing is to map a network drive
which is on the  workstation / server machine...

Can anyone suggest any work arounds apart from buying a server .... we will
look in to a domain solution later but this is short term and keep cost
down.

Many thanks