[ Thanks to Donncha O Caoimh for
this link. ]
“This document describes how to configure your Unix boxes to
authenticate off one server on your network and get the home
directories for users from a central location….“
“In any network people have to login with a username and
password to gain access to any resources. In a network of more than
2 machines it becomes more and more difficult to keep track of
usernames, passwords and home directories as more people join the
network. Wouldn’t it be handy to have one central location where
all the machines can find this information and ease the
administrators job?”
“This is where NIS comes into play. NIS stands for Network
Information Services and is a protocol defined by Sun a long time
ago and developed over the years.”