Multiple Users - Permissions strangeness - Best setup?

[apinfo]

Hello -

I have a studio with 5 systems (G4 and up) and about 10 users.

I need :

1. a good, efficient way to administer/backup/cleanup these systems from my own desktop

2. a way to setup multiple users who can login and save files to their own documents folder. Then I as the administrator need to have access to their folders and files so I can move/check them or back them up.

Problem with 2 is :

I have used the Accounts system pref pane to setup the various names and passwords - but permissions seem to have gone haywire. No one can save to their documents folder and we end up dumping files and folders on the main hard drive just to put it 'somewhere' - this means I am spending lots of time after the fact cleaning things up and putting things back where they belong.

Permissions weirdness also seems to be affecting things like our 3-button mice (one on each machine) which need some specific preferences set. We set the preferences for the mouse inside of one user and all the others get screwed up - or, we uninstall the mouse software altogether and mouse preferences still get corrupted inside of other users.

Have tried repair permissions, etc - what is the best procedure for achieving an efficient multiple users scenario ?

Thank you-

 

[apinfo]

Guess I should have mentioned -

Systems are running 10.3.7 and 10.3.8

2 G4 DP
1 G4
1 G5 DP
1 PB G4

 

[DeltaMac]

some of this is training the users to work in a way that helps you

But, in regards to permissions, I think you need to be sure that all users own the files in their user folders. the Repair Permissions does not descend into the user folders.
You can do this pretty quickly with this terminal command
sudo chown -R username /Users/username
Of course, change username to reflect the actual user account name.
Running this command requires the administrator password, and then will return to the prompt. Then you can run this for each user installed on that system.
This could fix some user issues, but some preferences seem to like to be written to only one account, I think. But hope this helps somewhat.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Two words, an acronym and a roman numeral: Mac OS X Server. It will be the savior to all your multiple-user madness.