This is a problem for me, too. I can't really speak to the indexing thing, since I just use directories on all the machines.

I've "solved" the problem procedurally. I have one "master server" that is a Linux box. It can share, but mostly I use FTP to get things to/from it. I have a single machine (a windows desktop, actually), that is the *only* machine that *uploads* to the server. It is my ripping machine and how I get new stuff on the master server. Before any mp3 can be played, it must be uploaded to the server. I keep two directories on the ripping machine "new rips" and "music". "music" has stuff that is already on the server.

All my other computers get their mp3s by downloading from the server or using a share from the server.

It doesn't solve your indexing problem, but it prevents synchronization issues on the collection and makes sure you have a single master location for all the discs.

As an aside, I love the linux mp3 server. I'm using software raid on 3x160GB disk drives. It is an old P133 that I got for free and put a 10/100 nic and 3 drives in it. It works beautifully. I can play music on it using an awesome console player called mp3blaster and it still has enough guts to handle upload/download without skipping. I'm sure I could load it down with multiple users and make it skip, but maybe not. It's a pretty good solution. I just upgraded my home PC so I'm going to be migrating the server to that board, which is a P3/866 -- way overkill. It's not been a priority because the P133 works so well. Sub-second response time on key presses accessing a 300+GB mp3 collection using a 32MB/133MHz system! Let's see windows do that!

Jim