LemonMan- I noticed you put you would like to build a network on your PC. When you said PC did you mean your personal linux computer or PC as in a Windows machine?

If you have are running Windows machines setting up a local shared network amongst your house is as simple as the steps below:

1) Be sure that your main system is setup to share files.

2) Be sure that all the computers (at home I'm guessing or small business) are on the same network (same router)

3) Login to one of the machines that you would like to connect to the main shared PC.

4) Navigate to my computer/work group/ Right click- on 'Map network Drive' (Map Network Drive - How to Map a Network Drive in Windows XP Using Windows Explorer -Some other instructions via google)
5) Once you have mapped the PC to your shared PC just repeat these steps on all of the following machines.

TIP!! You can even do this with external devices on your main machine to be shared. As opposed to buying a networked External HD.

Just some thoughts for you, I hope this helps you in some way. There is also plenty of detailed information on this topic throughout the web. Once you walk through the steps once you should on good terms with the way the system is setup.