sure but for less than $20 and 2-3 hours, you can master LDAP and be the envy of all the guys in your office and the object of affection for all the ladies.
;-)
kerberos is actually a more secure authentication system because passwords don't continually cross the network.
I do plan to get some books and read up on this some more. Thank you again for all the suggestions. The centos mailing list seems like a good resource with some smart people on it.