[kwlug-disc] (Easy) Linux File Sharing?

[unsolicited]

I want to be able to do in Linux what I can do in windows, easily copy 
files machine to machine.

e.g. cp {from-blah} {to-blah}

Including copy file.txt \\{machine}\c$

i.e. It checks my account credentials there, gives me / (root) access, 
and just lets me get on with my day. (Access as in can type 
'//{machine}/{dir}' - let permissions there determine whether I can 
write anything or not.)

I get that Samba and NFS are out there, but IIRC each requires a 
separate list of accounts / passwords / permissions. It is ludicrous to 
scp things everywhere - no point encrypting over my local network, which 
I entirely control. [rcp is frowned upon due to open-text passwords, and 
I can accept that, but it seems it is encrypt everything (scp) or 
nothing (rcp) - just encrypt the password only and get on with it.]

None of this mount this or that, just let me get on with it. How?
{not -everything- understands / accepts smb://...}

- granted, I'm taking advantage of a 'feature' of windows, if you have 
the same userid / password on two non-domain machines, there is no 
prompt for authentication. I'm OK if on Linux I have to do the same, and 
make sure the uid's are the same.

- don't really want to go through the rigamarole of PAM, just use the 
local passwd files, already - even if I do figure out how to mutually 
replicate PAM between two machines. (Tips welcome.) Even if I had PAM, 
it's not clear to me what syntax to use (everywhere) for 
//machine/dir-hierarchy/filename

I get Windows natively understands smb and Linux doesn't (only some 
things understand smb://) - what does Linux natively understand that 
uses the local passwd file? (From past threads, some just gave up on 
trying to use NFS and just use Samba.)

Suggestions, links?