I'm in search of a *simple* file and print server for my home network.

I don't need a gateway, admin for 50 users, DNS, DHCP, RAID or most
other features a "real" server has. Just a data bucket I can plug
into my hub that I can copy data to from a few desktops and plug my
laser printer into as a shared printer.

Something tells me I might be better off just buying an NAS box
from Costco or whatever and be done with it. I thought there
might be a linux solution out there though and I have a PC I
can dedicate to the task but I think I've exceeded my level of
competence on this.

I've tried a number of server distributions but I always run into
the same brick wall with every one, for different reasons. Some
will work for sharing, and some for printing, but I can't seem to
get one to do both. I'm absolutely sure it's something I'm not
setting up right, but beyond what's available to me in the admin
GUI I have no idea where to look or what to change. I don't know
the underpinnings of *nix nor do I have the time or interest to
learn. I was hoping the admin GUI's would abstract me from this but
maybe my expectations are too high.

I'm beginning to think what I really want is just a plain jane
Ubuntu desktop like 10.10 with file sharing enabled and use it
as a server. Except I can't get file sharing to work, so will
have to try adding the apache and whatever other binaries to see
if that fixes it. Maybe it'll be fixed in 11.04?

Before I throw in the towel I'm looking for suggestions of what I
might try to do simple file and print sharing. I'm sure there's
six ways from Sunday to do this in linux if you know what you're
doing, but is there any solution for folks like me that don't?