It's interesting to see how people go to great lengths in this thread to avoid using features that are either built in Windows or come with a free add-on. I know MOSS isn't free, but it's a pretty decent collaboration and document management platform if you're looking into that. Depending on what you need, WSS might do the job as well and comes with Windows Server 2003 and above. /. is certainly entertaining!

I know I'm rowing against the current, but when something actually does the job, why not mention it, I think the point is to actually help someone resolve a problem here, but I could be wrong. Maybe I should add some MS bashing comments to blend in. :-p

Here's a few options you might want to consider: 1) Use Office SharePoint Server 2007 to index the share 2) Upgrade to Windows Server 2008 (or above) and Windows Vista (or above) and use the Federated search feature: http://trycatch.be/blogs/roggenk/archive/2007/11/05/windows-vista-amp-windows-server-2008-federated-search.aspx