Automatic startup, automatic logon

[Barrie]

Hi all, this is my first post and i'm asking all kinds of newbie questions right away..

1. Is it possible to have an automatic startup, with an automatic logon and all services/programs start automaticly without having a keyboard/mouse/screen connected to the computer?

I would like to know this because i would like to run a fileserver at home, without a keyboard/mouse/computer screen, which i can manually turn on and then connect to it via a remote (like ssh or a VNC).

Is this possible? And under which distro? Can i find a bit more info about this topic?

Thanks, Barrie