Greetings Friends,

I am posting this to PCBUILD and PCSOFT as my questions
involve both groups.

I manage a medical supply company in Johannesburg - South
Africa which currently has 6 stand-alone P.C.'s, (all old
486 machines).

I want to upgrade all the P.C.'s to 200 MHz Pentium machines

and install an 8 station  NETWORK.

I have no problems installing and configuring individual
computers but my knowledge on networks is not so good.

My question to you is this.....  What sort of network should

I install ??  I would like to go for the most reliable
system while keeping a sharp eye on the costs involved.

On the software side, I would like to know what System you
recommend (Win95 or Win NT or MS BackOffice etc.).

The programs we are currently running are:  WordPerfect v6.1

and QuattroPro v6.0, dBase 2 and 3,   Ascent (a DOS based
accounting package) and Netscape v4.0.

Soon I want to upgrade our antiquated programs (dBase and
Ascent) to Windows packages.
(any suggestions for a good Accounting program that can
handle 2,000 Stock line items, Invoices, Credit notes,
Statements etc. ??).

I have read quite a few articles and books on the subject of

Networks (Networking for Dummies was quite good) but none of

them really give any advice, they stick to explaining the
various "in's and out's" only.

Sorry about the long posting, but I have to do this "right
the first time" and the advice I get on a majority basis is
going to be used.

Many thanks,

Errol Lishman. CPO
========================================