COMPULINK 3300 Overland Avenue, Suite 201 § Los Angeles, California 90034 § 310 × 204 × 5121 

 

  • Below is a list of the types of equipment and services you might need to set up a Novell Netware network, along with approximate prices. The equipment listed is typical but not absolute. For example, a 1GB hard disk is listed for the file server but a 500MB hard drive could easily be big enough, but if you want to store thousands of pictures you may need 2GB. Likewise, the specifications of all of the other components are not fixed and the prices are just approximate figures.
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     Equipment Price
    Dedicated fileserver computer. 486DX or Pentium with PCI BUS. 16MB or more RAM. SCSI 1GB hard disk. Monochrome monitor. High quality PCI network adapter (SMC, Intel or 3COM). A dedicated fileserver cannot be used as a workstation where you can run any programs; it just supplies data to the workstations. The chip does not have to particularly fast for a dedicated file server, but a good fast hard drive, sufficient RAM, PCI bus and a fast network adapter are important. 1500-2500
    Novell Netware 3.12 or 4.1 (5-user license) 400—700
    Workstation computers. 486DX/4-100MHz or Pentium 133MHz. 8MB RAM, small (400MB-ish) Hard disk. Workstations without hard drives are not recommended. Color 15" monitor. Good Network adapter (eg. SMC, Intel or 3COM.) One workstation computer is needed for each place you want to have a computer. If you expect to use Windows at the workstations, then Windows usually requires 16MB of RAM to run properly. 1500—2500ea
    Old workstations. For a few tasks you might find that your old 286 or 386 computer will be fast enough. For example, logging in merchandise and printing price tags, looking up inventory prices does not require great speed. A good network card should be installed  
    Network Cabling — installed (per workstation and server) 40—100 ea
    Novell Netware installation and computer equipment setup, testing & instruction 600—2000
    UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply — battery backup) for Fileserver 200-400
    UPS for each workstation — recommended 100—150 ea
    Dot Matrix Printer for POS receipts (80-column or 40-column) 175-500 ea
    Cash Drawer (optional) can be shared or can have one per POS terminal 250—500 ea

     

  • Note that a network configured with Novell Netware is the best and recommended network even for small business. (i.e. even small businesses would like to have a fast and reliable network.) However, for budget reasons, some Jewelry Shopkeeper users start by using a Windows 95 network because they do not require the dedicated fileserver listed above. Also, Windows 95 is often included in the price of a computer. Also the installation charges may be less than those for Netware. If you do start with Windows 95 we recommend that you plan to eventually upgrade to Netware, because Windows 95 cannot match the reliability and speed of Netware and it is relatively new and has not been as thoroughly tested and debugged as Netware which has been out for over a decade. NT is not yet recommended.
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