>Hi Ed, thanks for your response.
>
>1) About Task Manager, nothing stands out today, when it is working a little better after I cleaned up and defragmented disk.
>
>2) About the network:
>10mb Ethernet. Clients: Newtware and MS Networks. File and Print server for MS Networks. Protocols: NetBEUI protocol. NWLink NETBIOS. NWLink IPX/SPX/NetBIOS compatible treansport protocol. I have now disabled TCP/IP per Steve Gibsons suggestion to make a machine safer.

Lots to do here. First and foremost would be upgrading the cable plant. If the cabling in place is Cat 5 grade, I'd recommend replacing all your hubs with 10/100Mbit capable switches. Switches will improve your throughput when there are conversations between multiple, independent systems by letting each connection have the full bandwidth for that link. If some of the cards are 100MBit capable, the switch will connect systems which both allow 100MBit operation at 10x the current rate. Curtrently, the cost of replacing NICs with 100MBit capable NICs from established vendors like Bay Networks (NetGear) and Intel are under $30, and in some cases, under $15 based on quantity discounts and promotional pricing (you have to shop; if I want one this afternoon, I figure that it's going to cost me $20-25 for a NetGear FA310-TX at CompUSA. Non-SNMP switching 10/100 hubs cost anywhere from $20/port on up, depending on features like firewall and router services built into the switch.

If you've got NWLink/NetBIOS, there's no reason to run NetBEUI as well. I disagree with Gibson, but I have a firewall, share an Internet connection and have limits set based on physical machine and user, so I run TCP/IP only. THe fewer protocols used, the less overhead is needed for each packet, and fewer protocols likely will reduce the overall LAN traffic levels.

>3) Is there a generic utility that exercises your machine and gives you an idea if disk is slow, etc? I think Norton used to do it.
>

Ziff-Davis offers a server benchmarking product for around $30.