Small Office Network Setup

[kt49809]

I am setting up a small (very small) office network primarily for application sharing and file sharing, as well as printer sharing between three PC's and a laptop - two are running Windows XP and two are using Windows 98. At this point there is no internet connection required, but may be necessary in the future. I expect all to be wired connections, as they are all close to each other - total cable length is not likely to excede 50' for any single machine. This is a small business and costs must be kept to a minimum. Can anyone offer simple suggestions?

[gunrunnerjohn]

Buy an 8 port switch (allows for a little expansion) for about $25, four cables for about $5-10/ea, and connect them up. If you don't have NIC's in some of the machines, that will set you back about $10-15/ea for decent 10/100 NICs.