done dns done dhcp done appletalk etc windows linux mac etc but have never messed with novel are there any advantages to it over the others?

Sure, no Windows screw ups, far better up time, and a lot faster (if running on the same hardware). I've used a Pentium 266 Mhz for Novell NetWare 4.11 until early this year, so it works fine. Version 5 and up have a far better support for IP. Regards, Rob.

I recently got to lay with a Novell Netware 3.11, it is old and was used as a simple, humble, file server, but it was running stable and fast. To my surprise the box is a 386 with 8 Mb ram and 800 HD, and it was really nice to see a OS doing what it is suposed to do with such a small footprint on hardware.

Very true about the hardware requirements! My server is a pentium 150mhz, 128meg ram and it runs netware 4.11 flawlessly (knock on wood). It acts as a file/print server for 13 users and averages about 1-3% cpu utilization.

If you really want to see what Novell can do. Install NetWare 6 and check out iFolder, iPrint (IPP) and iManager. Another thing that Windows' AD can not do, run on NetWare!! But NDS can run on Windows, Linux, on and on and on!! One thing that I have found out about NetWare 6, it likes better hardware than Windows 2K Server and that's a first! Best of luck!

I am attempting to determine the future of NOvell in our environment, with choices being move from 5.0 to 6 or consolidate as much as possible to w2k and implement AD. Am interested in anyones views about this. Multi site, 500 users, ERP, remote access needs

One of the biggest reasons that no one has mentioned is security! After you have installed Netware xx? on your server, only one person has rights to it ( admin ), unlike NT. With Netware if their is a hole, someone put it there. After the install you do not have to immediatly run out and patch it to make it somewhat safe. If you do a search on the Net for security concerns and holes, you will find M$ security problems everywhere. You have to look very hard to find a recent and dangerous hack on a netware server. Ease of administration is wonderfull. Netware has the most robust Directory Service on the market. Last year on one big sun box they created a billion object network and it was stable. Try that on Server 2000 with Active Directory. They have versions of netware for AIX, Linux, OS2 (not supported anymore), NT, Unix. M$ has it for, well it has it for it's self. If you are a big M$ shop, stay with M$. If you have a very disparate network Netware can be a very good choice as it is non OS specific. With version 5.0 you do not need a Native Netware box to run nds anymore. They have nds for NT, Netware, Linux, Unix and AIX. They also support more clients than M$. A problem they have is that they do not understand marketing like Microsoft does.