Setting up small in house network for a small non-profit organization

A very small non-profit has been given 4 used computers. I would like to set up a small in-house network (no internet access) so each computer can see the program that will be installed on one of the computers. I am not sure what OS is on these computers. I took one home to give it access to my home internet.

During initial setup windows is asking "set up for personal use or an organization"? Which should I choose? Looking at the original specs it came with Windows 7, but who knows if it the OS has been updated. It must be a PRO, OS to get this initial setup message.

I'm thinking I need to set it up for a network. Can anybody get me started?

But to start would I option the new/used computer for personal or organization?

smalltown said:

But to start would I option the new/used computer for personal or organization?

Personal.

'Organization' assumes the use of a centralised system with client computers authenticating individual user accounts to a server called a 'domain controller'. You don't need anything as complex as that.

The setup you will be setting up is far simpler but, as @Samuria has already mentioned, you need to think about a router to serve out IP addresses to each PC automatically (and act as a common 'gateway').

From a quick read of the software's 'help', the PC's can all point to one PC running the software or the software can be installed on all PC's but pointing to a single PC for the shared data files. Either way, it appears to be 'multi-user' so file locking shouldn't be an issue.

I would get the network setup first with discovery (i.e. being able to 'see' other PCs) and sharing (i.e. 'permissions') all sorted before deciding on what type of software setup to use.

Hope this helps...

RickC Thanks I'll begin with that!

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Bad thunderstorms need to shut down for a while.

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Ok I'm in finally. I found that the desktop had been updated and running Windows 10 Pro. I have installed the latest updates.
The system has a 1 terabyte spinner, 8GB of RAM, and an Intel i5-4950 running at 3.3GHz, but the system is really slow.

I'm thinking an SSD should be installed. Not sure if they will opt for an SSD for the C: drive and use the spinner for everything else. But in the meantime I'm in. Think at this point I will check the remaining donated computers to see what I'm dealing with.

Thanks for the help so far. I'll check to see if they have a switch or router to configure them as a network.

smalltown said:

I'll check to see if they have a switch or router to configure them as a network.

Router.

Have a look at this What's the Difference Between Routers, Hubs, and Switches? article. Amongst other things, a router provides a service to give out IP addresses; a switch doesn't.

Hope this helps...

If you set static IP addresses for each computer you don't need a router, just a switch. I recommend that each computer gets it's own non-changing IP address. You can do this by setting static IP addresses on each computer, or by using a reserved IP list on the router and leaving the computers set for DHCP. I do the latter because then I only have to program the router, not each individual computer.