One more thought re servers: if you are truly stuck on W98.2, I would (personal experience: anecdotal, non evidentiary) commend (first) Apache or (second) Xitami. And -- not merely anecdotal -- clean and defrag your registry. I'm of the school that holds that occurances of BSODs increase rapidly as W98 reg becomes more complex.

If you're working on your own machine, you'll have a great deal more freedom to create a useful environment than is likely if you're in thrall to the self-annointed "high priests" who reign in too many IT departments. If so, and your CS background gave you any Linux knowledge, then prior recommendations to use it should be considered. Takes a lot less oomph in the hardware department to do equivalent tasks!

welcome aboard!