Thanks all for the help. Seems after reading all the suggestions and linux/debian commands you posted I found that not all of the packages installed the first time through (some of the subdirectories are empty and files are missing elsewhere). My paths weren't correct either.
I'm now running dselect and having it install the uninstalled packages and will go from there to copy my files from floppies, navigate within the separate partitions to create the subdirectories and programs I want, and connect my win95 system to my linux system so I can transfer files easily and play multiplayer games against the kids... er test my perl scripts remotely prior to uploading to my domain. =^) After reinstalling the uninstalled packages and getting everything running I'll post the results. Thanks again for all the help!!!!! Andre'