VM,
Yes, I do have to laugh at (or is that with) Brian. I agree with everyone here. If you decided to go with a true client/server setup, then get a good server and a server OS at that time. Remember, a good server or what people generally refer to as a server is the hardware that is made to run hardware for a server and the OS which is an OS made for a server such as Windows Server 2003, etc.
A pure peer-to-peer does not have clients and servers but rather equal nodes where each node acts like a "client" and a "server" simulataenously and, thus, the network can gain more bandwidth with each new node.
It's fun for computer people to live vicariously through others, so if you asked me for the absolutely best way to set up your system, I could spend a lot of your money. But, after reading through everything, probably the best thing to do would be to have your modem, a good wireless router/firewall and let your two computers connect through that. If you can run wired, then that's always better, but you would want to make that decision now as you see adding more computers in the future. You can make wireless very secure, but it will never be as secure as wired, period. Nor as fast, at the moment, anyway.
Do you already have your two laptops? Is there a reason you are using laptops for both the front office and the room? Again, I wouldn't take the computer out of the office unless you will be using it at nursing homes, etc. Desktops are cheaper and easier to make faster since they are cheaper.
And, yes, I agree with Vinny, put the database on the exam room computer since the speed will serve you more.
I wouldn't really get into RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, etc. unless you go with a full blown server and server OS. I don't believe XP Pro can even run a RAID 1. It can run a RAID 0. If you go with RAID, you will need more hard drives, they would have to be the same, you would need either a software raid controller or, preferably a hardware raid controller. My guess is this would be getting way too far out there.
Hope this helps.
