HOW TO BUILD A STANDARD NETWORKED WIN32 PERL

Start with a PC with MSVC installed, preferably 6.0 or above.
Create a share on the appropriate server, e.g. "\\fileserver\perl", and make sure it's writeable by you. This is where the network perl will be served from.
Go to the ActiveState web site and download the latest Perl-Win32 SOURCE archive.
Install the SOURCE archive to your preferred build area, preferably on a local disk.
Edit the WIN32/Makefile there and:
1. Comment out the INST_DRV macro setting.
2. Set the INST_TOP to point to your new perl share
The result should look like this:
## INST_DRV = x:
INST_TOP = \\fileserver\perl

The value of INST_TOP may use forward or backward slashes as you prefer.
Fire up a cmd.exe window and cd to the WIN32 subdir containing the Makefile above.
You may need to run the vcvars32.bat script to set up the MSVC build environment.
Build in the usual way using nmake:
   nmake
   nmake test
   nmake install

This should install a full clean build directly to your UNC path.
Test the result by running "\\fileserver\perl5\bin\perl -V", paying special attention to the value of @INC. That should be all it takes. Of course you may want to add \\fileserver\perl5\bin to your PATH.

You should be able to download and install CPAN modules manually in the usual way. Configuring and using the CPAN module or PPM (the ActiveState install mechanism) is left as an exercise for the reader. Be aware that PPM needs some special config within firewalls.