A symbolic method based on Mason's rule is used to handle the matrix form of linear networks automatically on PCs. In addition to the usual applications of this technique in educational and research fields, the results are used to check a symbolic matrix inversion program. For illustration purposes, the article considers an electric linear network which finally leads to the solution of a (6 × 6) matrix problem. In this article, all computations are performed with Form, a symbolic mathematical package able to deal with giant expressions with millions of terms. In particular, complex circuits can be analyzed on small platforms such as PCs. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 5: 189–197, 1997