[HLUG] Test web server

[Paul Stenning]

Help!!!

I want to set up a Linux based test web server to help with developing 
PHP/MySQL based sites on the local network only.  It won't be accessible 
on the internet.  I have a spare P4 1.6GHz PC with 512MB of RAM which I 
intend to use for this.

I do not like using the command line so need some sort of desktop/GUI on 
it.  I use phpMyAdmin for managing databases.  I don't mind editing 
config files for Apache but would prefer a graphical management front-end.

The live server is running...

Apache version	1.3.37 (Unix)
PHP version	5.2.1
MySQL version	5.0.45-community

So it would be sensible to use similar versions of PHP and MySQL on the 
test server.

Initially I want to set up two sites on the box, and they must have URLs 
that do NOT include directories.  So I cannot use URLs like 
http://myserver/~site1/ and http://myserver/~site2/ (this is due to how 
the site I am sorting out is currently cobbled together).

I can use http://site1.myserver/ and http://site2.myserver/, or 
http://site1/ and http://site2/, or two IP addresses 
http://192.168.0.100/ and http://192.168.0.101/.  So I need to be able 
to configure the server and Apache to do one of these.  I will probably 
be adding other sites later.

I will be doing the development on a Windows PC.  I want to be able to 
edit the website files directly on the server over the network, so it 
needs to be network shared directories.  I don't want to have to FTP 
every change across.  So presumably I need Samba?

So for starters...

What Linux distro should I use?  I am thinking of one of the Ubuntu 
family but welcome other ideas.

Obviously I need to install Apache, PHP, MySQL and phpMyAdmin.  What 
should I install to get a graphical management thing for Apache 
(preferably web-based)?

What do I need to do to configure the site URLs as above?

What do I need to do to configure Samba or whatever for network shares?

It won't have a monitor etc connected once it is up and running.  How 
can I access a remote desktop or whatever on it from Windows?

All suggestions welcomed!  I will probably be starting this on Sunday.

Thanks,
Paul