Ok, bare with me here, its been years since I've needed to network computers together, let alone do it with mixed OSs.

Computers involved

Server = Old HP pavilion running Xubuntu (Ubuntu Breezy with XFCE desktop enviroment)
Main = Modern mid range computer dual booted with Windows XP Pro and Ubuntu Breezy

Ok, what I want to do, is turn a old low end computer into a webhost server where I can work on my site without risking breaking my live site. I want to put a second NIC in my main computer and connect the server directly to my main and use my main as a gateway to the net (I don't have a router and want to keep my main connected directly to the modem).

Now the server is going to need internet access as well since its Ubuntu, that shouldn't be any harder than setting up connection sharing in WinXP, but never done that before in Linux.

My questions are:

On the server I will need Apache, MySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin, and some other stuff, besides that, what will I need to get it to play nicely with my main while its booted into Windows?

How can I give the server internet when my main is booted to linux... pretty sure I remember how to setup my main as a gateway computer when in Windows, but I'm still a linux noob.

Any problems you see with what I'm trying to do? Something not gonna work right? Tips? Comments? I'll take anything right now.

Thanks for any help

try firestarter....nice GNOME program to set up firewalls/gateways.

This is my 101 post! Cant believe it!

What about my question about my server? Is samba the only other thing I will need to setup to get it to communicate with my Windows Box correctly?

If I were you, I would build something like this:

[Modem]<--->[eth0 OLD_HP eth1]<--->[MAIN]

I looked at UBuntu some time ago and was not at all impressed. But, so be it. On the OLD_HP you will need 1) DHCP client for configuration of eth0 NIC, 2) iptables for routine, 3) Samba (CIFS) so windows access is available by MAIN. This way, you only setup one set of firewall rules and can run Linux or WinXP on the MAIN.

The only real issue is the routing rules in the OLD_HP box. You will want to be sure that you have locked down access so that your box is not hacked from the net. Overall however, this is a really simple configuration and should take only a couple of hours to setup.

HTH

Oops, iptables for routing.

Yeah, thats what I've decided to do, I'll be using Xubuntu on my old HP and will be using Firestarter for the firewall and Internet sharing.

Not sure what you mean by routing rules... I'm still kinda linux noob. As far as DHCP for Eth0, Ubuntu pretty much configures all that right off the fly and I have internet access as soon as Ubuntu is installed.