Is there a Newbies guide to setting up a Web server in Linux available?

I find Red Hat's documentation to be helpful and easy to read. Here is a link to version 9's documents.
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l.../custom-guide/

Here is a link to others versions.
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/

You will also want to read up on security if you are going to put it on the web. My first experience with a public server ended in a successful cracking in less than 2 days.

The basics are:
Never run more than you have to.
Make good secure password (8 plus characters, alpha(upper and lower case, numeric, and special characters).
Only give access to is needed.
Never log in as root and do not allow root to log in.
Update all software to the most current stable version.
Setup a firewall and some sort of intrusion detection system.
Watch your logs religiously.

Some apps to help you out are, tripwire, log watch and snort.

I believe that there are special-purpose distros that are aimed at being "turn-key servers" of this type or another. See, e.g. http://www.distrowatch.com.

hi there,
even not being a step-by-step style i take my hat off for the
APACHE doc.
regards,
slackie1000