I am just getting into Linux as I recently got a cheap seconhand laptop I can play around with it on. I am setting it up for various different things mainly just as a learning experience. One of the things that I have done is setup and configure tha Apache web server. I have no intention of hosting an real "live" websites, it is more for me to play around with on my internal network and be able to run perl scripts.

My question is regarding the security of doing this. Basically my thinking is that since I have it behind my router/firewall and have that set to block any requests from the internet I should basically be safe. I have no domain name or anything setup, and it is getting IP addresses dynamically from the router. Also I turn the machine off when I am not using it. Any other thoughts or suggestions on the matter?

A firewall on your machine is always a good idea but for your purposes you should be ok.

If your internal network is entirely wired (i.e., you don't have wireless router that could get compromised) you are actually very secure.