Mindset for running website on linux
 

Apologizes in advance if this is the wrong forum. I'm seeking advice on how to approach running a website on linux instead of w2k. I have a w2k server I host that I'm running apache, mysql, and php on. This server is 2x600 PIII, 500MB rAM, w/3 8gig scsi hdd's. I also have a dell PIII 500, 1 25gig hdd, and 256MB RAM that I'm considering installing linux 7.3 server on to test how I would manage a website from it. My question is how to approach this in linux? I thought that running Apache on w2k would give me all the security I need and therefore would be ok, but the more I read the posts and get into configuring my site, I'm seeing that all of the tools I need are:
1 - linux based or comes with very little support for windows platform
2 - free and accessible online, but linux based

Being that I host my own server, how do the files get uploaded? Better yet how would I create my files? Are there seperate tools used for creating web pages on the linux platform? What type of performance benefit do I gain? My network is a dsl linksys router, but dhcp and everything is handled on the w2k side. Should I use the linux box as a router instead?
Anyone hosting their own web server(s) care to offer feedback? I guess I basically wanna know how everyone else is doing things?

TIA

I use my linux box as router/NAT box and web server. For the former, install iptables and compile netfilter into the kernel (http://www.netfilter.org/) - using iptables you can do firewalling, NAT, etc. There's lots of documentation out there for setting up routing and firewalling, and dhcp clients (http://www.tldp.org/ is your friend, as is google :) ). For the latter, install apache. You can edit your files 'in situ' at the DocumentRoot specified in httpd.conf, with any text or html editor (http://freshmeat.net probably houses quite a few if you don't know how to write html) - no uploading required unless you choose to edit the files on another machine on your network.

*thinks you probably want more info but leaves it at that for now*

I'm slightly overwhelmed by all of this, but tell me more. As I make my transition to learning more about linux and UNix, I'd like to try and maintain my knowledge across both platforms. Is it possible to set up a linux box to monitor all aspects of security on the existing network, including windowz systems, or do I HAVE to use the linux box as the gateway in order to manage network traffic? What I want to do is set my sencond site up on this linux box and have sites on both platforms. BUT be able to setup a firewall on this linux box, install the necessary security features and be able to manage traffic and access on BOTH platforms. IS this possible. That way I get the best of BOTH worlds.

I'm currently reinstalling my linux server, ver7.3. Afterwards I plan on installing and configuring samba for access to my w2k network.
After this is done and I have access to and from, what's the next step on making this come happen? Or do I have to be realistic and see that there's no in between, it's either linux NAT or windwos NAT...:study:

Umm.

Depends what you mean by "manage network traffic". If you want to do traffic shaping of some sort, afaik this must be done on the router or gateway. Same with security: the (main) firewall must be installed on the interface between local net and outside world.

Having a site on a box on the internal net and being NAT'd by the gateway is probably possible, but you'll have to open up your firewall. I've never done that; I prefer to keep the internal box(es) as invisible as possible.

I'm not too sure what you mean here. Sure, you can set up a firewall on the linux box if it's not the gateway, but the only thing it will be protecting is the linux box.

Yep - how on earth can a box (regardless of OS) NAT traffic unless it's the gateway? You can only have one NAT box :)

disclaimer: afaik these things are true, but I'm fallible :) So go googling for confirmation.

yep googling, some other forums, and plain old common sense kicking finally help me to see the light. I was hoping to avoid having to redo my current gateway setup, which is thru my linksys on a w2k box. I now know what I've always been afraid of, which is that I need to setup a linux box to be used as my firewall & router and run everything thru it. I'm just not willing to give up my w2k network environment and jump to linux.

This is the question I have. On the linksys you have to "publish" the system, or the "IP and port" that's being used, in order for it to be accessed or seen on the internet. I would've thought this would be the way it has to be done in linux, or am I wrong?

Hmm, I've never heard of such "publishing", but I guess you'd need to publish the external IP of the NAT box and the port on the NAT box which is translated to tcp/80 on the internal webserver. The "publishing" should be unrelated to the OS of the webserver, but I have no experience here.