a good Howto/guide to starting Http or Ftp webserver
 

anyway as far as i can tell Mandriva doesnt include any GUI to configure Webservers so is there a good HOWTO setup a webserver in Linux?
and/or a GUI interface to configure one


i have apache installed
and http is running
/var/www/html exists


that said i have exhausted my knowledge of the subject.

omg there has to be more than
copy a website to /var/www/http

i already have a working website.

P.S any linux IDE for Websites? like dreamweaver
or Frontpage *shudders*

Open Office seems to do just individual Html files

As far as I know, apache will look for it's files in the following locations:
/var/www/htdocs
/usr/local/apache2/htdocs

Unless Mandrivia calls it html, in which case it will be either:
/var/www/html
/usr/local/apache2/html

If /var/www/html exists, it may well be using that as the Document Root.
I'm not sure on that though - I use Slackware, which calls it htdocs.

Anyway, once apache is running, it will serve any files put in it's Document Root.
So yes, it is nothing more than copying a website to that directory and starting apache.
As root, start it with:
apachectl start

Which should fire it up on your machine on port 80, which you can check by going to http://localhost and seeing what happens.
You can configure apache by editing the httpd.conf file, but you should consult the manual for that.

As for website IDE, I use the Mozilla Composer tool which you can get to from the menus in Mozilla itself.

yep all i have to do is copy files to
/var/www/html

i can access the server from within my local area network however am having inbound router issues.

I havent tried it, but i think Quanta is suppose to a very good program to create website with. Anway, when it comes to apache you usually dont have to configure anything, but its nice to have a little control itsnt it? :)