> ----- Original Message -----
> From: jose sanchez

> I've always had many problems installing two NICs on a Linux machine.

I've only had trouble with this when the NICs were older ISA cards that
needed a DOS utility to set them up.  I would hard-set both cards,
especially for a server.

There is a Linux Hardware Compatibility database somewhere, I'm sorry I
don't have the URL.

While I've mostly used 3COM cards because they were what I had, the
reviewers at The Duke of URL (www.thedukeofurl.org) prefer Intel based
cards, and they aren't alone in declaring the 3COMs to be performance dogs.

As far as using Linux/Apache for a web server, HTTP is supposed to be
platform independent.  There are "features" you can use on a MSIIS based
server with MSIE browsers, but there are ways to achieve most of the effects
with Apache based tools instead, and they'll work on more platforms.

You don't even need a fixed IP address for a web server if you have dynamic
DNS.  Most public web servers are virtual nodes anyway, which may be dynamic
load sharing clusters or multihomed aliases on a single box.

  (There are ways around needing fixed IP's for just about every type of
host I can think of...)