Ok I've figured most everything I needed to know out from trolling the forum and experimentation - gasp!

Only thing is that mysql databases I make for development can't be saved, or I can't see how, if I jsut put them on the desktop and reinsert them next boot up then they don't link properly. Anyway that's cool. I'll get an old box from the other room and set it up on my lan as a local web server for development work now I'm a bit more confident.

Although nobody replied to this post with advice I thank those who read it with interest for taking the time.

http://www.nortypig.com
http://www.blog.nortypig.com