> 1. I wanted to play around (test develop and teach
> myself)
> some Java Servlets Programming **Locally Without**
> having to configure Apache
> and Linux to work as a Network server. Is this
> possible?

Yes, have it listen on the loopback address/device and just call it with
http://127.0.0.1/

> 2. Can Apache serve .html pages and .jsp pages to a
> local computer even if it is not
>    configured to be on the network?  My idea is to use
> the computer's loopback address
>    to emulate a 'network' setting for Apache, my
> computer and the browswer.  Is this
>    possible?

Same as above.

> 3. If not possible, am i stuck to learn Samba and need
> a 'true' client/server environment
>    with a server and a workstation to develop .jsp
> pages?
> 
> I plan to use Apache, Jakarta Tomcat and MySQL for
> testing and learning.
> I'm currently using Redhat 7.2 and KDE as a desktop
> environment.
> 
> Thanks in advance....
> 
> BTW - any DeVry guys out there?