Excuse me if this is a little verbose or unclear and rambling. In that context I am very open to suggestions of an alternative approach to what I am setting out to do also!

The background is that I am setting up a website and have a beta version on a server hosted for me by a friend, but one who does not want to be overly bothered and expects me to take care of business. I will then put the site live on another server hosted commercially (though again hosting is actually controlled by A.N.other and I do not have owner access). I do have sftp access to both, of course.

The site is simple and will be largely html with minimal php for file transfer - you can see it here in beta and here live if relevant.

I would like it to be trouble free in implementation and am considering using a spare PIII latitude C400 laptop (512MB ram) to make a mock up of the server on my own network to test - then save source and replicate target - then go live.

Finally the questions:-

will the server be viable on that hardware?

Is there a simple way to replicate a server-side environment given my access level? (I think this may be the show stopper)

Alternatively can you recommend a way to test file transfer functionality on both platforms? phpmyinfo is unavailable and this all begins from the premise that I need to have an upload button on the site and ensure file transfer will work on both.

Yes - I realise it is a sledgehammer to crack a nut - but if I can make a test server on that laptop it will be a useful resource and I am not averse to the learning curve and would hopefully have a fair chance with tutorials and suchlike.