If I was to ask at work for a linux virtual server, to install the BT Server on do I then need a outside domain name to test with? Or would I be able to use a properly formated url that has the required ports forwarded thru the company firewall so my requests get from the app to the server and back correctly. In the near future I may or would get the required Domain/IP setup for long term commercial use. Any flavor of Linux for this better than another? Thanks

I believe it will work off of an IP address. If I am wrong, someone please correct me.

Any linux setup should work. It doesn't use anything fancy. Default insatlls of PHP otta do it. We do expect to hear eventually from folks that learn different but don't know of anything that requires more than the standard stuff included in most installs. IP address should be fine, software doesn't care about the address bar's contents...just so long as the URL is OK it should be fine. When you connect an app to the thing and the app is in the wild the box for sure will need to be exposed to the web because the phone will be making requests to it. It can do this using an IP but the Apache webserver will for sure need to be available to the internet.

Thanks. I appreciate the information. As soon as I can get the boys going on a VM and setup the webserver I will jump in head first.