I have a client running a couple of line-of-business VFP apps on a LAN. The LAN workstations are a mix of various Windows OSs but the backend is strictly Samba on Linux.

They want to allow remote (Internet) users with just browsers to be able to query the VFP data - sort of like getting waybill status updates from FedEx or UPS.

With my practically nonexistent Web dev background I envisage creating a VFP7 app to generate query responses. The company is willing to provide a W2K box (even W2K Server if necessary) to run this app plus any other services that might be needed - even IIS and/or WC, if needed.

The only hitch is they don't want to expose an IIS/W2K server to the Internet. They would rather use a Web server on Linux (probably Apache). They are security paranoid, and Linux is what they know, they don't know MS server offerings - how to set up, secure, etc.

Is there a solution that would work in this situation? Possibly relaying IIS output through Apache, or some other approach?

Failing that, a compelling reason for them to use IIS rather than Linux/Apache?