I have built a Linux machine in my home using Mepis Linux and I'm running Apache on it.
I want to use Apache on my machine and use it as testing area for web pages and other applications.
I use a cable modem to connect to the internet. The Linux box is connected to a router, which connects to the modem.
My cable internet provider forbids people using their regular home line to hook up a web server and serve pages.
All I want to do is test pages, not serve them to the rest of the Internet.
What do I do to run Apache on my Linux box, but make sure that on I can see it in my home and not accidently turn my machine into a server that the whole world can see or peek into?
Thanks! 
try modify
listen xx.xx.xx.xx
in httpd.conf
and bind it to the local adress, not to the interface opened by the modem connection. So your provider won't see it.
HTH
Samuel
well since your router will be doing nat for you more than likely, then your linux box should have an internal ip address. So unless you forward the correct port on the router to the linux box, then no one should be able to see it. This is all assuming that you have an internal ip and your router is doing nat for you
i recently read a thing you posted on bboard.scifi.com and you said they discoverd a semi- aquatic antelope and gave its scientific name cetaformia anthalopus and that dosent exisit at all! that its remains were at berkeley museum of natural history and they have never heard of it. oh yea Dr. J. walden pond is not a person and defiently not a doctor and Khymer rouge dosent exist either also there is no Director of special collections named Dr. Stephanie Alderton. so you are a bull shiter and i hate you