Non Ordered Text Server Automatic Text to HTML server

guerrillaware -- guerrilla or guerilla -- 1. A member of an irregular, usually indigenous military or paramilitary unit operating in small bands in occupied territory to harass and undermine the enemy, as by surprise raids.

This is a pre-release version of NOTServe.EXE -- a Windows-based non-ordered text server which converts text files to HTML on-the-fly as they're requested.

The program is designed to be small but has a number of features which makes it unique:

• The server is intended to be run from temporary locations such as Internet coffee shops, Universities, High Schools, libraries, and other locations where one can find free or inexpensive Internet access. The server can be copied to a local hard drive and then launched after which it can be configured to announce its existence in up to three Newsgroups. The announcement offers the server's IP address and the socket numbers it's listening on.

  Of course the server may be run from one's own dial-up dynamic IP address or even one's statically-assigned IP address.

• The final release version of NOTServer will have a second mode of operation called "bundled" which will consist of a single EXEcutable module bundled together with the program's configuration and text files it's told to serve up. This will make the whole project fit on a single floppy so that one can copy just one file, launch the server, and the server will know to go into itself to extract and serve the text files it contains.

• When a client web browser connects to NOTServer, a default web page is offered which lists the text files that the server is offering. Optionally the default text file list can be prefaced with the contents of a text file containing anything one wants.

• There's an option for requiring a password to be provided on the URL when accessing NOTServer in the event one wants to be able to limit who has access to the text files.

• If the server is brought down nicely, it will announce its death in the Newsgroups it previously announced its existence in.

• One tells NOTServer what to do using a single text-based configuration file. One may list the text files to serve up by offering individual file names, the names of whole directories, or path and names using wildcards.

• The source code is available from the link above though the project is in flux and this web site will need to be the official location for actual releases. The project was written using Borland Turbo C++, is well commented, and was designed to be extremely easy to understand so that it would be extremely easy to alter for other people to create spin-off projects which do much the same thing.

But the primary reasons for this project shouldn't require much imagination on where it could be useful. Some possible uses:

• Freedom of speech and the right to privacy within the United States is at what may be an all-time low in America's history thanks to the domestic and foreign policies of George W. Bush.

  The Bush Administration has systematically shredded the safeguards described by the U. S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the threat of another Totalitarian Reich running the United States is not beyond the realm of possibilities. (See Bush Watch or GWBush.COM for background and the latest news.)

• Animal rights activists, Earth centered activists, and other ecology-oriented activists could use this project to anonymously serve up text files that are suppressed by Federal agencies. Any series of text files that Federal law enforcement agencies suppress unlawfully and unconstitutionally can be disseminated with some degree of covert use using NOTServer.

• Criminal or abusive companies which abuse the court system to silence consumer advocacy can be mitigated by placing NOTServers to serve up company criticism. Whether it's pyramid scams that avoid prosecution by contriving themselves as "multi level marketing," or fast food franchises that raze rain forests to graze cattle in third-world nations, consumer advocacy has resulted in companies abusing the court system to silence the truth about their activities and perhaps NOTServer can help there.

The primary goal is for citizens to lawfully engage in their Constitutionally protected freedom of speech by helping them to lawfully disseminate oppressed or suppressed information. The NOTServer project isn't intended to be used to violate people's copyrights and some steps have been taken in the design of the project to mitigate against such abuses. (Primary of which is the fact that binary files can not be served ergo music or pornography can not be served up easily.)

I can't think of any ways NOTServer can be easily abused but if someone else can, obviously I don't assume any responsibility for the misuse or abuse of my software. In fact if you can think of a way this could be misused or abused, please let me know so I can see if I can spackle in the hole to fix it.

If you wish to be informed about updates to this project, please write to me at the address offered below. If you have suggestions to make about the project, please write and I will see if they can be added or -- if you've found a problem -- if I can fix it.

The program is very simple and the instructions for how it's used can be found in the NotServe.CFG configuration file which you'll have to modify to meet your needs.