
			WN -- a server for HTTP
		Version 1.16.0  now available at
		ftp://ftp.acns.nwu.edu/pub/wn/wn-1.16.0.tar.gz


WN is an HTTP server that runs on most common UNIX platforms and is
available at no cost for any use under the terms of the GNU public
license.  There is extensive documentation available.

WN is especially well suited for servers that must also perform 
other tasks.  Both a standalone daemon and a version intended for
use under inetd are provided.  The inetd version is designed to 
minimize the use of system resources and it is appropriate for
moderate or lightly loaded servers which cannot be totally dedicated
to Web serving.

The design of WN emphasizes security and functionality.  It is based
on the use of a small flat database in each directory with information
about the files in that directory.  Fields associated with a file
include its title, and may include keywords, expiration date and any
user defined fields like author or document id.

See an overview at
	<URL:http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/docs/overview.html>

or the entire User's Guide at
	<URL:http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/docs/manual.html>


Features of WN:

	o Stronger Security, based on per directory databases.  Only files
	  with permission in the per directory databases may be served.

	o Conditionally included text in parsed documents and conditional
	  redirects.  See <URL:http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/docs/parse.html#if>.

	o Support for the Range: header enabling the serving of PDF
	  documents using plugins (no byteserver CGI is needed)

	o Support for persistent connections,

	o Support for Host: header, allowing virtual hosts without multiple
          IP addresses for new clients which support this header,

	o Built in support for imagemaps -- easier and more efficient.
	  See <URL:http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/docs/click.html>.

	o Support for multiple virtual homes (different data roots
	  for different IP interfaces).

	o Optional "verbose" log including Referrer and User-Agent,
	  and Cookie, plus a perl script to convert verbose logs to 
	  Common Log Format.

	o A variety of built-in hierarchy searches including title searches,
	  keyword searches, or fielded searches for user defined fields.
	  These can be done across the entire server or any sub-hierarchy.

	o Built-in full text searching of text documents in a single 
	  directory.  This is intended to provide a mechanism for users
	  to search a single logical HTML document which may consist of
	  many files on the server.  No indexing is required (but it is
	  suitable for searching 100 files not 1000).

	o Support for "Keywords:", "Expires:", "Title:" and
	  "Refresh:"  HTTP headers for all files (not just HTML 
	  documents).

	o Secure server side includes and wrappers for HTML documents.

	o Optional per directory access control by hostname or IP address.
	  Support for "Basic" authentication and "Digest" authentication
	  (Digest authentication is still experimental).

	o Filters.  An arbitrary filter may be assigned to any document
	  to process that document on the fly when serving it.

	o Support for the proposed HTTP headers Refresh: and
	  Set-Cookie:/Cookie:

	o CGI 1.1 support for forms, etc.

	o Over 200K of documentation.  See
		http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/docs/manual.html

The features in the list above are all possible without the necessity
of using CGI scripts (except for the CGI support, of course).

WN's functionality was planned with a focus on serving HTML documents.
This means such things as enabling full text searching of a single
logical HTML document which may consist of many files on the server,
or allowing users users to search all titles on the server and obtain
a menu of matching items, or allowing users to download a total
logical document for printing even though the document consists of
many linked files on the server.  All of these are done in a way which
is transparent to the user (and largely transparent to the maintainer!)
The User's Guide at <URL:http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/docs/manual.html>
provides a good example of both of these. But these are only examples of 
many new tools WN makes available to webmasters.

AVAILABLE AT:

	ftp://ftp.acns.nwu.edu/pub/wn/wn-1.16.0.tar.gz

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'majordomo@cyberwerks.com', containing the line

	subscribe wn-maint your.email.address


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