This program is a small and simple web (http) server.
Its purpose is to help you (the user) make some files (html pages, images or
anything else) available to other users which can connect to your computer, for
browsing and downloading, using a normal web browser.
The web server uses a directory (or folder) structure, just like a hard disk, for organizing the files and folders that it serves to users. I will use the term "directory" for the web server and "folder" for the hard disk. By default, the web server has just an empty root directory, so nobody can download anything from you. You can create, rename and delete directories, but unless you attach them to folders, they will contain no files.
Attaching a real folder to a web directory can be done when you create the directory, or anytime after that, by clicking "properties". You will be prompted to type the folder path or select it from the folder tree. Once you attach a folder to a directory, that directory will contain all the files and subfolders of that folder. If you want to put only some of the files and subfolders, then you have to copy or move them to another folder, and attach that folder instead.
What will the users see when they access your web server? If they access a directory on your server, then they will normally see the listing of the directory contents, automatically generated by the server, with links to files, subdirectories and the parent directory (if available). Also, if that directory has subdirectories, then they will be included in the listing if they are marked visible (in the properties), otherwise they will not be included.
How can you display an HTML page (or other file) instead of the generated listing? That can be done by setting the default document name in the options window (the default name is index.html), and creating a file with that name in the desired directory. The web server will look for the default document first, and if it finds it, it sends this file instead of generating the directory listing.
How can other people access your web server? They should enter
the address of your computer in their web browser, and also the port, if it is
different from 80. You can find your computer's address(es) from the
addresses window; it will also show where they can be accessed from. You
can usually trust the IP addresses; the named addresses depend on your
configuration.
Example: if one of your addresses is 192.129.3.11 and the port is 8000, then
the users should type:
http://192.129.3.11:8000/
in their browser (for accessing your root directory).
Your computer may not be accessible from the internet, (even if you have internet aceess), if you don't have a routable IP address or if you are behind a firewall. For making it accessible, you have to talk to your network administrator or ISP.
If you are connected to the internet, and my web server is up, then you can check if you have the latest version of CosmicServer by clicking the "check version" button in the about window.