Managing Bandwidth

Enabling Anonymous Access to a Win32 ServeDat Service

When the ExpeDat server, servedat, is running as a privileged Windows Service, Anonymous User access is disabled by default.  This is a security precaution intended to protect against unauthorized access to your system.

If your system is running on a private network, or you wish to make files available to the public, you may enable anonymous access to the ServeDat service using the following steps.

1. Download and extract the ExpeDat package.
2. Enter the Programs subdirectory.
3. Edit "servedat.cf" using notepad or any other text editor.
   Find the line starting with "#AuthFile".
   Remove the leading # character.
   Save your changes.
4. Run "Install servedat.cf.bat"
   This will overwrite any previously installed servedat.cf file.  If you already have a custom servedat.cf, edit it directly in \WINDOWS\servedat.cf instead.
5. Edit "svpasswd.txt" using notepad or any other text editor.
   Find the line starting with "#ANONYMOUS".
   Remove the leading # character.
   Change the path to the location of the files to be served.
   Delete the "ReadOnly," restriction if desired.
   Save your changes.
6. Run "Install svpasswd.bat"
   This will overwrite any previously installed svpasswd.txt file.  If you already have a custom svpasswd.txt, edit it directly in \WINDOWS\svpasswd.txt instead.
7. Return to the ExpeDat parent directory.
8. Run "Install Servedat.bat"
   This reinstalls and restarts servedat.exe, which will interrupt any ongoing transactions.  If ServeDat is already running, you can also use the Services program in the Administrative Tools control panel to restart it.

For more detailed information about configuring servedat, please refer to the ExpeDat Manual.