Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy, a simple-minded FTP server for Windows

The name of the girl in the picture at the left is also Buffy. That's pretty much the whole connection, but you can find out more about her (if you don't already know) from the "About..." dialog of the program.
Background
I needed an FTP server at work to up/download some things to/from the mainframe I work on. The mainframe's server is slow, so I prefer to use its client with a PC-based server. Problem is, the freeware FTP servers I know of are big and complicated. Fortunately, thanks to Francois Piette's Internet Component Suite, I was able to build a tiny and simple server in just half a day. I call it Buffy.
Program
Buffy.exe This is the only file you really need.
Buffy.zip A faster download if you have a slow line. This is (you guessed it!) Buffy.exe, ZIPped.
Source
BuffySource.zip I said this was Open Source, so here's the source. It's written for Borland Delphi 4.0 but is probably easily portable to other versions.

Included with Buffy's source is the Pete Ness' TTrayIcon component, because I had some trouble digging up a good source for it and you might too.

Not included is Francois Piette's Internet Component Suite, because you can (and probably should) get it fresh from the source, http://www.overbyte.be.

Instructions
You can run Buffy from any directory, either the one you downloaded her to or any other directory of your choice. When you fire her up, you are shown a splash screen and then she minimizes to a tray icon, a red 'B' on a black background which you will see near the bottom right of your screen.

Right-click on the tray icon to bring up the menu. Your options are About, Configure and Exit. The first and last should be self-explanatory.

The Configure dialog asks you to specify:

  • a user ID (any old character string will do)
  • a password (any old character string will do)
  • a directory to upload from/download to on your PC.
Note that all three of these strings are case insensitive. Case doesn't matter in a directory name under Windows, and I find that case sensitive user IDs and passwords just get in my way. Buffy is not meant to be a high-security application. In fact,

Please be aware that, given the User ID and password, Buffy permits fairly easy access to any directory on your PC, not just the one you specified in configuration. Also, Buffy stores your user ID and password in clear text in a file called "Buffy.ini". If you're using Buffy on a small and trusted network, this may be no problem. If you're worried about security, you'll want a different product.

If you're lazy like me, you'll want to start Buffy up automatically from your Autostart folder.

The latest (and probably last) version of Buffy is 1.14, as shown by the "About" dialog. Version 1.13 had occasional issues storing large files, so if you have 1.13 you should update.

License
Buffy is yours for free; do whatever you want with the executable and/or the source code, subject to the following restrictions:
  • THERE'S NO GUARANTEE WHATSOEVER.
  • I welcome bug reports and suggestions by email to: carl@smotricz.com but please don't gripe at me. I'm a geek with a fragile ego.
  • If you change the code to make it something bigger or better, I ask that you send me a copy to look at and maybe to publish for the benefit of others.
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