LocalHost webserver: Homer v1.4

Written by funkytoad

Updated 1-26-2008

What the Heck is Homer? -Like all Funkytoad software, Homer is super small speedy freeware, never spyware, Ultra-grooveware.
Ok, really, Homer is a LocalHost webserver.

Homer listens to IP address 127.0.0.1 on port 80 for Http requests
and serves up an image of your choice to your webbrowser.
If you block Ads with a gigantic Hosts file - Homer is for you i.e. Homer can dramatically improve the speed of your browsing experience.

General Notes on Using Homer:

• There is no install/uninstall for homer. Simply Put Homer It's its own directory with the file structure included in the downloaded zip file.
• Images which Homer can serve to your browser are located in a directory named "Images".
  "Images" is a subdirectory of where homer.exe resides on your harddrive.
• -When you start Homer it will attempt to bind to IP address 127.0.0.1, your "localhost". There it will listen for requests made by your Webbrowser.
  The highlighted image name is what Homer will serve to your browser.
• Under the "File" menu item is "Refresh imagelist" and "Exit". Refresh imagelist- updates the list of images in the Subdirectory "Images". Homer will serve gif, jpg, png file types.
• Under "Server" you can enable / disable Homer.Under "Hit Log" - you can have Homer log what site requested information (the referer) and what the site requested.
  Essentially - what Item was blocked by your hosts file. Just select "Log to Screen"
  You can export the hit log to file by clicking "Export HitLog" which will open the log in Notepad so you can save it or discard it as you like. You may also "Clear Hit Log".
• Homer minimizes to your Systray and has a menu available there. Right click on the Icon to access the menu.
• Homer can be Hidden completely, from the file menu or the systray menu.
  Homer can then be closed via your task manager if need be ("end process"), or can be restored by entering "127.0.0.1/showhomer" into your web browser.
  *Note that if you try 1127.0.0.1/showhomer multiple times you will have to refresh your browser to actually get the message to Homer.
  Of course simply shutting down your computer will close Homer gracefully.
• Homer has two command line options available - which you can add to a shortcut:
  "l" = Start Homer with Logging enabled
  "m" = Start Homer minimized to the system tray area.
  So a short-cut "target" would look like this: “C\path_of_Homer_directory\Homer.exe” l m
  (yep the l and m go outside the quotes). Go ahead, drop the short-cuy into your start-up folder.
  
• Homer does not come with a help file. Don't be froggy! Just hit the little PDF button at the top right of this page and make yourself a pdf for your reference.
• You can control which image appears when a web page is blocked by prefixing a "+" character to the image filename in the \images folder.  
  For example: Change "red-bar.png" to "+red-bar.png" to use that image.
  

Click Here to download Homer

(+/- 288kb)