Shepherd includes the following features:

• Directory-based configuration (Shepherd Directory Services)
• Interchangeable Directory Service Providers (DSP)
• Ability to run multiple servers from a single directory
• User configurable cache
• Dynamic thread pool for the ultimate TCP/IP server performance
• Remote and local command line interface
• Ability to start and stop individual Services while the system continues to run
• Remote and local reboot function
• Remote and local task viewer
• Remote and local kill
• User configurable log file locations
• Remote and local log file viewing, rotating, and/or truncating
• Single file, high performance database engine for storing directory data
• Set and change individual Service priorities
• Top-down access control mechanism
• Group-based administration capabilities
• Rights filters for blocking rights assigned higher in the directory tree
• IP address access control
• Remote Administration GUI (Java)
• Requires no rebooting
• Remote Connection Monitoring

Shepherd Services currently available include:

Shepherd.Admin

The remote command line interface is included with the Shepherd Engine and can be used for either telnet administration or administration with the remote administration GUI.

Shepherd.Chat

Shepherd.Chat provides a high performance proprietary chat system and is fully compatible with j-Chat. Shepherd.Chat is perfect for those needing to supercharge chat room performance if they happen to outgrow the Java j-Chat Server and has several features not available in j-Chat including:

• Allow users to observe chats but not participate in them (read only access).
• Add users while Shepherd.Chat continues to run.
• Allow a moderator to kick users off of a chat room using a special chat client (soon to be released).
• And more...

Shepherd.POP3

Shepherd.POP3 is an RFC 1939 compliant Post Office Protocol - Version 3 implementation. Combined with Shepherd.SMTP, Shepherd can be made into a high performance, extremely flexible mail server. Features of Shepherd.POP3 include:

• Virtual host support with or without unique IP addresses.
• Detailed session logging.
• APOP authentication.
• Mailbox storage specified on a per-user basis for more exact storage management.
• Limits to mailbox size.
• XTND XMIT support for using authenticated POP3 sessions to relay mail instead of an SMTP server.

Shepherd.SMTP

Shepherd.SMTP implements an RFC 821 compliant Simple Mail Transfer Protocol message transfer agent. Combined with Shepherd.POP3, Shepherd can be made into a high performance, extremely flexible mail server. Features of Shepherd.SMTP include:

• Virtual host support with or without unique IP addresses.
• Ability to enable or disable relaying.
• Configuration of the maximum number of relay connections active at any one time (messages are queued when relay connections are unavailable).
• Ability to limit the size of messages.
• Extensible local delivery through the use of a dynamically loaded DLLs. Local delivery can be configured on a per-user basis allowing a combination of local mail servers to be used. Shepherd.POP3 includes its own local delivery DLL to work with Shepherd.SMTP.
• Ability to turn on or off reverse DNS lookups.
• Configurable queue check frequency.
• Configurable queue timeout duration specified in days.
• Configurable queue warning duration specified in hours.
• Relay filters that allow accepting or rejecting relay requests based on IP address or host name.
• SPAM filters that allow accepting or rejecting mail based on IP address or host name.
• Header filters that allow taking actions on mail based on values found in the headers of e-mail messages. The message can be rejected and/or a customized message can be sent to the sender, recipient, or an administrator. This powerful feature gives administrators another weapon in fighting SPAM.
• Automatic forwarding support.
• Multiple mail server support. Multiple SMTP and POP3 servers can co-exist.
• Logging of audit, relay, error, spam, and header information.

Shepherd.FTP

Shepherd.FTP Features Include:

• Virtual file system configured entirely through Shepherd Directory Services
• Anonymous FTP services
• Passive data transfer support
• Audit and error logging

Shepherd.IMAP4

Shepherd.IMAP4 is being researched. If you are interested in IMAP4 support, please let us know.

Shepherd.NNTP

Shepherd.NNTP is in active development. The purpose of this server will not necessarily be to run standard newsgroup services for Usenet but to provide a private discussion group capability using a standardized protocol.

Shepherd.HTTP

Though it will be difficult to compete with HTTPS, SSL, ASP, CGI, ISAPI, NSAPI, Perl, PHP3, and the rest of the web server acronyms, there will be a Shepherd HTTP implementation. Plans so far call for basic HTTP functionality and servlet support. Beyond that, your recommendations are welcome.

Shepherd.Transaction

Shepherd.Transaction is an internally developed system that allows development of transactions in any language that can be compiled into a DLL. Versions are available that allow access to DB2 2.1 or later and Sybase SQL Anywhere 5.0 or later on OS/2 Warp. If you have any interest in seeing this product being released commercially, please let us know.