# GREEK TIMES WAIS SEARCH - HISTORY

This document summarizes how the Greek Times WAIS Search project came
to exist.

In March 2026, while expanding the Montreal Greek Times Unicorn server,
a multi-protocol publishing system, the publisher explored additional
access methods. During this process, the WAIS (Wide Area Information
Server) protocol was identified as a possible addition. At the time,
WAIS was considered obsolete, with no active ecosystem and no practical
deployment examples on the modern internet.

Initial technical assessments indicated that deploying WAIS would be
difficult and of limited practical value. The protocol lacked a usable
client base, modern systems no longer supported it, and the original
software was decades old. Despite this, the decision was made to proceed,
aligned with the broader goal of the Unicorn system: to preserve and
operate historically authentic internet protocols.

On March 22, 2026, a WAIS server based on the freeWAIS-sf codebase was
successfully compiled and deployed on a modern Debian system. The server
was made publicly accessible at wais.greektimes.ca on TCP port 210,
restoring a working implementation of the original Z39.50-1988 protocol
on the public internet.

Following deployment, a practical limitation became clear. While the
server was operational, no modern client software existed to access it.
This led to the second phase of the project: development of a compatible
client.

An initial approach using an HTTP bridge was completed but rejected,
as it did not preserve protocol authenticity. Development then shifted
to a native implementation. On April 5, 2026, a Windows client capable
of directly speaking the Z39.50-1988 protocol was completed by porting
the original freeWAIS-sf networking layer to Winsock, while leaving the
protocol implementation unchanged.

The first public release (Beta 1) followed on April 12, 2026, providing
a standalone Windows application with a native graphical interface.
A subsequent revision (Beta 2) corrected source attribution, licensing,
and applied security hardening identified during post-release review.
The client and server were aligned on the same upstream codebase
(freeWAIS-sf 2.2.14, June 7, 2000).

As of this release, the project provides both a functioning WAIS server
and a modern Windows client capable of communicating using the original
1988 protocol. Together, they restore practical access to WAIS on
contemporary systems.

Future work includes expanding the indexed corpus and porting the client
to additional platforms.
