The HTTP Server and Protocol

Jini requires that an HTTP server be available on the network, because Jini uses the HTTP protocol to transport files (code) from machine to machine.

Any HTTP server should be able to satisfy the requirements of Jini. The GET method of the HTTP protocol is used to request a specific file (URL) for download. The files requested are JAR or class files necessary to instantiate objects to process distributed requests.

The class com.sun.jini.tool.ClassServer that's supplied with the Jini distribution implements a simple HTTP server for transporting JAR and class files.