diff --git a/gui/chronosharegui.cpp b/gui/chronosharegui.cpp
index 04bff02..038f05a 100644
--- a/gui/chronosharegui.cpp
+++ b/gui/chronosharegui.cpp
@@ -34,12 +34,18 @@
 using namespace boost;
 using namespace Ccnx;
 
+static const string HTTP_SERVER_ADDRESS = "localhost";
+static const string HTTP_SERVER_PORT = "9001";
+static const string DOC_ROOT = ":/html";
+static const QString ICON_PICTURE_QSTRING(":/images/friends-group-icon.png");
+
 INIT_LOGGER ("Gui");
 
 ChronoShareGui::ChronoShareGui(QWidget *parent)
   : QDialog(parent)
   , m_watcher(0)
   , m_dispatcher(0)
+  , m_httpServer(0)
 #ifdef ADHOC_SUPPORTED
   , m_executor (1)
 #endif
@@ -132,6 +138,17 @@
   m_watcher = new FsWatcher (m_dirPath,
                              bind (&Dispatcher::Did_LocalFile_AddOrModify, m_dispatcher, _1),
                              bind (&Dispatcher::Did_LocalFile_Delete,      m_dispatcher, _1));
+  QFileInfo indexHtmlInfo(":/html/index.html");
+  if (indexHtmlInfo.exists())
+  {
+    m_httpServer = new http::server::server(HTTP_SERVER_ADDRESS, HTTP_SERVER_PORT, DOC_ROOT);
+    m_httpServerThread = boost::thread(&http::server::server::run, m_httpServer);
+  }
+  else
+  {
+    _LOG_ERROR ("Http server doc root dir does not exist!");
+    // shall we bail here?
+  }
 }
 
 ChronoShareGui::~ChronoShareGui()
@@ -142,6 +159,7 @@
 
   delete m_watcher; // stop filewatching ASAP
   delete m_dispatcher; // stop dispatcher ASAP, but after watcher (to prevent triggering callbacks on deleted object)
+  delete m_httpServer;
 
   // cleanup
   delete m_trayIcon;
@@ -169,7 +187,7 @@
   messageBox.setWindowTitle(title);
   messageBox.setText(text);
 
-  messageBox.setIconPixmap(QPixmap(":/images/friends-group-icon.png"));
+  messageBox.setIconPixmap(QPixmap(ICON_PICTURE_QSTRING));
 
   messageBox.exec();
 }
@@ -181,7 +199,7 @@
   messageBox.setText(text);
   messageBox.setInformativeText(infotext);
 
-  messageBox.setIconPixmap(QPixmap(":/images/friends-group-icon.png"));
+  messageBox.setIconPixmap(QPixmap(ICON_PICTURE_QSTRING));
 
   messageBox.exec();
 }
@@ -284,7 +302,7 @@
 void ChronoShareGui::setIcon()
 {
   // set the icon image
-  m_trayIcon->setIcon(QIcon(":/images/friends-group-icon.png"));
+  m_trayIcon->setIcon(QIcon(ICON_PICTURE_QSTRING));
 }
 
 void ChronoShareGui::openSharedFolder()
diff --git a/gui/chronosharegui.h b/gui/chronosharegui.h
index eba4c12..3e9e0c3 100644
--- a/gui/chronosharegui.h
+++ b/gui/chronosharegui.h
@@ -40,6 +40,8 @@
 
 #include "fs-watcher.h"
 #include "dispatcher.h"
+#include "server.hpp"
+#include <boost/thread/thread.hpp>
 
 class ChronoShareGui : public QDialog
 {
@@ -118,6 +120,8 @@
 
   FsWatcher  *m_watcher;
   Dispatcher *m_dispatcher;
+  http::server::server *m_httpServer;
+  boost::thread m_httpServerThread;
 
   QLabel* labelUsername;
   QPushButton* button;
diff --git a/gui/html.qrc b/gui/html.qrc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..29a8104
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gui/html.qrc
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+<RCC>
+    <qresource prefix="/">
+        <file>images/friends-group-icon.png</file>
+    </qresource>
+</RCC>
diff --git a/gui/html/index.html b/gui/html/index.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f372d2e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gui/html/index.html
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+<html>
+<h1>It works!</h1>
+</html>
diff --git a/gui/images.qrc b/gui/images.qrc
index 15d4acf..630a137 100644
--- a/gui/images.qrc
+++ b/gui/images.qrc
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <RCC>
-    <qresource prefix="/images">
-        <file>friends-group-icon.png</file>
+    <qresource prefix="/">
+        <file>html/index.html</file>
     </qresource>
 </RCC>
diff --git a/gui/friends-group-icon.png b/gui/images/friends-group-icon.png
similarity index 100%
rename from gui/friends-group-icon.png
rename to gui/images/friends-group-icon.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/server/request_handler.cpp b/server/request_handler.cpp
index bd1f5d2..d1d5061 100644
--- a/server/request_handler.cpp
+++ b/server/request_handler.cpp
@@ -16,12 +16,19 @@
 #include "mime_types.hpp"
 #include "reply.hpp"
 #include "request.hpp"
+#include <QIODevice>
+#include <QFile>
+#include <QDataStream>
+#include <QString>
+#include "logging.h"
+
+INIT_LOGGER("HttpServer")
 
 namespace http {
 namespace server {
 
 request_handler::request_handler(const std::string& doc_root)
-  : doc_root_(doc_root)
+  : doc_root_(doc_root.c_str())
 {
 }
 
@@ -59,19 +66,36 @@
   }
 
   // Open the file to send back.
-  std::string full_path = doc_root_ + request_path;
-  std::ifstream is(full_path.c_str(), std::ios::in | std::ios::binary);
-  if (!is)
+  // The following is a hack to make the server understands Qt's
+  // resource system, so that the html resources can be managed using Qt's
+  // resource system (e.g. no need to worry about the location of html)
+  // in Mac OS, it will be inside the bundle, in Linux, perhaps somewhere
+  // in /usr/local/share
+  QString full_path = doc_root_.absolutePath() + QString(request_path.c_str());
+  QFile file(full_path);
+  if (!file.exists() || !file.open(QIODevice::ReadOnly))
   {
     rep = reply::stock_reply(reply::not_found);
     return;
   }
 
+  _LOG_DEBUG("Serving file: " << request_path);
   // Fill out the reply to be sent to the client.
   rep.status = reply::ok;
   char buf[512];
-  while (is.read(buf, sizeof(buf)).gcount() > 0)
-    rep.content.append(buf, is.gcount());
+  QDataStream in(&file);
+  while (true)
+  {
+    int bytes = in.readRawData(buf, sizeof(buf));
+    if (bytes > 0)
+    {
+      rep.content.append(buf, bytes);
+    }
+    else
+    {
+      break;
+    }
+  }
   rep.headers.resize(2);
   rep.headers[0].name = "Content-Length";
   rep.headers[0].value = boost::lexical_cast<std::string>(rep.content.size());
diff --git a/server/request_handler.hpp b/server/request_handler.hpp
index 661bad7..384907c 100644
--- a/server/request_handler.hpp
+++ b/server/request_handler.hpp
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 
 #include <string>
 #include <boost/noncopyable.hpp>
+#include <QDir>
 
 namespace http {
 namespace server {
@@ -33,7 +34,7 @@
 
 private:
   /// The directory containing the files to be served.
-  std::string doc_root_;
+  QDir doc_root_;
 
   /// Perform URL-decoding on a string. Returns false if the encoding was
   /// invalid.
diff --git a/server/server.cpp b/server/server.cpp
index 5fcc5d9..fa20be7 100644
--- a/server/server.cpp
+++ b/server/server.cpp
@@ -11,7 +11,9 @@
 #include "server.hpp"
 #include <boost/bind.hpp>
 #include <signal.h>
+#include "logging.h"
 
+INIT_LOGGER ("HttpServer");
 namespace http {
 namespace server {
 
@@ -44,6 +46,8 @@
   acceptor_.listen();
 
   start_accept();
+
+  _LOG_DEBUG("Listen on [" << address << ": " << port << "] with doc_root = " << doc_root);
 }
 
 void server::run()
diff --git a/wscript b/wscript
index 7fb7500..fd62ae7 100644
--- a/wscript
+++ b/wscript
@@ -139,18 +139,21 @@
 
     http_server = bld (
           target = "http_server",
-          features = "cxx",
+          features = "qt4 cxx",
           source = bld.path.ant_glob(['server/*.cpp']),
-          includes = "server .",
-          use = "BOOST"
+          includes = "server src .",
+          use = "BOOST QTCORE"
           )
 
     qt = bld (
         target = "ChronoShare",
         features = "qt4 cxx cxxprogram",
         defines = "WAF",
-        source = bld.path.ant_glob(['gui/*.cpp', 'gui/*.cc', 'gui/*.qrc']),
-        includes = "ccnx scheduler executor fs-watcher gui src adhoc . ",
+        # do not include html.qrc as we don't want it to be compiled into binary
+        # qt seems to adopt a pattern of compiling every resource file into the
+        # executable; if things don't work, we can use that as last resort
+        source = bld.path.ant_glob(['gui/*.cpp', 'gui/*.cc', 'gui/images.qrc']),
+        includes = "ccnx scheduler executor fs-watcher gui src adhoc server . ",
         use = "BOOST BOOST_FILESYSTEM SQLITE3 QTCORE QTGUI LOG4CXX fs_watcher ccnx database chronoshare http_server"
         )