server.js

// Example minimal server from StackOverflow comment by user B T (https://stackoverflow.com/users/122422/b-t)
// https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6084360/using-node-js-as-a-simple-web-server/26354478#26354478
// 
// run the server using `node server.js` and you can access any files that are in the same directory.
// in a browser, visit http://localhost:9615/[filename]

// example url (self reference) http://localhost:9615/server.js

var http = require('http')
var url = require('url')
var fs = require('fs')
var path = require('path')
var baseDirectory = __dirname   // or whatever base directory you want

var port = 9615

http.createServer(function (request, response) {
    try {
        var requestUrl = url.parse(request.url)

        // need to use path.normalize so people can't access directories underneath baseDirectory
        var fsPath = baseDirectory+path.normalize(requestUrl.pathname)

        var fileStream = fs.createReadStream(fsPath)
        fileStream.pipe(response)
        fileStream.on('open', function() {
             response.writeHead(200)
        })
        fileStream.on('error',function(e) {
             response.writeHead(404)     // assume the file doesn't exist
             response.end()
        })
   } catch(e) {
        response.writeHead(500)
        response.end()     // end the response so browsers don't hang
        console.log(e.stack)
   }
}).listen(port)

console.log("listening on port "+port)