diff --git a/server/AyaNova/Controllers/NotifyController.cs b/server/AyaNova/Controllers/NotifyController.cs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..18321a51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/AyaNova/Controllers/NotifyController.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+using System.Threading.Tasks;
+using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;
+using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
+using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Routing;
+using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authorization;
+using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
+using AyaNova.Models;
+using AyaNova.Api.ControllerHelpers;
+using AyaNova.Biz;
+
+
+namespace AyaNova.Api.Controllers
+{
+    [ApiController]
+    [ApiVersion("8.0")]
+    [Route("api/v{version:apiVersion}/notify")]
+    [Produces("application/json")]
+    [Authorize]
+    public class NotifyController : ControllerBase
+    {
+        private readonly AyContext ct;
+        private readonly ILogger<NotifyController> log;
+        private readonly ApiServerState serverState;
+
+        /// <summary>
+        /// ctor
+        /// </summary>
+        /// <param name="dbcontext"></param>
+        /// <param name="logger"></param>
+        /// <param name="apiServerState"></param>  
+        public NotifyController(AyContext dbcontext, ILogger<NotifyController> logger, ApiServerState apiServerState)
+        {
+            ct = dbcontext;
+            log = logger;
+            serverState = apiServerState;
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Pre-login route to confirm server is available
+        /// </summary>       
+        /// <returns></returns>
+        [AllowAnonymous]
+        [HttpGet("hello")]
+        public ActionResult GetPreLoginPing()
+        {
+            //note: this route is called by the client as the first action so it also acts like a ping to see if the server is up as well
+            if (serverState.IsClosed)
+                return StatusCode(503, new ApiErrorResponse(serverState.ApiErrorCode, null, serverState.Reason));
+            return Ok(ApiOkResponse.Response(!AyaNova.Core.License.ActiveKey.TrialLicense, true));
+        }
+
+
+        //------------
+
+
+    }//eoc
+}//eons
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