Webdav Share

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Category:Customer Help
Freelock does not provide FTP access to our servers, because it's very difficult to secure, and there are better protocols for most services.

We provide WebDAV access to our clients who need to be able to access files on a server, including our hosted backup service. This page lists how to connect via WebDAV.

To use these instructions, you need three things:

  1. The URL to access, and whether it's encrypted (https) or not (http).
  2. Your username. Replace below with your username.
  3. Your password. Replace below with your password.

Most operating systems have WebDAV clients built in. Many other programs provide direct support for WebDAV as well, including DreamWeaver, GoLive, OpenOffice.org, Microsoft Office, and many other package. Notably missing from this list is FrontPage--if you're using FrontPage, it has a non standard form of WebDAV, which is not compatible with a normal WebDAV share. If you're using FrontPage, you'll need to publish your web by copying files through Windows Explorer.

Windows XP


Windows Explorer has built-in support for WebDAV. You can open a WebDAV folder in Windows Explorer, and simply drag and drop files back and forth as desired.

Create a shortcut for your WebDAV share

  1. Go to "Network Places."
  2. Double-click "Add Network Place".
  3. Click "Other type of place" and click Next.
  4. Enter the URL for the webdav share, and click Next.
  5. If you get an SSL-certificate warning, click OK to accept it.
  6. Enter your username and password, and click OK.

That's it! It should open a new window with the contents of the WebDAV folder.

Go back to a WebDAV share you've been to before

  1. Go to "Network Places."
  2. Find the shortcut in the list and double-click it.
  3. Enter your username and password.

The window should open, and you're back in business.

Windows Vista

There appears to be issues with WebDAV on Vista, but support may improve. See Microsoft KB article 907306 for details.
  1. Visit the Microsoft KB article above, download and install the fix
  2. Click on Start, then right click on Computer and choose Map Network Drive...
  3. Click on the link Connect to a Web site that you can use to store your documents and pictures, then click next
  4. Click Choose a custom network location
  5. Enter your WebDAV URL
  6. Click next
  7. Enter your user name and password when prompted.
  8. Choose a name for the share, such as "Website on baker.freelock.com"

Note: You may have to enter your password several times. I had to do this six times in testing, then again when accessing the already mapped drive. Unfortunately, vista's WebDAV support is very poor.

When browsing the files on your site, you may also experience folders not opening. If you right click on a folder, and choose "explore" you will be prompted for your user name and password again, just click "cancel" and you should be able to view and update the folder. Same kind of issue with files, you must right click to do most actions, double click does not seem to work.

Changing this registry key seems to help. Use the file below if you know what to do with a .reg file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters]

"BasicAuthLevel"=dword:00000002

Mac OS X

The Finder has built-in support for WebDAV.
  1. Go to the Finder.
  2. Press Apple-K (connect to server)
  3. Enter the URL for the webdav share
  4. Enter your username and password

The share mounts as a new volume in the Finder, so you can drag/drop/do whatever you'd like with the files on the share.

Linux

There are several good ways to connect to a WebDAV share in Linux, depending on your desktop environment. The KDE approach is simplest, because you just type in the address into a Konquerer window. The davfs approach is the most powerful, because then you can use any program on your computer to manipulate files directly.

KDE/Konqueror

Konqueror is absolutely the simplest way to connect to a WebDAV server. The only trick is to use "webdav" or "webdavs" as the protocol, instead of "http" or "https" respectively. Simply put the URL in the address bar and hit enter, and put in your username and password.

For example, a URL might look like this: "webdavs://baker.freelock.com/mydomain.com" instead of "https://baker.freelock.com/mydomain.com".

Gnome

To configure this in Gnome (tested on Ubuntu):
  1. Click on Places on the upper left side of your screen
  2. Choose Connect to Server
  3. Select Secure WebDAV (HTTPS) from the type drop down
  4. Enter baker.freelock.com for the Server name
  5. Enter the name of your site for the folder name (e.g. mysite.com)
  6. Enter your WebDAV user name
  7. Enter the name you'd like to call this connection in the last field
  8. Click Connect
  9. On your desktop, click on the folder icon that has the name you used above in step 7
  10. Enter your password and enjoy!