DocMgr

WebDAV - Novell's NetDrive has been used as a work around for a while now, but if you want to make XP/Vista work with DocMGR try the following:

For implementation of WebDAV on Windows XP and later , MSFT made it's own interpretation of the standard to work best with the Windows IIS servers. The problem due to this is three fold:

1. Windows XP authenticates users using the format "domain\username" by the mechanism of "Microsoft-WebDAV-MiniRedir/5.1.2600". Whereas Windows 98SE/2000 authenticates users as "username" using the mechanism of "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1".

2. The problem lies with the implementation of "Microsoft-WebDAV-MiniRedir/5.1.2600". If authentication is sent as "domain\username" then it would be received as "usernamedomain" or "usernamehostname" by the Web server and not as "username".

3. Also as per "Microsoft Knowledge Base, Article ID: 841215" Windows XP disables "Basic Auth" in its "Microsoft-WebDAV-MiniRedir/5.1.2600" mechanism by default for security reasons. But WebDAV expects "Basic Auth".

The standard way to connect to a WebDAV folder looks something like "http(s)://<servername>/share". However, a due to a bug in Win XP, this would be interpreted as a M$ network drive/SMB server.

So the solution is to trick Windows XP:

1. Force Windows XP to use the stable "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1" mechanism instead of "Microsoft-WebDAV-MiniRedir/5.1.2600".

2. Make Windows XP internally only send username and password and not the domain. [This can be done using the old Windows 2000 WebDAV driver that is present in all Windows XP machines.]

3. Force Windows XP to authenticate using "Basic Auth".

4. Prevent XP to interpret "http(s)://<servername>/dav" as a M$ network drive/SMB server.

Procedure for XP

1. Find the file called "webfldrs.msi", normally under "\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\". Incase Windows XP Service Packs are installed then the same can be found under "\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386\".

a. Run "webfldrs.msi".
b. Click on "Select reinstall mode".
c. Uncheck "Repair all detected reinstall problems".
d. Check "Force all files to be reinstalled, regardless of checksum or version".
e. Check "Verify that required user registry entries are present".
f. Check "Verify that required machine registry entries are present".
g. Check "Validate shortcuts".
h. Press OK and REINSTALL

2. Modify the Windows registry "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters" and add a new value "UseBasicAuth".

a. Choose "Run" in the start menu and type: "regedit"
b. In the registry-editor go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters"
c. Right click into the right field and choose "New" from the context-menu. Choose "DWord-Value".
d. Name the new value "UseBasicAuth".
e. Right click on "UseBasicAuth" and choose "Modify".
f. Change the value "0" (disabled) to "1" (enabled) and click "OK"

Then open in IE or mount it as a network location as discussed in the basic directions above.

Vista Note:
Your Operating System Windows XP or Vista should already have the support for the Web Folder. If not, you must download and install the software update for Web Folders (KB907306) at this link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=17c36612-632e-4c04-9382-987622ed1d64 .



WEBDAV on LINUX: Mount as local folder

This could be one of the most popular way of using WebDAV wherein you can mount the remote folder on a local folder just like any other NFS share. This involves installing a few of the following rpms that provide the functionality for supporting "davfs2" filesystem type. Once these are installed and all dependencies resolved, you can use the following command to mount your briefcase and work as if it is a local folder:

mount -t davfs http://<servername>/<path to mount>

RPMS to install (kindly ensure the RPM architectures - whether its 32bit or 64bit for your system:

davfs2-1.2.2-4.el5.rf.i386.rpm
lwp-1.11-1.i386.rpm
lwp-devel-1.11-1.i386.rpm
rvm-1.9-1.i386.rpm
rvm-devel-1.9-1.i386.rpm
rvm-tools-1.9-1.i386.rpm
ncurses-5.5-24.20060715.i386.rpm
ncurses-devel-5.5-24.20060715.i386.rpm
rpc2-1.21-1.i386.rpm
rpc2-devel-1.21-1.i386.rpm
neon-0.25.5-5.1.i386.rpm
neon-devel-0.25.5-5.1.i386.rpm

Then "fuse" or "coda" kernel modules or both....

fuse-2.7.3.tgz
coda-server-6.0.5-1.i386.rpm
coda-client-6.0.5-1.i386.rpm
coda-backup-6.0.5-1.i386.rpm

Note: Some RHEL on 4 & 5 have varied results..... some systems work some don't......