How To Map A HTTPS-only Web Folder To A Drive

Question: In Windows XP/2003, how to map a web folder which allows for only HTTPS connections to a drive?

Windows web folder is Microsoft's implementation of WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning). Two WebDAV clients: Web Folders and WebDAV Mini Redirector are integrated and preinstalled with Windows. Based on them, there are usually 2 methods to access a web folder in Windows:

1) Use 'Add Network Place' in 'My Network Places',

This always works regardless of the connection type (HTTP or HTTPS). However, you can't map a web folder opened this way to a drive.

2) Use 'net use' at command line, as shown below:

net use x: http://domain-name/path-to-web-folder

The web folder is mapped to a drive, but this method only works for HTTP connection because of the limitations of WebDAV Mini Redirector:

• No support for HTTPS, i.e. no support for secure connections, unless you are using Vista as a client.


• No support for declared ports (http://myserver.com:8080/dav/) i.e. your WebDAV server must be using port 80, the default port.


• No support for LOCK and UNLOCK commands, i.e. no locking if, for example, two users try to access (open) the same Word document.

Therefore, if a web folder supports only HTTPS connections, and you issue command:

net use x: https://domain-name/path-to-web-folder

you are given an error message something like 'Sysytem error 67 has occurred. The network name cannot be found.'

A software called WebDrive does feature a function mapping a HTTPS web folder to a drive, but it is not free, unfortunately.

Good news is we can do it free, with the help of stunnel - a universal SSL wrapper.

Stunnel is a program that allows you to encrypt arbitrary TCP connections inside SSL available on both Unix and Windows. And it is licensed under GPL. We use it here as a proxy that encrypts a HTTP request to a HTTPS one and submits to WebDAV server. The details are below:

1) Download stunnel Win32 binary from here and install it. The latest release is 4.25.

2) Edit stunnel.conf that is located at 'c:\program Files\stunnel\', make the following changes:

client=yes

verify=0

and add the following section to the end of the file:

[psuedo-https]

accept = 80

connect = domain-name:443

TIMEOUTclose = 0

The 'domain-name' above refers to the WebDAV server's domain name or IP address. Save the changes and start stunnel, now you should be able to map the HTTPS web folder to a drive by issuing command:

net use x: http://localhost/path-to-web-folder

Note:

• This solution has been tested to work on Windows XP Pro SP3 and Windows 2003 EE SP2.
• Please make sure WebClient service is on, and 'Networking Services' component has been installed with your Windows, otherwise you can't use 'net use' command to connect web folder.
• If the WebDAV server requires Windows AD authentication, ie you must provide a user id in format of 'domain\user' and password so as to connect, you must logon to the domain first. My attempt to map a drive while logging on as a local user has failed, even I have forced stunnel to launch using a valid domain user id. The reason is not known yet.

Reference:

• http://smallvoid.com/article/winnt-webdav-network-drive.html
• http://www.simple-groupware.de/cms/Main/WebDAV