About WebDrive
WebDrive Features

The WebDrive application allows you to connect to an FTP, WebDAV, or FrontPage server via a LAN or Internet connection, and map a Network drive to the server.  This allows you to treat the FTP/DAV/FrontPage server like an ordinary DOS drive.  You can copy files to or from the server using the Windows explorer or by using familiar DOS commands like copy, and xcopy.  By integrating the server site into the Windows file system WebDrive instantly FTP or HTTP enables any application.

Server Types Supported

♦	FTP – Most types of FTP servers are supported by WebDrive.

♦	WebDAV (HTTP) - WebDAV stands for "Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning". It is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol which allows users to collaboratively edit and manage files on remote web servers.  WebDAV is becoming more and more popular and has many advantages over FTP.  The Microsoft webfolders software can communicate to servers that support WebDAV.  For more details please visit www.webdav.org

♦	Microsoft FrontPage (HTTP) – Many webservers on the Internet run the Microsoft FrontPage extensions that allow the FrontPage editor to publish websites to the webserver.  WebDrive can also communicate with servers via HTTP that run the Microsoft FrontPage extensions.  WebDrive has been tested with FrontPage server extensions version 4.0, other versions may work but have not been tested with WebDrive.

Uses for WebDrive

♦	Managing a Web Site - Treat your webserver server as a local disk drive and
copy files to and from your web site using commands such as xcopy, and the Windows explorer.

♦	Internet Enable any application - WebDrive will instantly Internet enable any application because the Internet server just looks like a network drive to existing Windows applications.  Use Microsoft backup or other applications to directly access your server.

♦	Automate file access to Internet Servers – Use batch files to connect and transfer files to/you’re your remote server.  This is perfect for performing unattended file operations using familiar windows or DOS commands.

♦	Access online storage providers – Use WebDrive to access your online storage accounts with services that support the WebDAV protocol.

For information on purchasing WebDrive please visit our web site at www.webdrive.com


Getting Started

After installing WebDrive you will notice a WebDrive tray icon located in your Windows task bar tray area.  Having WebDrive start in the tray is optional and can be disabled from the tray menu or via the WebDrive application window.  To display the WebDrive tray menu, right click on the tray icon and the menu will appear.

To launch the WebDrive application window shown above you can either double click the WebDrive icon located in the WebDrive program folder created by the installation program or right click on the tray icon and select “Launch WebDrive”.  Most of the fuctonality of the WebDrive application window is also provided via the tray icon.

The WebDrive installation program creates several pre-defined FTP sites.  To connect to one of these pre-defined sites just double click the site name, or select the connection with a right mouse click and then select “Connect” from the File menu.  To create a new site, open the sitte manager dialog by selecting “Site Manager” from the File Menu.

Once WebDrive has successfully connected to the server and a drive has been mapped, a monitor dialog will be displayed.  The Monitor dialog provides connection status, file transfer statistics, and a connection log.  This feature can be disabled via the general settings dialog.  After connecting, an explorer window will be launched.  This feature can be disabled.

Once connected to the FTP site, you can navigate the site with explorer, or a DOS box.  Copy files with the DOS copy command or cut and paste with explorer.  To disconnect from the server, you can select the disconnect button from explorer, select the drive icon in explorer and select disconnect by right clicking, or select disconnect from the monitor dialog.

Note: Since a connection can be interrupted in the middle of a file transfer, you should always keep a backup copy of files that are transferred or modified on your server.  You can also use the WebDrive mirror feature to mirror files that are modified into a separate folder on your computer.


WebDrive Administration Application
WebDrive Application Window

The WebDrive application is used to manage site information and general settings used by WebDrive.  The WebDrive main application window is shown below.

♦	Connect - Establishes a connection to the selected site and maps a network drive to it.

♦	Site Manager – Displays the site manager dialog which allows you to add/edit sites.

♦	Program Settings – Displays the WebDrive settings dialog.

♦	Disconnect - Disconnects the currently selected site if it is connected.

♦	Import Connections - Imports FTP server sites from other applications.  Currently only WSFTP INI files are supported.

♦	Create Desktop Shortcut - Creates a shortcut for the currently selected item on the desktop.  You can then double click on the shortcut to connect to the site.

♦	Save Window Position – Saves the position and size of the WebDrive application window and restores it the next time WebDrive is run.

♦	Delete - Deletes the currently selected site.

♦	Rename - Renames the currently selected site.

♦	Properties - Displays the site advanced properties dialog.

♦	Exit - Exits the application.


Site Manager

The site manager dialog is used to add or edit sites.  The dialog is used to enter the site name, url, and username/password information.  Select the advanced button to select advanced properties for each site.  The advanced dialog is different depending upon the server type for the site.

♦	New Site – Add a new site.

♦	Delete – Deletes the selected site.

♦	Site Name – You can rename a site by using this edit box.

♦	Site Address/URL – Enter the URL for the site to connect to.  Entering the protocol type ftp:// or http:// is optional.  When you add a site if you omit the ftp:// or http:// then the server type will default to FTP.  If you specify http:// then the server type will default to WebDAV.  To override the port for http servers you can enter it in the url for example http://www.someserver.com:8888  will specify a port of 8888.

♦	Server Type – Allows you to select the server type for the site.  The options are FTP, WebDAV and FrontPage.  WebDAV is an extension to the http protocol that many servers are now supporting on the Internet.  FrontPage refers to servers that run the Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions.

♦	Drive – Select the drive to map to the server.

♦	Connect at login/startup – When enabled the selected site will be persistent, i.e. when you login the drive will be connected to the server automatically.

♦	Add to tray connect menu – The tray menu has a quick connect popup menu that can be used to quickly connect to your favorite sites.  Enabling this will add the site to the tray connect menu.

♦	Anonymous/Public Logon – For FTP servers this will enable anonymous login.   For HTTP servers it will just omit the username/password information.

♦	Username – Enter your username for the selected server.

♦	Password – Enter your password for the selected server.

♦	Save Password – Saves the password in the registry so you won’t have to enter it each time you logon to the server.  The password is not saved in clear text however it wouldn’t be difficult to break the encoding scheme.

♦	Connect – Connects to the site.

♦	Exit – Closes the site manager dialog.

♦	Advanced – Displays the site advanced dialog.


Making a new Connection
Making a new site

This dialog allows you to create a new site.  First enter a name for the site, then enter the URL.  The URL can be entered with or without the “ftp://” or “http://” notation.  If you do specify the http then the server type will default to FrontPage, otherwise it will default to FTP.

Note:

Secure connections, via DAV or FrontPage can be enabled by entering https:// as part of the URL.  This is only available on the Windows NT/2000 platform.  WebDrive uses the SSPI interface to Microsoft’s Secure Channel implementation of SSL.


Advanced Connection Properties Dialog
Site FTP Advanced Dialog

The advanced site properties dialog is used to specify advanced settings for the site.

♦	Host Type - Allows you to select the FTP host operating system type.  This is used for parsing directory listings and “Automatic Detect” works in most situations.  If you directory listing appears empty, then select the server type manually for the particular site and re-connect.  If your particular FTP server type is not listed then please send us an e-mail message so we can add support for it.  For VMS servers and other non Unix FTP servers you should explicitly select the server type here.

♦	Root Directory - Allows you to enter a directory that exists on the remote FTP site and treat that directory as the root directory for the mapped drive.  After logging on a CWD is performed to this directory.  Note: the directory is case sensitive for FTP.

♦	Remote Port - Allows you to enter a custom FTP port number.  The port number 21 is the default FTP port.

♦	CD .. directory count - Allows you to specify a count of the number of times a CDUP command will be issued after logon.  This is useful for sites that upon login put you in a sub directory.

♦	Initial Command - Allows you to enter custom FTP commands to perform after logon.  You can separate multiple commands with a comma.

♦	Auto File Type Transfer mode - Enables the Automatic file transfer mode of WebDrive.  In this mode, all files with extensions that match those specified under the File Types tab of the connection settings dialog will be transferred in the opposite mode of the default transfer mode.  Normally this list is used to enter the file extensions of all files that will be transferred in ASCII mode rather than binary mode which is the default transfer mode.

♦	PASV - Passive Mode  - Transfers data in FTP passive mode.  This can be useful where a fire wall exists that prevents FTP servers from establishing data connections with the client.

♦	Interactive Login - When enabled, WebDrive will connect to the FTP server and then display a dialog box with the greeting from the FTP server and prompt the user for username and password again.  This feature can be used for FTP servers that dynamically generate username and passwords for security purposes.

♦	Enable Unix Links - Enables the translation of Unix link files and directories.

♦	Keep Connection Alive - When enabled WebDrive will send “NOOP” FTP commands to the server when no activity is present.  This will keep the FTP connection alive.  Note: some servers will disconnect after a specified ammount of time or traffic regardless of activity.

♦	Keep VMS ‘;’ extension - Don’t strip the ‘;’ used by VMS to denote file versions.

♦	Delete file before PUT - When enabled, files that are transferred to the FTP server will be deleted on the server first.  This is generally not needed, however some FTP servers will not transfer files properly when they already exist.

♦	VMS Delete “;*” - Some VMS servers require a specific file version for doing file deletes and removing directories.  When enabled WebDrive will attach a ;* to the file name for deletes, and ;0 when doing a RMDIR (remove directory).  Note: when using this feature you should set the “Host Type” to VMS and not Auto Detect.

♦	VMS Get Most Recent ;0 - When retreiving or storing a file and the keep VMS ; extension feature is NOT enabled, then this will do a GET or PUT with a ;0 attached to the file name to denote the most recent file.


Site General Dialog

♦	Open Explorer in Folder – Opens the explorer in the specified folder on the remote site.

♦	Bypass proxy server for this site – Use this option to connect to servers without going through the configured proxy server.  This is useful for sites on a LAN.

♦	All files read-only – Mark all files on the site as read-only so that you can’t accidentally make changes to the files.

♦	Time Zone Difference - Enter a time difference for the remote server.  This is used to keep file times synchronized with those on the server when the cache is in use.  For example, with a time zone difference of 3 hours between California and New York, you would enter a value of 180 minutes if you were located in California and your server was in New York.  If the situation was reversed, you could enter -180.

♦	Mirror Uploaded/Modified files – Puts files that you modify with WebDrive into the Mirror directory.

♦	Mirror Downloaded files – Puts files that you open/download with WebDrive into the Mirror directory.

♦	Mirror on upload failure – Puts files into the Mirror directory when an upload fails.  This is a nice safety feature to prevent you from losing your changes to a file if a connection is dropped.

♦	Enable custom UNC names – Allows you to control the UNC name for the webdrive connection.  By default a UNC connection will conform to the following syntax,  \\Webdrive\Sitename  by enabling custom UNC names, you can control the name used for the server and share in a UNC name.  The Windows explorer will list a network drive in the drive pane as “share on server (X)”

♦	Server Name – The name to use for the server in a  UNC name.

♦	Share Name – The name to use for the share in a UNC name.


File Attributes Dialog
Site FTP File Attributes Dialog

The file attributes dialog allows you to setup how WebDrive will set file attributes for files that are modified or created on the FTP server.  You can also configure WebDrive to support the Windows readonly file attribute by sending a custom command to the server to set/clear readonly.  Note: this feature is only available on Unix FTP servers and servers that support the CHMOD FTP command.  This feature can be useful for sites where you need to set the file permissions for scripts to need the execute attribute set.

♦	Maintain existing directory attributes – When enabled WebDrive will set the file attributes on modified files back to their original value as specified in the directory listing.  This is useful for editing CGI files that need to have special permissions set.

♦	Use read-only directory attribute - Uses the directory attributes from the FTP directory listing for local files.  This will set the read only attribute for files with read only access on the server.  This feature currently works for Unix directory listings only.

♦	Set/Clear readonly on server  – This allows you to map the Windows ATTRIB +/-R command to the remote file system using a custom command.  Most Unix FTP servers support the chmod command which allows you to set file permissions.  Some NT FTP servers allow you to run a custom command to set/clear the file attributes.  The Serv-U FTP for example allows you to do this.   There are two options to set the attributes on the remote server:

♦	Toggle Unix write bit - In this mode when setting the readonly attribute the write permission will be removed for user, group, and other.  When clearing the readonly attribute the write permissions specified in the check boxes will be added to the existing file permission for the file being modified.

♦	Use Command to set/clear - Use the “Set” command to enter the command you need to send to the server to set the readonly attribute, and use the “Clear” command to enter the command needed to clear the readonly attribute on the server.  The default values are for a Unix server.  The “%f” in the command will be replaced with the remote filename.   An example command for an NT server using the Serv-U FTP server would be “SITE EXEC c:\winnt\system32\cmd /c attrib +r %f”.

♦	Add/New - Pressing this button causes the file extension that is entered in the edit box to be added to the file extension list box.

♦	Delete - Pressing this button will delete the currently selected extension from the file extension list box.

♦	Permissions - Select the file permissions by clicking the desired attributes.

♦	Set file attributes on new or modified files/directories - Enabling this feature will cause WebDrive to set the file attributes on files whose extension matches those in the file extension list box.

♦	Chmod Value - This edit box represents the Unix CHMOD value that will be sent to the FTP server when files with the selected extension are created.


Site Cache Dialog

The site cache dialog can be used to override cache settings for a particular site.

♦	Override Cache Settings for this site - Enable the override of cache settings for this site only.

♦	Cache Files - Enable file caching for this site.

♦	Cache Directory Listings - Enable directory listing caching for this site.

♦	Flush Directory Listing upon each connection - Enables the flushing of directory listings for this site upon each connection.

♦	Flush File Cache upon each connection - Enables the flushing of files in the cache for this site upon each connection.

♦	Enable Cache Directory Update - Enables modifications to the directory listing in the cache.  Any time a file is copied or modified on the remote server, the directory listing needs to be updated.  When this option is enabled the directory listing in the cache directory is modified, otherwise a LIST command is sent to the server to generate a new listing every time a file is modified.

♦	Expire Directory Listing After (x) Seconds – If enabled each directory listing in the cache will be considered expired or out of data after it has been in the cache for the specified number of seconds.  If a listing is expired, it will be ignored by webdrive and a new listing will be generated from the server.

♦	 Expire Files After (X) Seconds - If enabled each file in the cache will be considered expired or out of data after it has been in the cache for the specified number of seconds.  If a file is expired, it will be ignored by webdrive and a new file will be downloaded into the cache on the next file request.


Site File Names Dialog

The File Names dialog gives you control over the file names that are created on the remote FTP server.  This can be used to disable certain characters in file names that are invalid to a specific FTP server.  For example many FTP servers can’t handle characters like “~@#$”, etc.

♦	Enable Character Substitution in remote File Names - Enables the character substitution feature for this site.

♦	From - Used to enter the local character in file name that is to be replaced by the “To” character.

♦	To - Used to enter the remote character that will replace the “From” character.

♦	Limit file names to a maximum length - Used to restrict the length of files names on the remote server.  File names that are greater than this length will be truncated.  Leave this blank or 0 to disable this feature.

♦	Limit file extensions to a maximum length - Used to restrict the length of files extensions on the remote server.  File extensions that are greater than this length will be truncated.  Leave this blank or 0 to disable this feature.


Site FTP Settings Dialog

The FTP settings dialog can be used to configure various aspects of the FTP protocol that WebDrive uses to communicate with the FTP server.

♦	Convert Upload File Names To - Used to modify how file names will be created on the FTP server.  restrict the length of files extensions on the remote server.  Options include no conversion, convert file names that are all uppercase to lower case, always convert to lower case, always convert to upper case.

♦	LIST Options - Parameters for the FTP list command.  The option -al is used to display hidden files and in long format.

♦	Use MDTM to set modified time – The Serv-U FTP server allows a client to set the modified time for a file using this special command.  This helps file synchronization tools to know if a file is up to date.  If you enable this for the Serv-U FTP server you should also set the LIST options to –T so that the full fill time will be given in the directory listings.

♦	Hidden Directory configuration - Used to enter directory names on the FTP server that are hidden and don’t show up in the directory listing when using the LIST command.  Enter the full remote path of the hidden directory and then select add to add it to the list.

♦	Use NLST in hidden directories - When enabled WebDrive will use the NLST command instead of the LIST command in directories that are specified in the hidden list.

♦	NLST Options - Options for the NLST command specified above.


Site File Type Dialog

The site file type dialog can be used to override the file type settings for all sites.

♦	Override File Type Settings for this site - Enables the override of file type settings that are used for all sites.  This can be used to change the default transfer mode for particular FTP servers, for example you may use mainly ASCII transfer mode for a Web Site and mostly binary transfer mode for public FTP servers.

♦	File Extension - Enter file extensions that will be transferred in the opposite of the default transfer mode.

♦	Default Transfer Mode - Select the default transfer mode (ASCII/BINARY).  ASCII transfer mode is generally used for html and script files, and binary mode is used for executables and zip files.

Note: This feature is enabled from the site properties advanced tab check box labeled “Auto File Type Transfer Mode”.


General Settings
WebDrive General Settings Dialog

The WebDrive general settings dialog allows you to customize the way WebDrive functions.

♦	Display file transfer progress dialog - Displays a file transfer progress dialog while transmitting/receiving a file from a server.

♦	Don’t display for files smaller than – This disables the file transfer dialog for files below the specified size in KB.

♦	Keep transfer dialog open for  - Keeps the transfer dialog open for the specified number of seconds after a transfer is complete.  This is useful when you are transferring many files during a copy operation, this will prevent the dialog from constantly popping up and closing down.

♦	Run WebDrive in taskbar tray on system startup  - Automatically starts WebDrive after logging in and displays a tray icon.

♦	Close WebDrive window after connecting – Closes the WebDrive application window after connecting.

♦	Display site manager after launching WebDrive application – Launches the site manager dialog after running WebDrive rather than displaying the WebDrive application window.  You can still open the WebDrive application window from the tray menu by selecting “Launch WebDrive”.

♦	Open explorer window after connecting - When selected, an explorer window is opened when a drive is mapped to a site.

♦	Open explorer in folder view - Controls how the explorer window is opened after a connection is established.  If folder view is enabled, then the explorer window will contain only 1 pane with the folder of files.

♦	Display Drive Monitor after connecting - When selected, the Drive Monitor dialog will be displayed after connecting to the server.

♦	Display Drive Monitor minimized - When selected, the Drive Monitor will not be displayed initially.  To display the monitor you can click on the tray icon and select “Show Monitor”

♦	Transfer Files on separate connection - This will create a new FTP connection when transferring files.  This will allow you to download new directory listings while a file is being transferred.

♦	Automatic Time Zone Adjust (HTTP) – Automatically uses the time zone adjustment to convert between the local time and the server time, which is in UTC or GMT.  You can still override this automatica calculation by specifying a time zone adjustment on the site properties advanced dialog, however enabling this feature should work for most cases.

♦	Timeout – The amount of time to wait for commands to complete in seconds.

♦	e-mail address - The e-mail address is used as a password for anonymous logins.  Note: Many FTP servers require an e-mail address as a password for anonymous logins.


WebDrive Cache Settings Dialog

The cache setup dialog allows you to configure how WebDrive will cache files and directory listings from the server.  Since FTP does not allow random file access it is necessary to cache files locally.  WebDrive will also cache directory listings, which allows for rapid directory changes.  When the cache limit is exceeded, the files in the cache will be deleted.

♦	Amount of disk space to use - Specifies the size of the cache in megabytes.  Use the slider to select a percentage of the drive size or enter a value in the edit box.  The cache is used to store files and directory listings.

♦	Cache Files - When selected, files that are opened on the server are cached locally for rapid access.  A date/time comparison is performed when opening files.  If the file on the server is newer than the file in the cache, it will be downloaded and placed in the cache.  The date/time is retrieved from the directory listing.  If the directory listing is out of date with the server then the file might not be updated.  See the Cache Directory options for more information on directory caching.

♦	Cache Directory Listings - When selected, directory listings downloaded from the server are cached locally for rapid access.  This is handy because most of the time directory structures are static.  If the server directory changes often, you might want to enable flush directory listing upon each connection or after a certain amount of time has elapsed.

♦	Flush Directory Listing upon each connection - When selected, the directory listings are removed from the cache at each connection.  This is useful if the site is being changed by other users.

♦	Flush File Cache upon each connection - Enables the flushing of files in the cache for this site upon each connection.

♦	Expire Directory Listing After (x) Seconds – If enabled each directory listing in the cache will be considered expired or out of data after it has been in the cache for the specified number of seconds.  If a listing is expired, it will be ignored by webdrive and a new listing will be generated from the server.

♦	 Expire Files After (X) Seconds - If enabled each file in the cache will be considered expired or out of data after it has been in the cache for the specified number of seconds.  If a file is expired, it will be ignored by webdrive and a new file will be downloaded into the cache on the next file request.

♦	Current Folder - Displays the cache directory where files and directory listings are stored.

♦	Move Folder - Allows you to select a new folder for the cache directory.

♦	View Folder - Displays the contents of the cache folder.  Each file in the cache contains the full URL name of the file.

♦	Empty Folder - Removes all cache files from the cache folder.


Advanced Settings
WebDrive Advanced Settings Dialog

The WebDrive advanced dialog allows you to configure the network provider, and shell extension features of WebDrive.

♦	Enable Network Provider - Enabling the Network Provider improves the performance of the Windows explorer on drives that are mapped via WebDrive.  Normally Windows opens each .EXE file to read the icon for the application and display it in the explorer list view.  This is very costly because the entire file has to be downloaded to read the icon.  To prevent this from happening, enable the Network Provider and the Windows explorer will not open .EXE files on drives that are mapped to FTP sites.  This feature is highly recommended.

♦	Set persistent drives to disconnected state at startup - Allows you to define persistent connections, but when the system starts they won’t automatically be connected.  The persistent connections will show up in the explorer window as disconnected drives.  To connect to the remote server simply double click on the drive.  This option is useful for defining sites that you connect to often and being able to connect on demand using the explorer without having to run the WebDrive application.

♦	Enable file property page shell extension - Enabling the WebDrive shell extension allows you to manage drives mapped to FTP sites directly from the explorer.  You can change file attributes for FTP servers that suppor the CHMOD command.

♦	 Enable Cache Directory Update - Enables modifications to the directory listing in the cache.  Any time a file is copied or modified on the remote server, the directory listing needs to be updated.  When this option is enabled the directory listing in the cache directory is modified, otherwise a LIST command is sent to the server to generate a new listing every time a file is modified.

♦	Automatically select drive to use when connecting – Causes WebDrive to select the drive to map instead of using the drive specified for each site.

♦	Restart interrupted FTP transfers – Uses the FTP resume command to resume interrupted transfers.  This is useful for dialup or other connections that are prone to interruption.

♦	Display FTP server greeting during login – Display the FTP server greeting after connecting.

♦	Disable Win2K column handlers – Windows 2000 has a feature called column handlers that allows the explorer to add extra columns of information in addition to the file name, this could include information such as file author and other information about the file.  This extra information is displayed when you click on a file in explorer.  This presents a problem for webdrive because the column handlers will read the entire file to determine if it is a file that they support which makes using the explorer very hard to use because webdrive will download each file that you click on.  To prevent this from happening you can disable Win2K column handlers while WebDrive is connected.  After disconnecting WebDrive will restore the column handlers.

♦	Display transfer errors in popup dialog – When enabled file transfer errors will be displayed in popup dialogs.

♦	Don’t display connect/disconnect errors – When enabled, WebDrive won’t display errors when a connect attempt fails.

♦	Failed transfer retry count - Specify the number of times to retry a file put or get operation before failing the request.


Firewall Settings Dialog
WebDrive Proxy-FTP Settings Dialog

The Proxy-FTP settings dialog is used to define the type of firewall/proxy server login that is required for FTP sites.  Some companies setup firewalls to prevent unauthorized access to local area networks that are connected to the Internet.

♦	Enable Proxy Server - Enables logon through a firewall/proxy server.

♦	Login Type - Select the type of login required for you firewall.  For all logon types except “USER no logon”, the Firewall User ID is sent followed by the Firewall Password.  If these entries are left blank then they are not sent.

♦	SITE <site name> - After logon to firewall connect using SITE <remote site name>.

♦	OPEN <site name> After logon to firewall connect using OPEN <remote site name>

♦	USER after logon - After logon to firewall, connect using <site user name>@<remote site name>.

♦	USER no logon - After connecting to firewall (no logon to firewall) connect to remote site using <site user name>@<remote site name>

♦	MS Proxy 2.0 (SOCKS v4.3a) - Use SOCKS protocol version 4.3.  This is used by Microsoft proxy server 2.0, as well as the Internet Rideway proxy server.  When the remote server is specified in domain name format, e.g. ftp.microsoft.com, then the 4a extension to SOCKS will be used for the connect request.

♦	SOCKS v5.0 - Connect to socks server using version 5 of the protocol.  Currently the only supported authentication methods are username/password and no authentication.  Many SOCKS proxy servers require you to use passive (PASV) mode when using SOCKS.

♦	Raptor (Gwpasswd) – Used for Gwpasswd login on a Raptor proxy server.  The login sequence is as follows:  USER remote_id@remote_host firewall_username, PASS remote_password, ACCT firewall_passwd

♦	WinProxy ‘USER username@host:port’ - Used by WinProxy server when in gateway mode.  This behaves the same as the server type USER after logon above.

♦	Proxy Server Address - Enter the URL or IP address of your proxy server.

♦	Port - Enter the port number for your firewall.  The default port is 21.  For SOCKS servers use port 1080.

♦	Proxy Username - Some proxy servers require a user name.  Leave blank if your proxy server doesn’t require it.

♦	Proxy Password - Enter the password for your proxy server if required.

♦	Use PASV mode for all connections - This enables FTP passive transfer mode.  In this mode all TCP connections are outgoing.  Some firewalls don’t allow incoming data connections.


Proxy Server Trouble Shooting

General Tips

If you encounter problems getting a directory listing or connecting to a remote server, enter the IP address of the remote server instead of using the URL.  Try enabling passive mode (PASV) if you have problems downloading a file or getting a directory listing because many firewalls prevent inbound TCP connections.

Netscape Proxy Server 3.5

To use the Netscape proxy server set the login type to SOCKS 5.  Make sure that on your server you have enabled the Netscape SOCKS server and configured it to allow FTP access.

Microsoft Proxy Server 2.0 Setup

To enable Microsoft proxy server 2.0, please perform the following steps:

1.	Select the MS Proxy 2.0 (SOCKS v4.3a) protocol type from the “Login Type” combo box.

2.	Enter port 1080 which is the standard socks port.

3.	Generally the user id and password fields are left blank.

4.	Enter the IP address or URL for your proxy server.  This is the machine that is running IIS or MS Proxy 2.0.


WebDrive Logging Settings Dialog

The logging dialog allows you to log FTP and HTTP command/responses to a file.


WebDrive File Type Dialog
WebDrive File Type Settings Dialog

The file type dialog is used to specify a list of file extensions that will be transferred in ASCII mode rather than the default binary mode.

To add file extensions to the list, enter the extension in the edit box and then press the Add button.  You can enter the extension with or without the ‘.’.  To delete an extension, first select the extension you wish to delete and then press the delete button.

♦	Default Transfer Mode - Select the default transfer mode (ASCII/BINARY).  ASCII transfer mode is generally used for html and script files, and binary mode is used for executables and zip files.

♦	File Extension - Enter file extensions that will be transferred in the opposite of the default transfer mode.

Note: This feature is enabled from the site properties advanced tab check box labeled “Auto File Type Transfer Mode”.


WebDrive Mirror Settings Dialog

This dialog is used to configure what folder files are mirrored into.  WebDrive can mirror files that are downloaded or modified into this directory as a backup option to protect files in case of a dropped connection.

Note: The Mirror function can be enabled for each site from the site general dialog tab.


Drive Property Page Shell Extension

WebDrive has a drive property page shell extension that can be used to manage a drive that is mapped to a server.  To display the drive properties page, select the drive icon from explorer, then right click on the drive and a context menu will be displayed.  Now select properties from the menu and the drive property page dialog will be displayed.  Select the WebDrive tab to display the following dialog.

From this dialog you can invoke the following commands:

♦	Flush Directory Cache - Removes the directories that are cached for the selected FTP server.  It will not remove directory caches for other FTP sites.

♦	Flush File Cache - Removes files from the cache for the selected FTP server.  It will not remove files that are cached from other FTP servers.


File Property Page Shell Extension

WebDrive has a property page shell extension that allows you to examine and change file attributes for files that are on the FTP server.  This feature is available only on Unix FTP servers and servers that support the CHMOD FTP extension.  This feature can be handy when working with CGI and Pearl scripts where you need to set the execute and write privileges.

To display the file attributes property page, select the file you wish to examine with the explorer, then right click on the file and select properties from the menu.  The file properties page will be displayed, select the WebDrive tab to display the dialog shown below.  This feature is not currently available for the NT version of WebDrive.

To change the attributes for a file, just select the attributes that you want, the chmod value will be calculated automatically, then press the Ok or Apply button to send the CHMOD command to the FTP server.


Drive Context Menu Shell Extension

WebDrive has a shell extension to provide a context menu for drives that are mapped to FTP sites.  To display the context menu from explorer select a drive that is mapped to an FTP site, then click the right mouse button.  The context menu will only appear for drives that are currently with WebDrive.  The menu has the following options:

♦	Flush Directory Cache - Removes the directories that are cached for the selected FTP server.  It will not remove directory caches for other FTP sites.

♦	Flush File Cache - Removes files from the cache for the selected FTP server.  It will not remove files that are cached from other FTP servers.

♦	Disconnect – Disconnects from the server.


Automating Connections
Automating Connections / Disconnections

WebDrive allows you to map a network drive to a site in the following ways:

♦	From the WebDrive application, make a connection persistent from the site manager dialog.  This will connect to the specified site at system start or login.

♦	WebDrive Command Line Options.  The WebDrive application will accept a connection name as a parameter and perform the connection.  This can be useful when you wish to automate a connection using a batch file.  The connection name must be in quotes.  For example WebDrive.exe “Microsoft”.  To disconnect you can specify the drive letter and /D, for example WebDrive.exe X: /d  will disconnect drive X:

To disconnect a drive mapped by WebDrive, you can use the webdrive.exe command line option listed above, or enter the command “NET USE X: /D” where X: is the drive letter you wish to disconnect.

Scripting or Batch Files

WebDrive can be used in a batch file, to open a connection, copy files back and forth between the client and server, and the disconnect.  The following batch file is an example of how to do this.

Win95/98 Example

ECHO “Running FTP batch file using WebDrive !”

start /wait “c:\program files\riverfront\webdrive\webdrive.exe” “Microsoft”

copy x:\dirmap.txt c:\

start /wait “c:\program files\riverfront\webdrive\webdrive.exe”  X: /d

Windows NT Example

ECHO “Running FTP batch file using WebDrive !”

start /wait /D“c:\program files\riverfront\webdrive” webdrive.exe “Microsoft”

copy x:\dirmap.txt c:\

start /wait /D“c:\program files\riverfront\webdrive” webdrive.exe  X: /d


Registry Settings

WebDrive stores it’s settings and connection database in the windows registry.  This makes it handy to export these settings into a registry file that can be quickly imported on another computer.

Program Settings

The WebDrive program settings are stored under the registry key “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RiverFront\WebDrive”.  This key is where most settings from the program settings dialog are stored.  You can export this key and import onto another computer to have WebDrive configured the same as the PC you export from.

Site Database

The WebDrive site database is stored under the registry key “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RiverFront\WebDrive\Connections”.  Each site has it’s own key under this key which contains site settings like site URL, site type, etc.

Using Regedit

Windows ships with a registry utility named regedit.exe.  To run regedit select the start menu and select run, then type regedit and press return.  Select the key you with to export and then select the “Registry” menu and select “Export Registry File”.  To import a registry file you can use regedit, or simply execute the registry file.


UNC - Universal Naming Convention

WebDrive has limited support for UNC.  You can refer to files in UNC fashion as long as the connection to the server is already established.  For example, say you are connection to the connection Microsoft (ftp.microsoft.com), with drive letter X:.  To do a dir using UNC from a DOS prompt you can enter the command DIR “\\WebDrive\Microsoft”.  To type a file you can enter type “\\WebDrive\Microsoft\dirmap.txt”.


File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

The file transfer protocol (FTP) is a common protocol used to transfer files via the Internet.  FTP servers allow FTP clients to connect to the server and either download or upload a file.  The FTP file transfer is not random access, i.e., seeks are not allowed in the file.  This why WebDrive will download an entire file when you open it.

Most companies use FTP to enable their customers to download software updates or patches.  Most access to FTP servers is done via an “Anonymous Login”.  This type of login usually allows the user to have read-only access to the FTP server.  Some companies also allow users to upload files to the FTP server into specific directories (usually incoming, etc.).

Limitations/Precautions:

♦	Backup your files on your FTP server - FTP is not always a 100% reliable method of transferring files, especially when dial up or Internet connections are involved.  This is why you should always have a backup of the html and script files that reside on your FTP server.

♦	No Locking mechanism - FTP does not provide a mechanism for locking files, e.g. when 1 user opens a file for download, another use could open the same file for upload and corruption could occur.


Utility Applications

Two command line utility applications have been provided with WebDrive 95/98, WDCHMOD which provides  a Unix chmod like command that can be used in a DOS box, and WDLS which behaves similar to the Unix ls command and also has some special WebDrive command options.  Both of these utilities are only available in the Windows 95/98 version of WebDrive.  These utility applications are installed into the WebDrive application directory, usually “c:\Program Files\RiverFront\WebDrive”.  To use these applications from a DOS command prompt, you should add this directory to your path, or copy these utility programs to a directory that is already in your path.

WDCHMOD

This utility can be used to set or examine file permissions on Unix FTP servers.  It’s usage is as follows

WDCHMOD <value> <filename>, where <value> can be in octal format, e.g. 777, or in the form of u+r,o-w,g+x.  If no path is given for the file name then the current directory is used.  The file name is the local file spec you are trying to modify, e.g. myscript.pl.  Here is some of the ways that wdchmod can be used.

•	wdchmod 777 file.txt

•	wdchmod o+w,g-w,u=xwr file.txt

WDLS

This utility can be used to get a native directory listing.  This output is the same that would be returned from a FTP “LIST” command.  You can specify list parameters on the command line.  The command usage is as follows: wdls [paramaters] [path].  Here is some examples of how to use the wdls command.

•	wdls

•	wdls *.c

•	wdls \subdir1\*.c

•	wdls -a *.cpp

•	wdls /?  - display all options

•	wdls /flushdir  - flushes the directory cache

•	wdls /flushfile  - flushes the file cache.

•	wdls /flushboth - flushes both the directory and file cache.

•	Wdls /ftp X: “custom FTP command”


Caching Options

WebDrive has many caching features to make file manipulation much quicker.  There are two main caching options (directory listing and file caching).

Directory Listing Caching

To know what files are available on a remote server, WebDrive issues FTP “DIR” commands to the remote server, DAV and FrontPage have a similar command to list files in a directory.  The response to a DIR command is a list of files and directories on the remote server.  To speed up access to files and directories WebDrive can save the response from the “DIR” command in a cache directory.  If WebDrive creates/modifies a file, it will update the directory entry in it’s local cache.  If you expect other users to change the contents of the directory as well, you can configure WebDrive to periodically flush the directory cache, e.g. every 5 minutes.  You can also manually flush the directory from the tray icon monitor application or from the WebDrive shell extension by right clicking on the drive in the explore window.

File Caching

When an application opens a file using WebDrive, the file will be downloaded into the cache.  If caching is not enabled, it will be delete from the local cache when the file is closed.  Many applications will open and close the file multiple times before displaying the contents.  When file caching is enabled, file access will be much quicker since multiple downloads will be avoided.  Cache files can also be set to “expire” after a specified number of seconds so that if a file has been in the cache for (x) seconds, it will no longer be loaded from the cache and a new copy will be downloaded from the server.

Cache Directory Update

This feature will update the directory listing in the cache directory when creating or modifying files.  This prevents the directory listing from being downloaded again.  This provides a significant performance improvement.

Cache Size

The amount of disk space to use for caching can be configured from the cache settings dialog.  You should select a size that is at least as large as the largest file you intend to use with WebDrive.  Files are flushed from the cache when the cache size is about to overflow the cache limit.


Tips for using WebDrive

•	Persistent Drives - Making a drive persistent will automatically reconnect the drive when you logon or restart your system.  This saves the step of launching WebDrive to connect.  For dialup connections, you can also configure WebDrive to restore persistent connections in a disconnected state.  The drive will show up in the explorer window as disconnected.  To cause the drive to be connected, just double click on it.  If your dial up network is enabled to startup automatically then it will also dial the default connection for you.

•	ASCII/BINARY Transfer Mode - FTP has two file transfer modes, ASCII and Binary.  ASCII mode is for transferring text files.  Unix systems use line feeds to denote line terminators and Windows/DOS systems use a carriage return/line feed combination to denote line terminators.  The FTP ASCII transfer mode will translate the Unix line feeds into CR/LF combinations.  WebDrive has a feature that will allow you to select the default file transfer mode, and then setup file extensions to signal that the file should be transferred in the opposite of the default mode.  For example, by default you can set the transfer mode to binary, and then setup WebDrive to transfer files with an .html extension in ASCII mode.  This can be configured from the WebDrive File Type Dialog

•	Unix File Permissions - WebDrive supports Unix file permissions in a couple of ways.  An explorer shell extension is provided to set permissions on a file or directory.  To use the shell extension, select the file in explorer, then right click and select properties, and the WebDrive tab.  From here you can select the file permissions and hit apply.  The second way is to use the WDCHMOD command line utility.  This application behaves similarly to the Unix CHMOD utility.  It is installed into the WebDrive program directory, normally “c:\Program Files\RiverFront\WebDrive”.


WebDrive Limitations

WebDrive has the following limitations.

♦	WebDrive doesn’t support all of the various FTP server directory list formats.  If you find one that WebDrive doesn’t support please let us know so we can add support for it.  A server that is unsupported will normally showup as if it has no files, i.e. when you do a directory on the server you see no files.


Trouble Shooting

When attempting to connect to a FTP server keep in mind that WebDrive has the following requirements.

1.	Windows 95/98/NT/Win2000 operating system.

2.	The Microsoft TCP/IP Network client must be installed.  This can be setup from the Network control panel applet.  Other TCP/IP clients can be used if they conform to the Microsoft TCP/IP TDI standard.

3.	An active connection with the Internet must be established.  For dial up networking users, this just means that you need to be connected to your ISP.

This is a list of common problems and how to resolve them.

♦	Why can’t I create files using Microsoft Word - Your FTP server may not support filenames that have the tilde ‘~’ character.  You can configure WebDrive to remove/replace this character when interacting with your FTP server.  See the site properties “File Names” tab.

♦	Why can’t I create a directory using the Windows explorer - Your FTP server may not support spaces in file names.  You can configure WebDrive to remove/replace this character when interacting with your FTP server.  See the site properties “File Names” tab.

♦	Why can’t I connect to an FTP server ?- Check your user name and password, they are case sensitive.  Check if your Internet connection is still alive.  Check the URL to make sure it is entered correctly.  For anonymous logins you need to have an e-mail address defined because many FTP servers require the e-mail address as the password.  You can use a fake e-mail address, but it must conform to a valid naming conventions, for example user@home.com.  Set the e-mail address to use on the settings dialog .

♦	Drive is in use - When this error is displayed it means the drive that you are attempting to connect to is already in use as a network drive.  You need to select a drive that is not currently in use.  To see what drives are available open a Windows explorer window and look in the left hand pane for drives that are currently in use.

♦	Unable to map network drive X: to server - This error message is displayed when a mount for the selected drive fails.  This normally happens when you have a “lastdrive=g:” statement in your config.sys file.  Please remove this entry from your config.sys file and restart your system.

♦	Why is the directory listing empty for the FTP site.  Try flushing the directory cache, if this doesn’t work WebDrive might not understand the directory listing format of the FTP server or it can’t “Auto Detect” the listing type.  Try changing the server type from “Auto Detect” to the actual type.  Currently Unix, NT/DOS, VMS, Macintosh, AS/400, and Novell servers are supported.  If you have a problem with a particular FTP server please send the URL to us so we can add support for it.  Send problems to support@riverfrontsoftware.com

♦	I can’t copy a file from the FTP drive. - Check the drive monitor log window for FTP/HTTP status responses.  It may report access denied or some other FTP error.

♦	I can’t find a file on the server that should be there. - Flush your directory cache, this can be done from WebDrive or the Monitor application.

♦	Rename doesn’t work - Your FTP server probably doesn’t support this command.  The Windows 95 personal web server for instance doesn’t support the FTP rename command.


Windows Sockets Update (WINSOCK2)

For Windows 95 users we recommend downloading and installing the Winsock2 update from Microsoft.  This fixes a number of problems relating to the Microsoft TCP/IP stack and Winsock components.  The setup file can be downloaded from Microsoft at the following URL http://www.microsoft.com/windows/download/ws2setup.exe.  For more information about this update, please visit the Microsoft Winsock2 update page at http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/ws2.htm


AS/400 Server Support

To connect to an AS/400 FTP server you need to set the server type to AS/400 from the site advanced properties tab.  Auto-detect does not work for AS/400 servers.  You will also need to specify any libraries that you wish to access via the site FTP properties tab.  Add the library names to the hidden directory list, for example QSYS.  This will make a drive appear with all of the libraries you specify as folders off the root directory of the drive.  To retrieve a file from the library, change directory into the library and them copy the member/file using standard methods.


Problem Reporting

Please report problems or suggestions via e-mail to support@webdrive.com.  In your e-mail please include the following information:

1.	Windows platform you are running on, and the version of WebDrive you are using.

2.	The URL of the FTP server you were using when the problem occurred.

3.	A detailed description of the problem.  Include file name and complete subdirectory name if applicable.


Order WebDrive

Web Drive can be purchased in several different ways.  Please visit our web site at www.webdrive.com/order.htm for pricing details on ordering WebDrive.


Contact RiverFront Software

RiverFront Software can be contacted via the following methods:

Web: www.webdrive.com

Support: support@webdrive.com

Sales: sales@webdrive.com

FAX: +1 (909) 736 - 8675

Postal Address

RiverFront Software

P.O. Box 190

Norco, CA 91760

USA


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