HOW TO: Set Up WebDAV for a UNIX-to-Windows Migration (324046)

SUMMARY

When you configure Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV), client computers can open and save documents directly to a Web site instead of using sharing methods such as Server Message Block (SMB), Network File System (NFS), or Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to share the Web site content for editing and updating procedures. This article describes how to configure WebDAV in Internet Information Services (IIS).

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Creating a WebDAV Folder

Any folder in the IIS folder structure can potentially be WebDAV-compatible. IIS supports WebDAV on any folder in a shared Web site. You do not have to create a special type of folder or virtual directory. However, Microsoft recommends that you consider setting up separate folders for different areas of your Web site that you want to update by using WebDAV so that you can configure the appropriate authentication and security settings.

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Configuring WebDAV

In Apache, you have to turn on Distributed Authoring and Versioning (DAV), and then configure the authentication setting that you want to use to support the WebDAV service.

To configure WebDAV on a folder in IIS:

1. Log on to the Web server computer as an administrator.
2. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
3. Double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Internet Services Manager.
4. Right-click the Web site that you want to configure in the left pane, and then click Properties.
5. If you want to set the permissions for a Web site's home folder, click the Home Directory tab.
   
   Alternatively, if you want to set permissions for a folder in a Web site, click the Directory tab.
6. Click Write to give WebDAV clients write access to this folder, and then click Directory Browsing to allow users to browse the Web folder (Microsoft recommends that you use this setting).
7. Click the Directory Security tab.
8. Click Edit in the Anonymous access and authentication control panel section, and then select the type of authentication that you want to use to identify users when they access the items in this folder:
   • Click Integrated Windows authentication if you want to use the encrypted communication to exchange the authentication information.
   • Click Digest Authentication if you want Windows domain servers to use a hash value instead of the password that uses a form that is compatible with proxy servers and firewalls.
   • Click Basic Authentication if you want to use plain text passwords.
9. If appropriate, restrict the editing functionality to specific users, groups, and IP addresses.
   
   See the "References" section in this article to find more information about this procedure.
10. Click OK.

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