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We're needing to provide remote (read/write) access to a number of files on our network to several users (some technical, some non-technical) who will be running Windows. The non technical users will need to be able to access their files in an easy to use manner.

From previous experience, we could do this with:

  • (some sort of) VPN
  • SSH and something like Dokan (i've only previously done this on linux with sshfs)
  • WebDav
  • FTP

VPN and SSH access are more open that we need at present, so I'm leaning towards webdav, however I only have limited experience of it (setting up an SVN server several years ago), but my understanding is that users can access it through windows explorer.

FTP I haven't had much experience of, as I've always used SFTP via ssh - but i'd imagine we could make this work in a similar way to ssh.

So my question is - have I missed any obvious candidates for this task, or if webdav is (or isn't) suitable what are the security implications of using it for this (obviously https will be used for the transfers, etc).

Thanks, Rob.

Rob Rob
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1 Answers1

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Have you seen WinSCP?

It's pretty user-friendly, supports passwords and RSA keys, and requires nothing in the way of Windows installation (i.e. you could provide your users with a USB key and they could run the executable off the key)

danlefree
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  • my understanding of scp is that it runs over ssh - ie: this would allow users to log in via ssh as well, which is more access than we would like externally. thanks. – Rob Rob Dec 29 '10 at 11:13
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    "My understanding of scp..." - then you'll be glad to learn that it is possible to restrict users to SFTP: http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/94 – danlefree Dec 29 '10 at 11:15
  • you learn something new every day :) - thanks! I'll leave this open for a bit and see if i get any other responses – Rob Rob Dec 29 '10 at 11:34