Access files from home

[Jobos]

I’ve been looking into the possibility of the HT accessing his files from home. After reading old threads about the problems with Webdav I think it would be easer to just allow read access by creating a virtual directory pointed at the HT home folder.

 

I setup a test user to try this on and removed anonymous access, force windows authentication, remove script source access and write permissions from IIS

 

All this worked well but how secure would this be to hackers?

[m25man]

Webdav, Don't do it.

 

If you want a simple and cheap solution use a Netgear SSL 312 or a Sonicwall 200 appliance.

 

Yes, you could do it with several other solutions posted elsewhere in this forum but they all rely on different knowledge and skill sets.

 

This is the easiest by far, sits on it's own appliance, only one port opened, AD or local ACL and you have a much wider choice of options than web dav can offer.

 

I have deployed over a dozen of these appliances and every school that has taken them love them and prefer to use them over all other methods they either had in place or tested for remote access.

[SYNACK]

If you are going to allow file access using the virtual directory method you will want to implement at least SSL otherwise the data transfer will be unencrypted and much easier to compromise.

[Jobos]

Thanks for the answers.

 

m25man a couple of questions.

 

Would you recommend the appliance needs its own IP address or would forwarding port 443 from our existing address to the appliance work just as well?

 

If all we wanted was file access what would a user see when connecting through the appliance?

 

Cheers.

[m25man]

Simply redirect your port forwarding to the internal address you allocate to the appliance.

[AnnDroyd]

Webdav, Don't do it.

 

We use webdav (web folders) to give access from home via IIS and it works superbly. Very reliable and easy to use.

 

No need to be spending money on third party solutions when your Windows 2000/2003 server already contains all you need.

[m25man]

No need to be spending money on third party solutions when your Windows 2000/2003 server already contains all you need.

 

Agreed,

 

But as there are still a large number of schools, especially those run by novices, hosting users home directories on the most sensitive of servers (PDC's - Viglen Classlink to mention just one) if they are setup correctly they are pretty solid but as soon as you start enabling things like Webdav you need to have a good handle on security.

 

Lets face it, the security track record for both IIS and Apache using Webdav has not been exactly the best.

 

These appliances start at only £200 with no server, no licences, no server OS needed AND you get RDP, VPN and Reverse Proxy functions.

 

If you have a large number of users and Home Folder access is all you need then fair enough, Webdav will do the trick but once you have used ssl-vpn you won't look back.

 

For the benefit of the thread starter who's need was just to provide remote access to their HT - the SSL VPN starter appliance is streets ahead of adding Webdav to your Fileserver/IIS and before you know where you are half the SMT will be using it.

 

There are plenty of other ways to do it for free without tempting fate with Webdav.

https://www.foldershare.com/info/aboutFoldershare.php?

Is just one of a thousand...

[FN-GM]

Have you considered VPN?

 

Z

[john]

or Log Me In?

[maniac]

SSL explorer is easy to set up and the community version is free. I use it to provide remote file access to the entire staff, and remote desktop access to SLT and other staff. Doesn't require a massive amount of power to run it, I have it on a virtual server at it performs brilliently.

 

Check it out at http://www.3sp.com/showSslExplorerCommunity.do

 

Mike.,

[webman]

We use the RM CC3 implementation of WebDAV (Easylink) which works fine.

[K.C.Leblanc]

We use terminal services. Works well, and solves problems with teachers trying to bring in files created in different programs.

[SpuffMonkey]

or Log Me In?

 

Yeah - if its just one user - LogMeIn is a fantastioc bit of free kit.

[mrforgetful]

Things is with webdav and a completely web based system is nothing has to be set up on the client. This makes it the preferred option if you want students to have access from a public library, a cyber cafe or the grandmothers PC, etc.

 

Great in principle.

 

But Windows XP has a known problem with WebDAV which pretty much makes it a hit and miss 50/50 chance of working. Not great.

 

We eneded up having to use Novell Netdrive for our Public Drive remote access. Unless you use Vista, in which case MS actually got WebDAV working.

[jcollings]

Jsut give him a flash drive and tell him to plan ahead

 

Seriously I use logmein and it's really useful. Means I can upgrade SIMS from home at 10pm so I can be sure evey bugger is out! Deep Joy!

[plock]

Jsut give him a flash drive and tell him to plan ahead

 

Seriously I use logmein and it's really useful. Means I can upgrade SIMS from home at 10pm so I can be sure evey bugger is out! Deep Joy!

 

I'm a heavy user of LogMeIn also, brilliant freebie!

[Jobos]

Maniac. I’m very impressed with SSL explorer. What restrictions are in the Community version?

[maniac]

There's no restrictions as such, it's a fully functional product. The enterprise edition has extra security measures included including multi-factor authentication, and integration into systems such as RADIUS etc.

 

For basic username/password authentication and active directory integration the community edition is adequate.

 

My SSL explorer home page is https://www.nbc.medway.sch.uk:49302 If you'd like to have a look round inside a working SSL explorer installation then PM me with a contact phone number, and I'll ring you and give you a temporary login so you can have a look.

 

Mike.

[Jobos]

Thanks for the offer but I’ve got the idea how it works from the flash movies on the SSL Explorer home page.

 

I see your using a non standard port for SSL tunnelling. Did this present any problems for your users as my browser displayed an HTTP 502 proxy error when I tried to view your page? Probably because I’m behind our ISA server and it’s not configured to allow HTTPS access on port 49302

[nicholab]

You could use secure FTP for handling access?

[NikChillin]

We are using Web Dav to connect to our documents from home, logging into the website and then the intranet to their my documents.

The problem we have is that some students do not have MS office on their pc at home which causes the 'my documents' link to point at their home pc 'my documents' folder.

Has anyone got a fix for this rather than asking parents to fork out £40?

[zag]

We use terminal web services.

 

Very easy to setup on the server and the user simply goes to a web page and has direct control of a school PC remote desktop.

[dhicks]

We use terminal web services.

 

Is MS Office still licensed by device only, i.e. if you want to let users use MS Office at home their computer has to be licensed for it? This might have changed with Office 2010, or it might now be covered under the terms of an external connector license or similar. Use a web-based system capable of importing / editing MS Office documents?

 

--

David Hicks

[NikChillin]

We want them to access their documents from home but not using remote desktop, they can copy and paste into their home pc, work on them and copy them back.