Web Folders and the WebDAV Protocol

You can share folders with other computers by making them available as Web

Folders instead of, or in addition to, sharing them as network shared folders. To

share a folder on a Windows XP Professional system as a Web Folder, right-click

the folder, select Properties, and click the Web Sharing tab. Click the Add button

to assign an Alias name for the Web Folder, specify the permissions for the Web

Folder, and click OK to create the Web Folder on the default Web site. The

WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) protocol acts as a

redirector that enables users to open and save documents via Hypertext Transport

Protocol (HTTP) port 80. As long as the Web server host computer is

running IIS 5 or above, and as long as an application program supports saving

and retrieving documents via HTTP, you can take advantage of WebDAV. To

use WebDAV, simply type in the URL path plus the document name in the

Open or Save As dialog box for an application.

Users can encrypt files stored in Web Folders without fear of compromising the

data whenever the files are transmitted across the network wire. Encrypted files

are always encrypted and decrypted on the local computer before being sent over

the network. Encrypted files are transferred in cybertext over the network—even

if encrypted files get intercepted as they are sent over a network connection, the

encrypted files cannot be interpreted.