WebDAV Redirector Registry Settings

In Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 there is an updated WebDAV redirector which has several settings available through registry.

Rober McMurray has documented all currently available settings in his blog, it's a great resource and I have to copy it especially for my own memory.

The base registry hive is:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters

The know settings are:

Value & Description	Type	Values	Default
AcceptOfficeAndTahoeServers Specifies whether the WebClient service can connect to web sites that are running SharePoint or Office Web Server.	DWORD	0 = False 1 = True	1
BasicAuthLevel Specifies whether the WebClient service can use basic authentication to talk to a server. Note: Using basic authentication can cause serious security issues as the username/password are transmitted in clear text, therefore the use of basic authentication over WebDAV is disabled by default unless the connection is using SSL. That being said, this registry key can override the default basic authentication behavior, but it is still strongly discouraged.	DWORD	0 = Basic authentication is disabled 1 = Basic authentication is enabled for SSL web sites only 2 = Basic authentication is enabled for SSL and non-SSL web sites	1
FileAttributesLimitInBytes Specifies the maximum size that is allowed by the WebClient service for all properties on a specific collection.	DWORD	Size of attributes in bytes	1,000,000 decimal (1 MB)
FileSizeLimitInBytes Specifies the maximum size in bytes that the WebClient service allows for file transfers.	DWORD	File size in bytes	50,000,000 decimal (50 MB)
InternetServerTimeoutInSec Specifies the connection timeout for the WebClient service uses when communicating with non-local WebDAV servers.	DWORD	Time in seconds	30 decimal
LocalServerTimeoutInSec Specifies the connection timeout for the WebClient service uses when communicating with a local WebDAV server.	DWORD	Time in seconds	15 decimal
SendReceiveTimeoutInSec Specifies the timeout in seconds that WebDAV the WebClient service uses after issuing a request, such as “GET /file.ext” or “PUT /file.ext”.	DWORD	Time in seconds	60 decimal
ServerNotFoundCacheLifeTimeInSec Specifies the period of time that a server is cached as non-WebDAV by the WebClient service. Note: The WebClient service maintains a list of non-WebDAV servers that have been contacted. If the server is found in this list, a fail is returned immediately without attempting to contact the server.	DWORD	Time in seconds	60 decimal
SupportLocking Specifies whether the WebClient service supports locking.	DWORD	0 = False 1 = True	1

Note: After changing any of these settings you will need to restart the WebClient service.

Source: Robert McMurray's Blog

Great Microsoft EFS articles and tools

Microsoft EFS (Encrypted File System) can be used in combination with SMB and WebDAV. With SMB on network shares it makes not much sense (see my other notes) because of the strange implementation of using server side profiles and keys. But on local disks or with WebDAV on network filestores it's a great security enhancement out-of-the-box.

But there are a lot of issues and caveats you have to know when you want to deploy EFS in an enterprise infrastructure. Today I found the "ParanoidMike" blog which is a great resource for some of EFS related question:

EFS Certificate Updater
EFS and SYSKEY backgrounder
Why EFS makes no sense on servers

Source: ParanoidMike

DavCopy - The WebDAV robocopy edition

This one is a must have for everyone working with native WebDAV or Sharepoint as a WebDAV Server:

DavCopy
http://www.bluedoglimited.com/Downloads/default.aspx

It's a kind of xcopy / robocopy for WebDAV, you can do simple thins like

DavCopy.exe test\folder\readme.doc “http://server.com/shared documents/”

or funny things like

/s /xf *docs\*c* w* /xd reports how-to lang

and most important, it supports command line authentication for batch jobs.

Map a drive via FTP or WebDav

Source: Map a drive via FTP or WebDav

Talking about an alternative approach to connect to WebDAV shares, there is an application out there I tried some time ago (Novell "Net Drive" aka "Webdrive"). I was not too happy with this application because of heavy issues with the cache consistency and the many explorer freezes I had, but Simon writes in his blog about the licensing confiusion I din't know about before. Good reading.