Hopkins Architects WebDAV Server
Welcome to the Hopkins Architects Limited WebDAV server.
About the WebDAV server
The Hopkins WebDAV server allows us to easily send and receive files over the internet. We have chosen to use WebDAV in place of ftp as some of our collaborators and clients have difficulty using ftp through their firewalls.
WebDAV provides what are commonly called "Web Folders".
To use WebDAV facilities on this server, you will need to follow the instructions noted below. If you encounter difficulties, please contact the IT team at Hopkins.
Hopkins IT email
Telephone 44 (0)2077241751.
Index
Windows--how to use WebDAV
Browser access
If you only wish to download information, simply click on the url links above and log in with the username and password supplied to you by Hopkins staff. This will give you folder and file listing views within your browser, from which you can download information.
To access the relevant project space through your browser, use a url in the following format.
https://dav.hopkins.co.uk/projectname
For versions of Windows prior to XP, please follow the instructions here.
Web Folder access
To be able to upload and download information, choose the "Add Network Place" wizard (typically found in "My Network Places"), for XP computers. Click through the next screens in the wizard until you get to a dialog box prompting for a network address. Put in the address of the project on the Hopkins WebDAV folder like this:
http://username:password@dav.hopkins.co.uk/projectname
You should now be prompted by a dialog box requesting a username and password. Please enter the project name as the user name, and the password exactly as the hopkins staff member has provided. Passwords are case sensitive.
You should now be connected to the server. The new network place will be presented as a standard network share on your PC.
Note that the Windows dialog box misrepresents the time it takes to do an upload. Large files appear to be almost complete on the progress bar for most of the upload. Wait for the status dialog to close before considering the upload to be complete.
Windows XP Service Pack 3/Recent Security Updates
After Service Pack 3 and recent security updates, users accessing webdav folders are required to suffix the server address (dav.hopkins.co.uk) with ":80". If you are experiencing any issue with the connections specified above, try wording the link as follows:
https://dav.hopkins.co.uk:80/projectname
Windows 7
Open up My Computer, go to File > Add a Network Location... (press Alt if the File Menu isn't shown). Choose "Custom Network Location". Add in the format:
https://dav.hopkins.co.uk/projectname
Enter the username and password, and you will be connected.Troubleshooting
If you are having problems using XP web folders, consider trying DataFreeway, a free dav/ftp/ssh client.
If you are having trouble using web folders with Windows 7, consider using Bitkinex, a free dav/ftp client.
Microsoft have a long technical article about possible problems with XP and Web Folders. Jump to point 6 on the list of their article here to fix things for 2000/XP. A concise summary is on the site here.
Macintosh--how to use WebDAV
If you only wish to download information, simply click on the url links above and log in with the username and password supplied to you by Hopkins staff. This will give you folder and file listing views within your browser, from which you can download information.
To be able to upload and download information on OS X clients, choose "Connect to Server" from the Finder (or press Apple-K). Enter the project address in the following format:
https://dav.hopkins.co.uk/projectname
You should now be able to connect to the server after entering your username and password in the ensuing dialog boxes. The project folder should show up as a standard server in the Finder.
Note that the OS X Finder misrepresents the time it takes to do an upload. Large files appear to be "Closing file" for most of the upload. Wait for the status dialog to close before considering the upload to be complete.
Linux/Unix--how to use WebDAV
Some distributions have inbuilt DAV support. However it is possible to build the davfs2 linux file system driver if you do not already have it. (davfs2 has ssl support.) See the davfs sourceforge site for more information.
You may also wish to try the cadaver command-line client.
Hopkins IT Team, October 2005
