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I've setup an FTP server in my Windows environment recently, but I discovered that in my corporate network FTP transmissions from/to outside the corp. LAN are forbidden.

Is there any "application" which enables me to access files and directories (allowing me to download them) via HTTP?

I have a web server running in the machine so I can setup any web written (HTML, PHP, ...) program.

EDIT: Any connection to outside the LAN environment goes through a proxy (or something similar, it also filters some webs), they filter out-going and out-coming FTP and SSH connections (at least). They use a PAC in some computers.

EDIT: The solutions have to be OS independent in the client side, in my work I use UNIX and Linux environments.

5 Answers 5

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First things first, is SFTP an option? Because it's really much better than FTP (being secure and all).

Now, by "forbidden" do you mean they say "don't do this, but we have no real way to stop you" or do you mean they block ports 20 and 21? Because it's easy enough to change the ports things listen on.

And finally, do you want WebDAV? It's relatively easy to setup depending on your server.

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  • +1 for WebDAV. It's quite easy to configure on IIS, and Windows Explorer and OS X Finder can access WebDAV shared folders easily. Dec 15, 2009 at 2:53
  • Thanks I'll take a look at it, I'll see how it works. Right now I have an Apache server with mod_dav loaded but never looked on how to config it.
    – Carlos
    Dec 15, 2009 at 12:09
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You might want to try net2ftp. Otherwise you could turn on directory browsing via a .htaccess file.

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Not exactly HTTP, but have you tried DC++? It's great for situations like this.

The problem with HTTP downloads from the remote computer is that you can't transfer an entire directory easily. Unless you compress it, you'll have to go into each directory and download files 1 by 1. With that said, you could compress whichever directories you want to transfer, then place them in Apache's DocumentRoot and download them from home.

Depending on the amount of content, Dropbox may be of use.

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  • Thanks, I already use Dropbox but the amount of content is big enough to need a Pro account which I can't afford right now.
    – Carlos
    Dec 15, 2009 at 12:15
  • Oh wow, that will take ages over the internet regardless of method. Have you considered transferring the folders to external media (DVD, External Hard Drive) and bringing it home?
    – user1931
    Dec 15, 2009 at 12:17
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Is FTP banned by policy, or by port? You could set up the FTP port to something non-standard.

You could also try SFTP or FTPS (more secure, plus different port) - Filezilla

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  • solitude.dk/filethingie -- one file to upload if you want a php solution. Super simple upload/download. Dec 15, 2009 at 2:46
  • FTP transmissions are blocked by policy I guess, changing the port didn't work either. But thanks for that PHP thing suggestion, I'll take a look at it.
    – Carlos
    Dec 15, 2009 at 12:11
  • After reading your edits, I would really suggest the "filethingie" as a great simple solution. The version I had used was much more basic than what I see on their website now, but looks like they stuck to a one file program which is really easy to set up, set user/pass and you are good to go! Dec 15, 2009 at 23:37
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The application that enables accessing files and directories and download them via HTTP is called ... the browser.

HTTP will show you all files in a directory, although this is turned off by default for security reasons. You can download them by a simple click, or by the right-click menu for files that the browser prefers to display (such as an image).

You need to turn on Directory Browsing for the directory(ies).

If you need more information, please indicate your OS and Web server.

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