WebDAV Cloud Server

Consider the following
before using the native Windows clients

How to fix Slow WebDAV Performance in Windows 7:

1. In Internet Explorer, open the Tools menu, then click Internet Options.
   
2. Select the Connections tab.
   
3. Click the LAN Settings button.
   
4. Uncheck the "Automatically detect settings" box.

Unfortunately, Windows' support for WebDAV is a little strange and may not always function correctly. We therefore recommend using one of the following WebDAV clients for Windows:

• NetDrive is free for home users.
  
• WebDrive is a robust product, but a bit pricey.
  
• Total Commander together with the WebDAV plugin provides a FTP like interface to a WebDAV server.

In addition to the above tools, the Microsoft Office products have built in WebDAV support. As an example, Microsoft Word can directly open and edit remote documents by using a WebDAV server. See our Edit Remote Documents Using Microsoft Word tutorial for more information.

Try the WebDAV Cloud Server

Would you like to have your own exclusive WebDAV server installed on an online computer with a lightning fast network and with up to 1000 GBytes of transfer/month? More information

Mapping a Windows Drive to a WebDAV Server

This tutorial shows you how to connect a Folder or a Windows Drive Letter to any WebDAV server, what to do if the command fails, what not to do, and security. This tutorial is for Windows XP/Vista/W7 client users. The video to the right shows how to map a drive to the BarracudaDrive server by using a session URL. The session URL eliminates the login problem found in many Windows WebDAV implementations. Note: you do not have to use a session URL in BarracudaDrive. Simply use the same URL as you use in the browser when mapping the drive.

The Two WebDAV Windows Clients

Microsoft Windows provides two WebDAV clients: Web Folders and WebDAV Mini Redirector. The clients are integrated and come preinstalled with your Windows.

Web Folders (XP only)

The first generation WebDAV client provided by Microsoft is called Web Folders and allows one to drag and drop between a remote WebDAV server and your local computer. The Web Folders client provides functionality similar to (secure) FTP. Note Web Folders is not available on Vista.
How to connect:

1. Go to My Network Places, and click on Add Network Place at the top of the left sidebar.
   
2. The window that pops up is the Add Network Place Wizard. Click Next.
   
3. On the next page, enter the URL of the WebDAV folder in the box named Internet or network address and click Next.
   
4. A window asking for your username and password will pop up at this point. Enter your username and password, and click OK.
   
5. On the next page, enter a name for this share -- this is the name that will show up in the My Network Places listing.
   
6. Click Finish on the next page.

WebDAV Mini Redirector (XP, Vista, and Win7)

The second generation Microsoft WebDAV client is called WebDAV Mini Redirector and allows one to map a WebDAV location to a Drive letter the same way as if you were using a Windows File Sharing/SMB/CIFS share.
WebDAV Mini Redirector limitations:

• No support for HTTPS, i.e. no support for secure connections.
  
• Your WebDAV server must be using port 80, the default port.
  
• Typically fails when transfering larger files.
  
• Gets confused if the user does not have access to read and/or write to a file or directory.

How to connect:

1. Right click on My Computer and select Map Network Drive.
   
2. In the Folder "entry field", enter the URL, and click Finish.
   
3. Enter your username and password in the authentication box that appears.

Be sure to enter the correct username and password. WebDAV Mini Redirector may not take no for an answer and may continue attempting to login until the hacker prevention logic in BarracudaDrive bans your client's IP address. You will get an obscure error message in the console. You can see if you are banned by attempting to login using a browser.
You can use the network drive like you use your C:\ hard drive as soon as the command completes successfully. This means that you can directly work with documents without first copying them, start computer programs, and more over the Internet.

The following image shows a Windows Explorer window listing the content of a WebDAV server.

Windows WebDAV Mini Redirector Authentication Bug:
Many Windows computers have a bug in the digest authentication process and thus authenticating using the above procedure will fail. You have the bug in your computer if the "Windows credentials dialogue" reappears after you have entered the correct username and password. It is possible to circumvent this bug by mapping the drive from the command line. Note, if the "Windows credentials dialogue" reappears, you must reboot your Windows computer before using the command line. Windows will continue to fail if you do not reboot. This is also true if you accidently enter the wrong credentials.
Do the following to map a drive and authenticate from the command line:

1. Open a command window (DOS Window) by clicking the Windows start button and typing in the command "cmd" in the "run" or "search programs ..." box.
   
2. Type the following command in the command window:
   NET USE * http://servername/fs/ password /USER:username

Note: the BarracudaDrive server includes functionality that circumvents the Windows authentication bug. The BarracudaDrive Web-File-Manager includes a WebDAV button that creates a session URL which uses the browser's login session. The session URL solves two problems: it eliminates the login problem and makes the connection more secure since you may terminate the session by logging out in the browser. If you do not use the session URL, the only way to logout is to reboot your Windows computer.

Security

One cannot use a secure connection when using the WebDAV Mini Redirector, i.e. the following command will typically fail:

NET USE * https://barracudaserver.com/dav/

When using WebDAV Mini Redirector, all data exchanged with the BarracudaDrive server is sent unencrypted and might be eavesdropped. Use one of the alternative clients mentioned above if you need secure communication.

What to do if the command fails

Error messages such as "The network name cannot be found" can be related to a number of problems. The first thing to do is to check if your client is disabled.
You can download and run the following command file, which will attempt to start the Windows WebDAV client.

You can alternatively enable the client manually:

Start the WebClient Service

Go to: Control Panel -> Performance And Maintanance -> Administrative Tools -> Services Scroll down until you see WebClient.

Set WebClient to automatic and start the service. Try to connect from a command window and restart Windows if it fails.

Things get a bit complicated if you have the same problem after enabling the WebClient service and after rebooting Windows. You may have to upgrade your WebDAV Mini Redirector Windows client.
You can do a search on Google and you will find many articles related to the WebDAV Mini Redirector problems. You can also see Wikipedia: WebDAV and Microsoft Windows.
Upgrading Windows Vista WebDAV client: Microsoft has ackowledged there are Web Folder issues in Vista, but unless your system is 64-bit, you should be able to get Web Folders working by installing an update from Microsoft and using the instructions and "workarounds" in the following steps:
If you have a 32-bit Vista apply this Software Update for Web Folders (Microsoft.com).

What not to do when using the BarracudaDrive server

You might come up with the idea and connect to localhost, i.e. have the WebDAV Mini Redirector and BarracudaDrive on the same computer. There are no reasons to do this, except for testing.
Never do the following on a Windows computer if BarracudaDrive is running in console mode or if using the free BarracudaDrive version:

net use * http://localhost/dav/

The above command will lead to an endless loop between Windows and BarracudaDrive as BarracudaDrive will try to access the new WebDAV network drive, which loops back into BarracudaDrive. This command will crash your Windows computer.
However, the following command is OK:

net use * http://localhost/dav/C/

How to Move the Firefox Disk Cache To Another Drive

By default, Firefox automatically allocates 50MB for its disk cache and stores it in the "cache" directory located in the same drive where the browser is installed. Users can view the cache directory location by typing about:config in the Firefox address bar. Disk cache is a mechanism for improving the time it takes to read from or write to a hard disk. If the browser's disk cache is located on the same drive where the browser is installed, the browser's performance technically will be affected.

The performance slowdown issue will be more obvious if Firefox is installed on a Solid State Disk, which is not suitable for write operation. The disk can do read date pretty fast but is overall slow in writing to it. Hence, it is good to relocate the disk cache in Firefox to separate the drives for better performance as well as for security reasons.

The Cache location can be changed by adding the "browser.cache.disk.parent_directory" preference and entering a folder path. To do it, type about:config in the Firefox address bar. Right click your mouse and select New String from the Menu. In the dialog box, just type in browser.cache.disk.parent_directory as the preference name and the new path to the cache location, for instance d:\temp. Once this preference is specified, a new directory named "Cache" will be created at the path you set.

Mapping Windows Live SkyDrive as a Network Drive for Windows XP

Windows Live SkyDrive may let you store up to 25 GB of files online for free, but it can be annoying to have to log in to the service through your web browser every time you want to use it. However, there are some ways you can map SkyDrive as a network drive, making it much easier to access and use.

Overview of Skydrive

If you've been looking for a free, reputable site to store and share files online, Windows Live SkyDrive is a great choice. To access SkyDrive, all you need is a Windows Live ID, which is easy enough to create if you don't already have one. Once you have an account set up, you can store up to 25 GB of data on SkyDrive with a limit of 50 MB for each data file.

One downside to SkyDrive is that the Windows Live browser-based interface can be a bit annoying if you want to be able to easily access your files on a regular basis. However, you can work around this problem by mapping Skydrive as a network drive and setting up the folder on your desktop so that you can access your files the same way you would for any file stored on your personal hard drive.

There are a few different ways that this can be done, but we'll focus on two of the simpler ways, both of which take advantage of a free utility that can be downloaded and installed on your system to help you manage files stored in SkyDrive. The first method uses a tool developed by Gladinet, and the second uses SkyDrive Explorer.

Using Gladinet to Map Skydrive

First, we'll walk through the process of using Gladinet to set up SkyDrive as a network drive.

Step 1: To get started, you'll need to download the Gladinet Free Starter Edition that can be found at this link. Click on either the 32-bit or 64-bit download button, depending on which version operating system you are using. (Click on any image in this article for a larger view.)

The installer will walk you through a series of steps. You should be just fine if you accept the default options for each question asked.

Step 2: At the end of the installation process, you can choose to immediately launch Gladinet Cloud Desktop by making sure there is a check in the appropriate box. If you decide to wait until later to set everything up, you can access the application from the Start menu.

Step 3: The first time you run the Gladinet application, you'll have to enter some basic information starting with license information. If you just plan on using the free starter edition, make sure the corresponding radio button is selected.

Step 4: After selecting the license option, click Next to continue. Enter your email address if you want to register the software – this step is optional. When done, click Next again.

Step 5: On the next screen, you'll be given a list of options that you can add as a virtual drive. Put a check in the box next to Windows Live SkyDrive. You can also check any of the other services if you use them and want to set up drives for them now.

Click Next to continue.

Step 6: The next screen will show the settings assigned to your general Gladinet drive. You can either accept the defaults or customize the settings.

Click Finish when done. Now, you'll need to finish following the rest of the steps to set up your Windows Live SkyDrive for easy access.

Step 7: Go to either My Computer or Windows Explorer and locate the newly mapped Gladinet Drive.

Double-click on the drive to open it in Windows Explorer. Now, you will see a selection labeled Windows Live Skydrive.gvm. Double-click on that selection.

Step 8: A window will pop up asking for your Windows Live ID and pass word. Enter this information and click Next to continue.

Step 9: In the next window, click Finish and wait for the drive to be mounted.

During this process, a popup will appear asking you if you want to backup your data. If you do, make the appropriate selections. However, if you just want to finish setting up the network drive for SkyDrive, just hit the Cancel button to continue with the process.

Now, when you return to your newly mapped drive, SkyDrive will show up with its full directory structure, allowing you to use the drive in the same manner you would access any folder on your computer's hard drive.

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/windows-platform/articles/58709.aspx#ixzz1N8GOWxbo

How to Map Skydrive as Network Drive in Windows XP

We have covered free tools like Skydrive Explorer and also Gladinet which can help you to access Windows Live Skydrive as a network drive. If you do not want to use a third party tool to access Windows Live Skydrive, you can still map it as a network drive and access any folder in Skydrive. For mapping Skydrive to Windows Explorer, we are using the SSL connection and for this we need the unique ID (WebDAV access) for connecting which can be obtained using a small portable tool.

1. First step is to get the WebDAV access address for your Skydrive account. For this there is a simple portable tool called SkyDrive Simple Viewer developed by Mike. Run the tool and login to your Skydrive and select the folder which you want to map.

In the image above, you can see an address corresponding to the folder I have selected. The address looks like this-

https://cdckda.docs.live.net/sdfsd24645759/Documents.

Here the sdfsd24645759 refers to the path which is the same as a personal sub domain when logging on to SkyDrive the normal way from your web browser. It can look like "http://cid-sdfsd24645759.skydrive.live.com/". The sub domain cdckda refers to the your account and the folder you are trying to access.

2. Next step you need to make some modification to the URL.

The original URL- https://cdckda.docs.live.net/sdfsd24645759/Documents

Modified URL- \cdckda.docs.live.net@SSLsdfsd24645759Documents

We are connecting using the SSL for Windows Live Skydrive.

3. Open Windows Explorer, right click on the Network and select Map Network Drive.

4. In the Map Network Drive option, enter the folder as \cdckda.docs.live.net@SSLsdfsd24645759Documents. You can also chose to reconnect at Login and if you want to connect using multiple account, check the second box as well.

5. It will prompt you to enter the Windows Live credentials after attempting to connect to Skydrive.

Now the network drive will be connected and you can see the drive in Window Explorer.

Thanks to Mike for this detailed tutorial.

How to change firefox cache directory

How to change firefox cache directory

From here

1. In Windows XP, go to C:\Documents and Settings\XXX\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\XXXXX.default

2. Create a file called User.js (same directory as Prefs.js)

3. Paste this into it and save:
// Path to Cache folder:
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.parent_directory","x :\\");

X:\\ is the directory you want to place the cache

Useful when you want to place the cache onto a ramdisk

Twitter accounts with at least 1000 followers

Create an account at twitter.com
Then go to flashtweet.com and follow someone who has plenty of friends, like britney spears, follow their friends with flashtweets mass follow.
Then use dossy.org/twitter/karma/ to ditch the people who wont follow you.

Tweetlater.com is also good as you can use it to autorespond when someone follows you, and autofollow for free.

(the paid upgrade is just for recurring tweets and the ability to auto tweet more than 12 times an hour.)

Ultimate List Of Twitter Applications and Websites

Twitter is a real addicting service and I have been using it in and out for quite some time.

Over the time we have come across many useful desktop clients and websites which help make your twitter experience better.

Bringing to you the ultimate list of twitter tools to help you keep tweeting.

Twitter Desktop Clients

There are various ways in which you can update your status on twitter, but the best I think is updating it directly from the desktop.

If you have not been using a twitter desktop client or are looking for various alternatives, here is the ultimate list of twitter clients which will make updating your status much more easier.

TweetDeck

My current favorite, Tweetdeck is a Adobe Air application that has tons of features and is probably one of the best twitter applicaiton you can find.

Thwirl

Thwirl is a Adobe Air application that allows you to update your status from the desktop.

Digsby

Digsby is a multiprotocol IM tool which provides you with twitter support.

TwitterIM

TwitterIM is a solution for MSN and ICQ users. It allows you to update your twitter using MSN or ICQ messengers. Our Review.

Witty

Witty is a twitter client made for Windows Vista. Our Review.

OutTwit

OutTwit is a twitter client for Microsoft Outlook, you can directly update your status from within Outlook. Our Review.

Twessenger

Twesseneer is a twitter add-in for Windows Live Messenger.

Twadget

Twadget is a Vista Sidebar Gadget for twitter.

TwitterFox

Firefox extension that notifies you about your friends statuses in twitter.

Spaz

Spaz is a open source desktop twitter client for Mac, Windows and Linux.

Twitter Websites

There are lots of websites that help you do different things with your twitter account. You can schedule your twits or turn it into a feed, she what people are linking to and more with them.

Check out the list of websites that you can use with your twitter account.

TwitResponse

TwitResponse allows you to schedule your tweets for the future. Our Review.

TweetLater

TweetLater allows you to schedule your tweets for the future.

TwitterBuzz

TwitterBuzz is a website which aggregates content from twitter and shows you what users are linking to.

TwitterFeed

TwitterFeed allows you to post your blog posts as tweets to twitter over a specified interval of time.

Twitterholic

Twitterholic shows you the top 100 users based on the followers they have.

Twittersearch

Twittersearch allows you to search tweets.

TwitThis

TwitThis is a service which allows you to add buttons to your website for users to tweet your blog posts.

Twittervision

Twittervision provides you with a real-time geographic visualization of posts made to twitter.

Do you use any other clients or websites, do let us know in the comments so that I can try them out, and by the way you can also follow me on twitter.