TurboFTP Server Add Domain Wizard automatically generates a self-signed SSL certificate for the HTTPS service. However, in production, the server should use a genuine SSL certificate. We now demonstrate how to create a free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate in TurboFTP Server using the win-acme tool. 

Set up A Record of the Domain Name

Set up an A Record for your domain (details vary depending on your domain service provider) so that the domain points to the host's IP where TurboFTP Server runs on. (The Domain here means your Internet domain name.)

Stop TurboFTP Server

Make sure TurboFTP Server has stopped. To stop the service, go to Tools -> Local Service Manager.



Install IIS on Windows Server

Install IIS by adding a Web Server (IIS) role. Then launch Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, right-click on "Default Web Site," and select "Edit Bindings". Click on Add button, and enter the domain name. Click OK to close the dialog.

Run win-acme to create a Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate

Download and install win-acme from https://github.com/win-acme/win-acme.
Run wacs.exe in a command line box as administrator, and choose the N option to create the Let's Encrypt certificate. Once done, stop IIS completely.



Rerun wacs.exe, choose A: Manage renewals -> D: Show details for the renewal and copy the password of the private key.


Apply SSL Certificate in TurboFTP Server

Start TurboFTP Server service and make sure HTTPS is enabled by selecting Domain -> Connection -> HTTPS on port. Go to Server -> SSL Certs tab and click on the Import button. In the dialog, browse and choose the new certificate bundle file (the one with .PFX extension). Check off the option "Certificates and private key in a single file". Enter the copied passphrase of the SSL private key. Click OK to import the certificate.




Now go back to the Domain -> Connection tab, and select the imported SSL certificate used for the domain. Click on the Apply button and restart the domain. 



The domain is now running with Let's Encrypt certificate.

TurboFTP Server Corporate version provides WebDAV service with file locking support. Authoring or editing software like MS Office suite comes with built-in WebDAV support and speaks WebDAV's file locking protocol, which makes it possible for multiple users to work on the same document safely and efficiently.

In this article, we demonstrate files residing on a WebDAV mapped drive, backed by TurboFTP Server, can be accessed by Office software, and the exclusiveness of write access is achieved. In our example there are two Windows machines, A and B. A has Office 2007 installed, and B has Office 2016 installed.

An important pre-requisite for WebDAV collaboration to work is to ensure date and time are sync'ed on client machines and the server machine. Make sure the machines' time are the same. Some WebDAV clients might rely on the file timestamp to identify a newer version, data loss is likely to occur when different systems' clocks are not sync'ed.

a. Map TurboFTP Server WebDAV share as a network drive on Windows boxes A and B.

b. Open a file called book1.xlsx on A, and make the modification. If during this time it is opened on B, Excel will notify that the file is in use (Fig. 1). B can only open the file in read-only mode and you can choose to get a notification when the file is ready for opening in read-write mode. Click Notify.

Fig. 1: Excel shows file on WebDAV share is in use.

c. Close and save book1.xlsx on A's Excel 2007. After a short while Excel 2016 on B will prompt you that the file is ready for editing (Fig. 2). Click the Read-Write button to re-open the file for editing.

Fig. 2 Excel shows the file on WebDAV share is available for editing.

TurboFTP Server supports Windows version of MS Office 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019. In addition, it supports MS Office for Mac 2011, 2016 and 2019.

 

Microsoft Windows exercises more restricted security control when connecting to a WebDAV Server over HTTPS. The server must have a valid SSL certificate for its domain name or IP. Further configuration is needed if the certificate is self-signed; otherwise, the connection fails with suspicious error messages. In our example, the WebDAV service runs on IP 192.168.56.2 and uses a self-signed certificate (for example, one generated through SSL Certificate Creation Wizard in TSRMC). Steps 1 and 2 can be skipped if an SSL certificate file is already present.

1. Access the following URL in the browser.

https://192.168.56.2

2. Click on the 'Site Information' icon in the browser's address bar and, open the certificate information dialog, export the certificate to a local file, e.g. 192.168.56.2.crt. If you are using Internet Explorer, you might need to run it as an admin to be able to export the certificate.

3. Click the Windows Start button to search for program certmgr.msc.

4. Right-click Certificates -> Trusted Root Certification Authorities, and select All Tasks -> Import to bring up the Certificate Import Wizard. Use the Browse button to provide the exported certificate file, and click Next.

5. Select Place all Certificates in the following Store. Click Browse, check the option Show Physical Stores, expand the tree, select Trusted Root Certification Authorities -> Local Computer, then click OK and Finish.

The self-signed certificate has now been imported. You might need to re-launch certmgr.msc to see the effect.

Now we can map the WebDAV path as a network drive.

 

TurboFTP Server (with HTTP/S feature enabled) supports WebDAV protocol. Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux all have built-in support for WebDAV, allowing you to connect to a WebDAV share within the file browser. You can also mount a user's home directory under Linux using davfs2. The following shows an example of setting up a WebDAV mount point for Ubuntu Linux user jason, who has a TurboFTP Server account named jsmith. The server is running on IP 192.168.83.1:8443. To access his home directory on the server through WebDAV, he can use a regular WebDAV client like Ubuntu Files to access the following path with his username and password:

davs://192.168.83.1/dav 

Now he wants to mount the WebDAV folder under /mnt/mydav. To do so, davfs2 will be installed, and an option in /etc/fstab will be added.

# install davfs2
$ sudo apt-get install davfs2
$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure davfs2 (if not done in installation)

# set(create) the mount point
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/mydav

# add mount option in /etc/fstab
$ sudo vi /etc/fstab

  https://192.168.83.1:8443/dav /mnt/mydav davfs user,noauto,file_mode=600,dir_mode=700 0     1

# might need to log out and log back in to have it take effect
$ sudo usermod -aG davfs2 jason

$ cd; mkdir .davfs2

# set up WebDAV user credentials
$ vi .davfs2/secrets

  https://192.168.83.1:8443/dav jsmith        PASSWORD

# mount the file system
$ mount /mnt/mydav