WebShare is server software designed to provide users with secure access to your organisation's file servers over the Internet using a Web browser. Targeted at organisations that work regularly with large files and graphics, WebShare attempts to replace current popular transfer methods, such as FTP and mail attachments. Whereas file-transfer solutions such as FTP rely on giving remote users public access to server volumes, WebShare works by running on a dedicated server that provides 'proxy' access to a LAN-based server without any additional WebDAV, FTP, AFP or SMB/CIFS connections that typically slow down file transfers.

Pros: Provides secure FTP access from within a Web browser
Cons: Licence is tied to a file server and a certain number of users


WebShare is a two-tier server application that authenticates and displays a catalogue of downloadable files. The software can be located behind a user's firewall, so that remote users get public access without compromising security of the internal file server on a LAN. Whereas remote users appear to be directly accessing files on a LAN-hosted file server, WebShare is in fact isolating them.

The server application also adds an additional security layer by handling the Web user interface on a separate server to ensure that the main file server is not available on the Internet. The server file system security is enforced according to the user credentials, and Sharepoint-based security allows further restrictions per user, such as browse, preview, download, upload and file management. Additional SSL encryption is also supported.

The software provides thumbnail previews of almost any file type - including TIFFs, JPEGs PDFs, InDesign and Quark files - which can be viewed by all the major Web browsers, according to Helios Software. Once a file is identified, WebShare automatically compresses the file in ZIP format and then streams it, so no time or space is lost on the server by pre-compressing files.

To use the software you'll need a server running Windows Server, Apple Mac OS X, Sun Solaris, IBM RS/6000 AIX, HP-UX, SGI IRIX, Compaq Alpha UNIX, or Linux operating systems. Each server that publishes files via WebShare requires a separate licence. On the client side, the software supports Mac OS 8.1 and above, all Windows platforms, PDAs and other Web compatible systems.

Links:
WebShare Web site

BIOS, Jan 26, 04 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Server