WebDAV on Windows 11 - HTTPS Not Working & Sync Issues (Local Network Only)
from fossit@lemm.ee to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 22 Jan 16:55
https://lemm.ee/post/53331533

Hello to everyone!

Very new to WebDEV and I’m pulling my hair out trying to set up it on Windows 11 for local network use only (no internet access needed). I’ve hit two major roadblocks, and I’m hoping someone here can save me from this nightmare.

The problems:

  1. HTTPS connection fails:
    I can only get WebDAV to work over HTTP, not HTTPS. I’ve created a self-signed certificate, but it’s still not working. Am I missing something obvious?

  2. Sync issues with Android apps and another computer:
    I’ve tried syncing with apps like Joplin, EasySync, DataBackup, and Diarium. While they can push data to the WebDAV server, they can’t pull data back. It’s like the PUT method works, but GET doesn’t. Is this a certificate issue, a permissions problem, or something else entirely?

What I’ve done so far:

Here’s my setup process in case it helps diagnose the issue:

1. Windows Features:

2. IIS Manager:

3. Folder Setup:

4. Directory Browsing:

5. Accessing WebDAV:

Additional info:

What am I missing?

I’m at my wit’s end here, so any help would be hugely appreciated. If you’ve dealt with WebDAV on Windows 11 or have any insights, please chime in!

Thanks in advance and I’m sorry if this is not the right place to ask this :(

#selfhosted

threaded - newest

hperrin@lemmy.ca on 22 Jan 17:27 next collapse

Windows will not connect to a WebDAV server with a self signed cert without making a lot of registry changes.

It also will not connect to a WebDAV server with https using an IP address. It must be a hostname.

IHawkMike@lemmy.world on 22 Jan 18:14 collapse

Not that it’s my first recommendation for security reasons, and I would never do this in prod, but you can just add the self-signed cert to the local trusted root CA store and it should work fine. No reg changes needed.

If you do this, put it in the store of the user running the client, not LocalMachine. Then you just need to make sure you connect as something in the cert’s SAN list. An IP might work (don’t know since I never try to put IPs in the SAN list), but just use a hosts entry if you can’t modify local DNS.

Edit: after reading the full OP post (sorry), I don’t think it’s necessarily the self-signed cert. If the browser is connecting with https:// and presenting a basic auth prompt, then https is working. It almost sounds like there is a 301/302 redirect back to http after login. Check the Network tab of the browser’s dev pane (F12) to see what is going on.

hperrin@lemmy.ca on 22 Jan 18:16 collapse

Windows is the greatest and best operating system that the Windows team at Microsoft has ever made.

MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 22 Jan 23:20 next collapse

Are you set on using windows IIS for this? IIS is a ridiculous pile of absolutely ancient stuff that’s a pain to use, and I wonder if the issues on the mobile apps are from IIS not supporting WebDAV properly.

There are other great WebDAV servers out there, like sftpgo.com which does support Windows.

I would also recommend getting an SSL cert using letsencrypt if you have your own domain name, makes things much easier. Or if this is local only traffic (or over a VPN), just run HTTP if that’s easier.

tripflag@lemmy.world on 23 Jan 05:19 collapse

Like others have mentioned, I wouldn’t trust the iis WebDAV server any further than I can throw it. And moreover, the WebDAV client that’s built into windows is also good for nothing – it has a filesize limit because it reads the whole file into ram, instead of using http206 like any sane server/client. And it also has a chance of crashing explorer.exe after reading a couple thousand files…

That’s why I’ve been making my own WebDAV server, but I’m also keeping track of other alternatives. And for connecting to it from windows I’m using rclone. Regardless which server you choose (just please do not use iis lol) you can borrow these examples for connecting to it :-)