In addition to Files.com's built in WebDAV capabilities for accepting inbound connections via the WebDAV protocol, Files.com also supports conecting outbound to other services via WebDAV, SFTP, FTP, or any other outbound connection supported by Files.com.

You can even complete the loop and connect to Files.com via WebDAV and have Files.com proxy that connection out to another service also using WebDAV.

Files.com's Remote Server Mount feature gives you the ability connect a specific folder on Files.com to the remote server in a real time manner.

That folder then becomes a client, or window, accessing the files stored in your remote server or cloud.

Once you configure a Mount, any operation you perform on or inside that folder will act directly on the remote in real time. Whether you are dropping a file into that folder, deleting a file, creating a subfolder, or performing any other file/folder operations your Files.com user has permissions for, those operations will "pass through" to the remote in real time.

This powerful feature enables a wide variety of use cases such as accessing files on a counterparty (client or vendor)'s cloud without provisioning individual access to individual users, reducing storage costs by leveraging on-premise or bulk storage solutions, enabling applications to access 3rd party clouds via Files.com API, FTP, SFTP, or Files.com Apps and many more.

Alternatively, Files.com's Remote Server Sync feature give you the ability to push or pull files to or from remote servers. This means that the files will exist in both places at the end of the sync process.

A remote sync can be a "push", where files from your Files.com site are transferred to the remote server, a "pull" where files are transferred from the remote server to your Files.com site, or a two-way "sync" where files that are new or changed in either location are pushed and pulled to maintain a synchronized state between the folder on your Files.com site and that on the remote server.

Add a Remote Server Using the WebDAV Protocol

Add a new Remote Server to your site, and select WebDAV as the remote server type.

You must provide an Internal name for this connection. If you're managing multiple remote servers, make the name clear enough to easily identify this particular connection.

The Hostname and Port are required to create the remote server because they define how Files.com will connect to the remote server, and the Username and Password provides the credentials to log into the server.

Once your Remote Server is added, you can integrate it to Files.com as either a Remote Server Mount or Remote Server Sync.

Hostname and Port

The Hostname should be specified as a fully-qualified domain name. Do not include a protocol prefix or a path. The domain must be resolvable publicly so the Files.com platform can locate the server.

Most of the time, the default port value of 443 should be used for HTTPS. Only use an alternate port if you know the remote server requires it. The other commonly used remote port, 80, typically means that the server does not support SSL, and you should select http:// not https:// under protocol.

IP Addresses Used For Connection

If you have a Custom Domain installed on your site, that means Files.com has provisioned two dedicated IP addresses for your site and it will use them by default for outbound connections to the remote server. Provide these 2 IP addresses to your counterparties and ask them to whitelist them in any applicable firewall.

If you do not have a Custom Domain installed on your site, you do not have Dedicated IP Addresses provisioned for your site and Files.com will use its entire pool of IP addresses for connecting outbound to the remote server. If your counterparties maintain an IP Address whitelist, you will need to have them whitelist all of the IPs on this list.

Customers often ask for Dedicated IP addresses as a way to avoid having to ask their counterparty to whitelist a huge list of IP addresses.

We are able to offer that for Remote Server connection purposes via somewhat of a backdoor method, which is adding a Custom Domain to your site. Having a custom domain provides a justification for the dedicated IP address.

Files.com automatically provisions a pair of dedicated IP addresses for every site that has a custom domain enabled. We do that because FTP, unlike HTTP, requires that every custom domain be hosted on a dedicated IP address in order to have a custom SSL Certificate that matches the domain.

This means that if you have users who restrict outbound access via a firewall, they will only need to whitelist your two dedicated IP addresses. rather than having to whitelist our entire published list of IP addresses (see above).

Dedicated IPs, once provisioned, are used for both inbound connections to your site via your custom domain, as well as outbound connections from Files.com to certain applicable Remote Servers that are used for Remote Server Sync and Remote Server Mount.

By default, Files.com will use your dedicated IP addresses for outbound connections to FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, and S3 Compatible remote servers. However, you can disable the use of your dedicated IP in these circumstances if you need to. (You might do that if your counterparty has already whitelisted the main Files.com IP range, for example.)

Protocol and SSL

Files.com will use SSL security for outbound WebDAV connections wherever possible. You may disable SSL on this connection by selecting http:// under protocol. This option is insecure.

By default, Files.com will ensure that the remote SSL Certificate matches the hostname used for the connection and also ensure that the remote SSL Certificate is signed by a trusted Certificate authority. You may relax this requirement by telling Files.com to allow non-matching certificates. This option is insecure.

Maximum Number of Connections

Unlike FTP and SFTP remote servers, Files.com does not allow configuring a maximum number of connections to WebDAV. This is because most remote WebDAV services support parallel requests via HTTP. If you have a need for reducing the number of connections made to your WebDAV server, we would love to know more about your use case.

Once your Remote Server is added, now you need to integrate it to Files.com as either a Remote Server Mount or Remote Server Sync.

Add Remote Server Mount

Remote Server Mounts are created by mounting them onto an empty folder in Files.com. This folder should not be the Root of your site, although that is supported if you need it.

Add Remote Server Sync

After creating the Remote Server, you can use it to perform Remote Syncs between your server and Files.com.