BarracudaDrive (BD)
FAQ

• What is BarracudaDrive (BD)?

  BarracudaDrive, or BD for short, is a web server with many useful traditional and "non traditional" web server plugins.

  • Traditional plugins: Bulletin Board, CMS and Blog.
  • Non traditional plugins: WebDAV, Web File Manager, HTTP Tunnel.
  • In addition, customized (business) applications can be developed for BD.

  BD is unique in that all plugins are integrated and ready to use. No technical plugin installation or configuration is needed as is the case with other web-servers.

  The name BarracudaDrive was chosen since the first BD Web Server release was designed to be an efficient and secure remote file server -- that is, it acts like an additional drive on your computer. BD continues to support remote file server operations by providing an integrated WebDAV server and Web File Manager.

• Do you provide online storage services?

  You create your own online storage service with the BD server. Our BD customers have the flexibility to use anything from their own personal computer or laptop to installing BD on a dedicated server provided by a hosting company. For the average home/business user, using a DSL or cable internet connection is normally fast enough.

  We are not a hosting provider. You host your own website with BD.

• Do you provide online anonymous proxy servers and HTTP tunnel services?

  You create your own online anonymizer and/or HTTP tunnel service with the BD server.

  The BD HTTPS tunnel plugin, which is disabled by default, is for advanced users needing various types of network protection and/or anonymity.

  The HTTPS tunnel technology that is built into the BD server can be used for many use cases, such as anonymous browsing from your work computer. It can protect other network programs from being eavesdropped on.

  We provide a number of HTTPS client programs that can connect to the HTTPS tunnel server plugin in BD. See the SSL VPN roadmap for an introduction to the various HTTP tunnel clients we provide.

  We recommend using the versatile and easy to use SSL VPN alternative, the GetMyLAN client.

• What are the requirements for running the BD web server?

  BD can be installed and run on anything from a home PC or laptop to a computer provided by a dedicated hosting provider.

  We are currently providing the BD server as a Windows program. The server runs as a service and is normally invisible.

  The server can be accessed from any operating system such as Windows, Macintosh or Linux. For example, it is possible to use the server running on a Windows computer as a file server for Linux and Macintosh computers(the clients).

  Users installing on home computers must have basic network knowledge. Most home users today have a home router for protecting their own computers and/or for connecting multiple computers to the Internet. A person installing BD on a home network must be able to configure the home router to allow external access to the BD server.

• Do I need a registered domain name for my home computer?

  No. You do not need a registered domain name. You can remotely access your home computer by using the routers IP address, also known as your WAN IP address. Alternatively, you can choose a free sub-domain-name from providers such as dyndns.org.

  We recommend using free services from providers such as dyndns.org for private use and paid services such as noip.com together with a registered domain name for business use. The BD configuration wizard contains step by step instructions for how to configure your server for remote access.

• Help, I installed BD, but I do not see any programs?

  BD is a server and normally not visible. You have to use a browser to access the server. On the same PC where you installed BD, type in http://localhost. The name localhost means your own computer, where the server is running. You can alternatively open a browser window by right clicking the BD helper program running in your system tray (lower right-hand corner of the screen) and select settings.

  If you are unable to access the server, you may have a firewall that is silently preventing BD from using your network. See the Installation Instructions for how to temporarily disable your firewall.

• Help, I am unable to configure my network?
  • Did you carefully read the Installation Instructions prior to installing BD?
  • Did you skip any steps in the BD configuration wizard?

  PC firewalls can sometimes make it difficult to install the server. The server may be accessible on your local computer, but a firewall may be silently preventing BD from being used from another computer(the client). See the Installation Instructions for how you can temporarily disable your firewall.

  If you need help, use our online bulletin board.

• Help, I am unable to configure users and/or constraints?

  Did you read the Admin Documentation in the setup application? The main page for the setup application is: http://localhost/setup/intro/

  We suggest that you print out the printable version of the documentation. The link to the printable version is on the setup application's main page. You can also read the documentation online by using the links on the left side below "Admin Documentation".

  You can also find the Admin Documentation online on our server. See the main page for the setup demo for more information.

  The constraints editor is very powerful, but may be difficult for a novice to use. If you are unable to properly setup users and constraints, use the simplified version in the setup application. Click the link "Create Users" on the main page for the setup application. You can also test the simplified user/constraints editor using our online "Create Users" demo.

  Read the documentation for the simplified user editor before using it.

  After you have created users using the simplified user editor, open the BarracudaDrive Administrator Panel and study how the users and constraints were added by the simplified user editor.

• Is commercial support available?

  Yes, see "Purchase Order Instructions" on the purchase page for more information.

• Is there a difference between the trial version and the purchased version?

  No. We provide one version. The product uses a license to give you various types of licenses from a trial to a permanent license.

  There is no need to reinstall/reconfigure anything if you decide to purchase the product after the trial license expires.

• How does the license work?

  When you install BD, you have the option of directly purchasing a license or choosing a free 45 day trial license. The license is created when you install BD and is automatically signed by our online server once you follow the integrated wizard.

  You have the option of purchasing a Perpetual Service Period or a Time Limited Service Period. A Perpetual Service Period is a license that never expires.

  The following components stop working when the trial license or a non perpetual service period expires: WebDAV and the HTTPS tunnel. All other components, such as the CMS and the bulletin board, will continue functioning -- that is, the standard web server functionality will continue to work.

• Can I transfer my license to another computer?

  You may install BD on multiple computers provided that no more than one of those computers is in use simultaneously.

  Starting from version 3.9, a license can be transferred to another computer. Install BD on the new computer, make a copy of all the configuration files, including your license file, and copy these files to your new computer. Restart the server after you have copied the original files to your new computer. See our Backing Up Your Data files tutorial for what files must be copied to the new computer.

  You can alternatively ZIP together your original installation, copy the ZIP file to another computer, and unzip the ZIP file. After you have unzipped the ZIP file, do the following in a command window:

  1. Install the service: bdd -install
  2. Start the service: bdd -start

  Activating a moved license

  The server is initially disabled when you move your license to another computer. To activate, browse to your server. The server will redirect you to a page where only the administrator can login. You will get a 404 page not found message after you login as an administrator. Refresh the page to remove the error message and confirm your license.

• What do I do if I get: Unable to recover license?

  Your purchased license is stored in a file with the name bdlicense.dat in your BarracudaDrive installation. You must reinstall the license i.e. recreate the bdlicense.dat file if you reinstall the server, or if this file should become corrupt.

  When using a browser, BarracudaDrive displays a page that allows you to purchase a license or recover a license if no valid license file is found.

  Pressing the recover button may work if you have previously purchased a license, but we cannot guarantee that it will work. Do the following if this command fails:

  1. Navigate to http://localhost/rtl/license/install.lsp where localhost is your domain name.
  2. From your original email with the BarracudaDrive receipt, copy your license data, and paste into the form. We will be unable to help you if the server is unable to automatically recover your license and if you have not saved your original email receipt with the BarracudaDrive license copy.
  3. Press the Install button to restore the license file bdlicense.dat.
  4. The server may redirect you to a page where only the administrator can login after you have restored your license file. Do the following if the server redirects you to http://localhost/rtl/settings/admin/ConfirmLicense/:
     1. Click the "login using insecure connection" button.
     2. If you get a 404 page not found, refresh the browser window. This is normal.
     3. Confirm ownership of your license.
     The server may not redirect you to the confirm license page before you restart the server. It is, therefore, suggested that you restart your server after you have restored the license file.
• Is BD a portable application?

  The BD server can be moved to another computer without using the installation program. You can ZIP the content of the BD installation directory and unpack the content on another computer.

  If you run BD from the command prompt, the server can be considered a portable application. If you prefer to run the server as a Windows service, the program must be installed. The program can be installed from the command prompt without using the installation program.

  You can run the server without installing BD in the console window by typing:

  bdd -console

  Type "bdd -help" on the command line for a list of the various options.

  Install the service: bdd -install
  Start the service: bdd -start

  You may install BD on multiple computers provided that no more than one of those computers is in use simultaneously.

• How much do I have to pay when using BD as a Web Server?

  There are no limitations for personal or non profit use. See the purchase page for the price list.

  For a business license, you pay per registered user. A user is a person that can login to the server and use the integrated Web File Manager, WebDAV, or HTTPS tunnel. In other words, a user is a person that is added to the BD User Database.

  There are no additional charges for using BD as a web server. There is no limitation on the number of users that can access the bulletin board or the CMS.

  With BD, you pay for the HTTPS tunnel and WebDAV functionality, not for using BD as a web server. When purchasing a business license, select the minimum amount of users if you do not plan on having many registered WebDAV/tunnel users or if you do not plan on using these services.

• Can I install BD where I already have another web server?

  Yes, but you need two network cards or you must configure BD to use other port numbers.

  If you have two network cards, you can bind BD to a specific network card.

  BD tries to open port 80 for HTTP and 443 for HTTPS. You can configure BD to use alternate ports.

  Edit or create bd.conf in the directory where you installed BD. Make sure the bd.conf file has the two following lines:

  port=8080
  sslport=8443

  In the above, 8080 is the port number for HTTP and 8443 is the port number for HTTPS.

  Multi hosting with BD

  Since BD can host multiple applications and domain names, it may be possible to move the web pages from the other server to BarracudaDrive.

  The BD redirector

  Another solution is to use BD as a proxy for another web server. BD has a built in HTTP redirector that allows BD to act as a gateway for other servers. The redirector is disabled by default and can only be enabled and configured by writing a LSP script. We use this solution for the online BD bulletin board. The online phpBB bulletin board is powered by Apache. The redirector is configured to forward URI /3945/* on the BD server to URI /bb/* on the Apache server.

• How do I bind BD to a specific network card/IP address?

  By default, BD binds to all network cards, but you can configure BD to bind to one network card.

  Edit or create bd.conf in the directory where you installed BD. Make sure the bd.conf file has the following line:

  httpHostname=192.168.1.100

  In the above, 192.168.1.100 is the IP address of the network card you want BD to bind to.

• What do I need to backup and how do I recover from a computer crash?

  See our Backing Up Your Data tutorial for more information.

• How do I transfer files?

  Once you have configured BD and made the server available on the Internet, files can be transfered to and from network clients such as business partners, friends, etc. using the two following integrated BD plugins:

  1. Web File Manager
  2. WebDAV Server

  The two plugins share the same login and authorization logic, but have different use cases.

  The Web File Manager is a good choice when a limited amount of files need to be transferred. The easy to use Web File Manager also replaces the need of sending large attachments in emails. Instead of attaching a document to an email, a link can be sent to the recipients. The recipients would simply click on the link, login(if made private), and download the document.

  The integrated WebDAV server is a good choice if a larger amount of files need to be transferred. A WebDAV server can also be mapped as a standard drive in many operating systems, making it possible to work with documents on the remote server without first copying them.

  Windows, Macintosh, and Linux have native support for WebDAV; thus, a client WebDAV program does not need to be installed when using the server.

  As an example, the online Macintosh storage iDisk is in fact a WebDAV server.

• Can I remotely edit Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint presentations?

  Yes. The Microsoft office tools have built in support for WebDAV.

  See our Edit Remote Documents Using Microsoft Word tutorial for more information.

  Excel sheets and PowerPoint presentations can be opened in a similar manner.

• How do I make a remote BD server appear as a local drive on my laptop?

  A client computer such as a laptop can map a drive letter and make a remote BD server appear as a local drive on the client computer.

  For example, one can map the drive letter z: to a remote BD server and make the remote BD server appear as a local drive. You can then access all resources available to the remote BD server.

  Mapping a drive letter using the WebDAV protocol is directly supported by Windows, but the Windows implementation is still a bit shaky and we cannot guarantee that it will always work.

  Since the Windows implementation is shaky, two companies have made third party WebDAV client plugins for Windows. These clients integrate with the Windows file system and make it possible to map external WebDAV servers, such as BaracudaDrive.

  Do a Google search for DriveOnWeb from Abilis IT or WebDrive from South River Technologies. Both companies provide products that operate well with the WebDAV plugin in the BD server.

  You can try the integrated Windows WebDAV client if you do not want to purchase one of the two above client programs for your client computer(s).

  We have written a tutorial for how to use the Windows WebDAV mini redirector (The Windows WebDAV file system client).

  From our test lab, we have noticed that WebDAV mini redirector in Vista is better than the version in XP, but you may still run into problems. We have noticed that opening Word Documents, Excel sheets, etc. via a WebDAV mini redirector mapped drive typically fails. We assume this fails since it appears as the WebDAV mini redirector is not handling the transfer, but is instead delegating the action to the WebDAV functionality inside the office tools. We recommend using the office tools directly with your WebDAV server and not via a WebDAV mini redirector mapped drive. See the "Edit Remote Documents Using Microsoft Word" tutorial for more information.

• How do I access other computer's Hard Drive(s) on my LAN via BD?

  See our accessing network shares via your BarracudaDrive Windows Service tutorial for more information.