Admin Assistant... given task by tech support... need help?!?

[AMSINC]

hello,

i'm an admin at a computer company. and one of our tech support folks tasked me to find out... or try to find out whether something is possible or not.

..basically from what i understand. this tech wants to have a website. that'll look in a folder. ...at the files there, and then list them somehow. so she can access those files in the folder.

problem is she'll need it to refresh the list. or auto list whatever might be in that folder. ...like if she adds a file, removes a file... changes a name. whatever.

any info would be greatly appreciated. even a basic... try looking here type response will give me a better idea of where to go looking for this sort of info.

again thanks... and good day


Stephen

[DaveSW]

is the folder local or on the internet?

[AMSINC]

hmmm ..lingo


from what i understand. the folder, where she'll want to look. is on her computer ( local?)

but to be able to look in that folder from the internet ?!?

she mentioned something about it being psuedo-FTP, but i don't want to throw around terms i don't know anything about.

if i had to take an educated guess, i'd say she'd trying to devise a system, where she can have access to customer data, or files frequently used to troubleshoot customer problems or whatnot from remote locations. but those customer files will change over time. and so she'll need whatever "look-up" dynamic to be able to interpret the folder. and list current contents of that folder. ...and have the files be accessible.

that make any more sense?


Stephen

[DaveSW]

hmm, does remote file access sound like what you want?

It's built into Win XP Pro, and possibly 2000. What operating system (version of windows) is it?

Otherwise she'll need to buy some dedicated remote access software to do it.

[AMSINC]

her system is win XP.

i don't think she wanted it to be some sort of terminal service type thing. i think she thinks there's some sort of script or something that'll do this for her totally from a webpage.

oh well.

knew this was a futile effort. but thanks for your help.


Stephen

[DaveSW]

I may be wrong but I don't think it's possible to just inspect someones hard drive from the internet (well, it is but it's called hacking...)

So you're either looking at stuff like pcanywhere

http://enterprisesecurity.symantec.com/products/products.cfm?ProductID=2

or some other piece of software to do the same thing.

[AMSINC]

we do use PC anywhere...

but i don't think she was looking to interface with her system. just this folder.


would it make a difference if this folder... of files was hosted online somewhere.

...say this folder. was hosted somewhere. and when she made changes (additions/augmentations etc) she uploads the files back into the folder.

now if it's all at some online source. is there a way for some webpage to search that folder? and then list it for her? so she can access it?


Stephen

[DaveSW]

I think you can do that with a server side language. What server side languages would this server support? e.g. PHP, ASP etc.

You could post in the appropriate forum if that was the case.

[Aronya1]

If the folder is on the Internet, you can see the contents by typing the address, ie: www.mysite.com/foldername

If all she wants is to see the file names, any FTP program would do the same thing. If she wants to USE those files, FTP won't work.

[MotherNatrsSon]

You could put a folder up on a site and use htaccess to password protect it. Enter the password open the folder and use it's contents. Just have to download whatever file is needed to the computer she is using to use it unless they where all coded in html.

No to tough. No serverside language. You would have to use ftp to upload the files and upload any changes to the files bu that wouldn't be too hard either.

MNS

[DaveSW]

Originally posted by Aronya1
If the folder is on the Internet, you can see the contents by typing the address

I got a 403 forbidden when I tested that method on my site.

But yes, with IE6 she could use the built in ftp features, which would give the same look as a remote folder.

[Aronya1]

I don't know Dave. You must have some sort of permissions setting keeping you out.