HTTP encapsulated rsync??

Robert Denton
Tue, 17 Apr 2007 17:00:57 -0000

Hi folks, I am hoping someone here can offer some suggestions.  Here
is my situation:

I am using rsync over the internet for several hundred clients to
keep them in sync with a master repository of files.  The rsync
daemon is listening on port 80, because most of the clients are
behind firewalls that only allow outbound port 80 (and other common
ports).  This works fine for most of them but not all.

The trouble is that some of them are also behind devices that do not
allow non-http traffic on port 80 and thus block the rsync.
Therefore, I am looking for a way to use http encapsulation as a
means to bypass the blocking devices. I have seen a few scattered
queries around the net asking similar questions but I have not seen
any good solutions offered.

One person suggested that http-tunnel be used but this is not a very
elegant solution and I would like to avoid it if at all possible. If
the tunnel were to hang or sever then I would have a difficult time
correcting it since I do not have direct access to many of the
clients. Does anyone here have any ideas?  Surely I am not the first
person to ask this question.  Thanks!!

Robert