Note Windows XP only supports SSL / https connections when using My Network Places, but can be tricked into using SSL with net use by creating a forward server using stunnel. If wanting to make a secure SSL mapping using the https protocol at port 443: Note Windows XP can only connect to port 80 and can only map to a sub folder and not the root directly.
Note to make the mapping permanent add the parameter /persistent:yes Windows XP includes the WebClient service that allows one to mount a Web Folder as a mapped network drive: WebDAV is preferred when clients has to connect through an insecure network (like the Internet) to reach the remote server, as the remote server can be protected by a firewall and only leaving the HTTP port open and allows SSL instead of using VPN.
Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) is an extension to the HTTP protocol, which makes it possible to manage files on a remote Web-Server.
