HTTP encapsulated rsync??

[Robert Denton]

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