Can I use Samba or WebDAV to edit website files per webspace?

[HammyHavoc]

Hey all,

Paranoid about FTP sending passwords as plain text, have heard some real horror stories lately about compromised servers via FTP. Looking to reduce the attack surface and use something more modern like WebDAV or Samba, but how would I go about setting this up so that I can edit the website files for a webspace? Can only seem to treat it like a way to share files rather than edit what's currently in httpdocs or any of the subdomains.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm more of a Windows guy than a Linux user, but MT insists upon centOS.

Thanks,
Hamual