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Online Storage 2.0: Six Sites Reviewed
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:03 AM
from the who-needs-hard-drives dept.
from the who-needs-hard-drives dept.
mikemuch writes "Services like box.net, openomy, and eSnips are more than just places to access your files from the web. Some include media organization tools, Windows shell integration, drag-and-drop uploading, tagging, and social content sharing. ExtremeTech has a review up of six online storage services with Web 2.0 twists."
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I surprised they didn't include XDrive. (Score:3, Informative)
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storage pioneers and features excellent OS integration (becoming drive X: on your machine).
It's also both the slickest and most reliable.
And it gives you 5x the storage of the new players.
What these newcomers offer that XDrive doesn't isn't at all clear.
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Please, please, bitch and moan about it. Louder. Your voices count for more than mine.
Grrr... I was going to provide a link to the community forums website (from http://www.xdrive.com/support [xdrive.com]), but that's broken at the moment. Give it a d
Links people links... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Links people links... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Personally... (Score:2)
I wonder what kind of solutions that support Linux users are out there... Just talking about a way for a user like me to do an off site backup without having to burn a dvd and take it off site to a safety deposit box...
Or you could get a hosting account... (Score:4, Informative)
I've got 224 GB of storage space and 2.6 TB of monthly bandwidth, along with an image gallery, blog, SSH and FTP access, and email with spam filtering for $9.99/month + $10/year for the domain name.
Absolutely. (Score:2, Informative)
In contrast, the consumer market companies in the article generally charge the same amount for an order of magnitude less storage. Maybe there's less competition for consumer storage, or higher marketing costs? Regardless, the discrepancy looks l
Re:Absolutely. (Score:4, Insightful)
No need to forgo drag-and-drop. I use Apache-WebDAV over SSL for off-desktop storage. OS X allows you to connect to a WebDAV share just like you would a samba share, and at that point all applications just think it is another drive. There are also a number of dedicated WebDAV clients that can handle all of the file management and permission-setting.
Granted, getting this set up the first time was quite a pain and you also have to do the work maintaining your own server. Once up and running though, it works like a charm.
Parent
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I get:
225.3 GB plus an additional 1GB every week.
2671 GB plus an additional 16GB every week.
In addition I have a home server.
3 times a day my laptop rsyncs everything irreplaceable to the server.
2 times a day the server rsyncs things to other hard drives internally.
1 time a day the server rsyncs everything to my host.
My laptop could be run over tomorrow and I'd only lose maybe a few photos at most. My house could burn down tomorrow and everything I really care about (Family Pictures, College Picture
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Another Dreamhost customer, I see. The great thing about them is that they've got a great backup policy. You should check out the wiki article [dreamhost.com]
I've been meaning to write the scripts that'll handle all that stuff for me, but haven't really had the time. I've taken to autosyncing my irreplaceables to my iPod whenever it's connected and keeping financial documents in encrypted disk images.
What I really would like is the ability to mount FTP sites as writeable on my Mac. Rsyncing is fine for backing up, but th
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If you want cheap and cheerful go for the hugely large providers like 1&1 or fasthosts. They may lack customer service, but you're not going there for that after all.
Streamload/Mediamax (Score:3, Insightful)
The old, usable interface was replaced by a hideous, slow nightmare that, frankly, didn't even look as good as the old version. Files now routinely vanish while being moved between folders, or fail to show up at all after being uploaded. The interface for hosting files for non-members to access has been crippled and passwords or IP restrictions set on such public-hosted folders frequently disappear and reset themselves. Many files uploaded before the conversion to Mediamax have vanished, or remain visible but inaccessible.
For a month or so after the "upgrade", the support staff seemed to be genuinely trying to fix things. After that, all of the customer interface points were effectively shut down and the company went into full-on spin mode. I can only come to the conclusion that the new back-end for the service is effectively unworkable, but that for whatever reason, either management or the line (or both) cannot admit this and roll back to the old technology.
I'm on the verge of backing up all my stored content to DVD until I can find another store for it and cancelling my account. I know others will be having similar thoughts. The entire thing seems to be an object lesson into how to run a successful service into the ground.
A similar experience (Score:2)
And none of these has a cool API where one can just write a stream to. It all involves lots of miscellaneous, semi-intuitive file manipulations. All of them should have a method that requires file encryption, unless a file's going to be published freely as none of them USES STRONG PASSWORD ENFORCEMENT. This stuff is rife for a dictionary-attach-afternoo
Online Storage == Awful Idea (Score:3, Insightful)
But then, I remember MySpace exists... *sigh*
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But if one were able to build a client that did on the fly encryption/decryption when uploading and downloading, then you could make it much safer. Of course, you would still not put the most sensitive of sensitive documents there (i.e. don't put your password database there), encrypted or not.
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Let say you want to archive your digital photos.
For average computer users, I'd recommend this kind of thing.
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As a parent I take photos of my baby daughter in the tub having a bath (no bottom shots or anything) because I think it's cute. I don't take pictures of her naked because I'm a perv, I take it because bath time is so damned cute. I wonder if that can get into the wrong hands if I upload to one of these companies.
That'd really kinda suck, and might even land me in trouble if the wrong person were to read something bad into that that really shouldn't be read.
ssh rsync? (Score:2)
That would be useful.
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If you do go the rsync-yourself route, try BackupPC [sourceforge.net] which is a web frontend to a rsync server, you can get your files from it over the web
Re:ssh rsync? (Score:4, Informative)
I have no affiliation with them, and I've never used their service, but it sounds like what you asked for.
Parent
Not a storage service (Score:2)
For Mac users: .Mac (Score:2)
Seriously, the
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I recommended .Mac to my parents and they're very happy with it. My dad set up a web page for his band with audio clips and a photo gallery all by himself, and he and my mom have email and a backup system.
My only beef is that you can't get the Backup program without buying .Mac. I've already got a web host, but would love to use it to back up my system to my web host, which I talk about a little bit above your post.
And, probably because of .Mac, I can't mount an FTP drive as writeable without jumping thro
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How come these never mention Apple's .Mac? (Score:2)
Does anybody have any advice for Mac-compatible (preferably Finder-integrated, like
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No webdav? (Score:2)
It is quite simple to setup (Apache + webdav module). it is a built-in feature in all OS (except Windows 98 IMHO). You can use HTTP Basic Authentification or something more secured with SSL. And your app will be fully integrated with your client's OS.
I have developped a large extranet service based on this technology. Pretty simple. You can choose either 100% JAVA based application (and using TOMCAT and all) or Apache 1.X (or 2.X). You don
Amazon S3? (Score:2)
We're considering using it for yet-another offsite backup of some of our records, in an encrypted form.
The prospect of being able to use a simple API to update and download backups seems like a great idea to me, but I've yet to find any decent service reviews.
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I am considering writing a small app to manage an S3 account to store our digital photos. It's cheap, and unlike all the small, new companies listed in the ExtremeTech article, unlikely to be going anywhere soon. They also state a 99.99% up-time, and I suspect they could hit that mark pretty easily.
I also want the ability to be able to sync a local directory to a remote one (only upload w
Wow, a whole 1 GB of storage. Whoopty Doo (Score:2)
-Eric
eSnips is going to have trouble someday (Score:2)
http://esnips.com/_t_/metallica [esnips.com]
It's only a matter of time before we hear about them in the news
Run your own (Score:4, Interesting)
The best I've seen is Boxroom [rubyforge.org], an OSS Ruby on Rails application for web based file transfer. With the Mongrel web server it does upload progress, recent versions have had in-file search added, and my employer is currently sponsoring the implementation of virtual hosting in it.
I would like more people to know about this program - it's very cool, and more developers on it would be certainly be appreciated by all of us who use it!
Re:Yippee - 6 more sites to add to the "banned" li (Score:5, Insightful)
It's bad enough people try to use things like "Gmail" to send things that really ought to be sent securely. There are lot of semi-computer-literate yokels out there who see "SSL" and "SSH" and forget that their "private" data will be lying in the clear on someone else's server at the end of the day (free for the someone else or a server hacker to copy/read).
It's assholes like this who make IT difficult for everyone else by inspiring hatred and fostering a sense of rebellion among those they supposedly 'serve'. Perhaps as a Slashdot reader, you're familiar with the phrase, "The more you tighten your grip..."? This is the reason that people attempt to work around you by using encrypted links to offsite storage. It's the same reason they set up unofficial file servers and install 'unapproved' applications. They need or want something that you, in your capacity as the provider of IT services, are not providing.
Rather than arrogantly treating those you work with as 'Yokels', you could understand and provide for their needs. Why don't you try working with them rather than against them? Spend the time you would stamping out undesirable computer use by educating your users about security and providing them with the tools and services they want.
Then, when you have a *real* security problem (one that doesn't involve the use of GMail), they'll be less likely to revolt.
If you work in IT and aren't willing to treat those around you with more respect than you'd give to livestock, you need to find a different job.
Parent
Re:Yippee - 6 more sites to add to the "banned" li (Score:4, Interesting)
Truth is, many IT people don't seem to "get" it. They call everything a security hole and make b2b communications more difficult.
Not everything needs tight-arsed security. If I want my outside people to send me a file with not-so-sensitive information that isn't very useful to anyone else, I think they should be able to FTP it to me ( or SFTP or SCP or FTP with SSL if pedantic IT people were so inclined). Instead of an ass-hat saying " you can't have an ftp server up because it's a security hole", the ass hat IT person should say "I'll set up a secure FTP server instead and they can send it there".
I've had those conversations all the time with idiot IT people.
Truth is I think they're just on a rampage sometimes without any real knowledge of why they're doing something.
That said, the IT department at the company I work for is the first competent group I've seen. They locked down IM, but set up a jabber server instead with an MSN gateway. IMO that's the way to go - set something up that's a viable alternative instead of just saying "no" to anyone who wants anything.
Fuck sometimes it'd be just easier to pull all ethernet cables.
Parent
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Never worked in IT, have you? (Score:5, Insightful)
Never worked in IT, have you?
This is a classic example of a IT-provided service that employees already have (at least, if you've already invested in a good email system and a good secure file transfer system) that gets marketed directly to consumers as something they don't have. So...they "try it", often with something like a customer list or account statement that shouldn't really leave the company, and then just start using it without even telling the guy in the next cube, let alone IT.
Thus the need to ban (or at least listen for) such sites; if you don't, there will be people who just don't tell you.
I suppose I could safely modify my opening statement to, "Never worked with live humans, have you?" The same general principle I'm teaching you about today applies to other areas too. For example, if I don't lock my company's electrical closets, eventually someone will wander in there and do something that could get both of us in trouble. (Therefore I "ban" access to it by locking the door.)
Parent
Re:Never worked in IT, have you? (Score:5, Insightful)
What's funny is that nobody seems to think its "unfair" that you can't make yourself more efficient by cutting a hole in the wall and creating your own doorway to the parking lot, but cutting a hole in IT security with filesharing is OK because it makes you more efficient.
I'm sympathetic to the end users as many IT policies do seem irrational, but I'm also sympathetic to IT since its unlikely they have been given a mandate to enable the end users to do whatever they want.
Parent
If I had mod points today, you'd have them all... (Score:2)
That's the smartest/funniest thing I've read in a long time. God help me if I'm not using it in my own training by next week.
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Even for those problems that they are aware of, frequently problem solving takes a back-seat to the pro
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Rarely do people in IT talk about how they often don't even know what the business problems are for the company, divisions, units and work groups they are providing services for.
When I worked in an IT department, I used to *beg* to have employees explain to me what their specific business problems were, only to be told I wouldn't understand, lacked the niche experience or some other bullshit answer that had more to do with maintaining exclusivity and power bases among middle management. So you guessed as best you could in keeping with the IT policies and procedures you *knew* existed and were enforced, but then got chided for not understanding the business problems. OK, great, y
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What happens when my user quits or is fi
Re:Yippee - 6 more sites to add to the "banned" li (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
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Or publish your own root cert for users to import.
There are solutions out there...
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Consider, for example, a medical researcher. This person may collect any volume of information on a patient for use in research. This person has a very strong medical understanding, but doesn't even know what file encryption is. They may store this information in a MS Word file. This is fine. Then they wa
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This applies not just to pictures but to sensitive e-mail backups, database dumps, etc.
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NOTE: Just put GNAA into google and see what you get!