Cloud Storage....anyone doing this?

[Cheetah Designs]

I was thinking of implementing something like DropBox to share common files and projects between my PC and Laptop and just wondered how secure/useful something like DropBox actually is?

...does anyone use it/have any experiences with it?

For instance, if I edit the files on one computer and save them, how does the other computer know they have been edited?

...what happens if you go offline?

 

[Paul11]

i use it and its one of the best apps i use

the beauty is that it just works in the backround..

it works by syncing your files over the internet

if you go offline, it will wait until you are online again and then sync

 

[SiriusB]

Drop box syncs the files between computers. So when it detects a change [timestamp/filesize changes] it updates the drop boxes.

As for is it useful.. well.. if you need to share stuff between multiple machines... then yes. Especially if said machines aren't on the same LAN [i.e. you want to access files while out and about on your laptop or on your work machine].

 

[metalmackey]

Is dropboz secure enough for sensative data like passwords, personal info, emails ect?

 

[Macro]

Live Mesh does the same thing syncing between PCs and Macs as well as cloud storage accessable through a browser. Mesh gives you 5GB free, Dropbox charges you $9.99 per month over 2GB.

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-mesh

Mesh allows you to remote desktop to any of the synced PCs as well and so far seem to cope well even through NAT for me.

Dropbox does seem to have a following though.

 

[FireShadow]

the hard thing with autosync is it has no way of knowing when a set of files are inter-related

so you can end up with invalid sets of files

mozy etc. (online backups) use volume shadow copy which helps - but still suffers when you have unsaved changes in 1 file out of 100 when the shadow volume is created ...

what I do is turn off auto-sync - and instead manually sync when I know the filesystem is consistent

source control systems like subversion can also be used for this and are extremely efficient (intelligent delta updates etc.) and work with binary files also

most consumer-class products assume you edit word documents and send emails - full stop

 

[Cheetah Designs]

What is best Windows Live Mesh or DropBox?....are there any differences apart from limit?

 

[SiriusB]

Both have their following, though I would say Drop Box is the more popular.

 

[Cheetah Designs]

I've looked at DropBox and it doesn't seem to support multiple folders so I'm guessing I would need to have lots of shortcuts.

....on that note how would multiple folder sync work on Mesh.....would you have to map each folder.

 

[PoD]

Also Live Mesh is no more (it left beta) it is now Windows Live Mesh 2011

 

[tntcoder]

Is dropboz secure enough for sensative data like passwords, personal info, emails ect?

No not really. Encrypt beforehand and it will be though, eg truecrypt + dropbox.

 

[Cheetah Designs]

Just tested Live Mesh and it seems pretty good, I think I will just go with that....

...do you suggest encrypting certain files before hand then?

 

[tntcoder]

Just tested Live Mesh and it seems pretty good, I think I will just go with that....

...do you suggest encrypting certain files before hand then?

Yes, anything sensitive you put in the cloud you should secure it yourself.

 

[Amp34]

I use both, livemesh for important stuff (uni work etc) and rate it over Dropbox, which I just use as essentially a way to save files quickly to the internet.

Live mesh allows you to map multiple folders anywhere on your computer (turns the folder icon blue instead of yellow) and it works nicely, no change to the way you use your computer.

 

[unwashed potato!]

i like that dropbox also has an android app so i can access files whilst on the go and upload to my folder.

trouble i find with dropbox so far is i can't have multiple accounts on one pc nor multiple folders so it's much harder to keep organised

 

[Cheetah Designs]

I am trying to setup Truecrypt....i take it that there is no way to just encrypt a certain folder?.....would this be possible to do with symbolic links?

Also....is there anyway to hide the partition so it doesn't appear in My Computer?

 

[mothermachine]

Dropbox is absolutely awesome... used it extensively on a job recently and worked flawlessly. best free software i think i have to be honest. just wish i had a bit more space

 

[SiriusB]

I am trying to setup Truecrypt....i take it that there is no way to just encrypt a certain folder?.....would this be possible to do with symbolic links?

Also....is there anyway to hide the partition so it doesn't appear in My Computer?

With TruCrypt you can either encrypt an entire HDD/partition or create an encrypted volume - which is essentially a file.

So rather than trying to encrypt a folder, you create a new TruCrypt volume and keep sensitive data in there. You mount it up using TC and it looks like another partition. It gets its own drive letter and even has the HDD icon in Computer.

 

[Cheetah Designs]

Right ok....that makes sense.....would I just put the file in the live mesh folder/dropbox folder and mount it at the other end too?

EDIT: Is it possible to increase the TruCrypt volume size if I need to?

 

[SiriusB]

I don't use either DB or Live Mesh, but I assume yes. Just put the encrypted volume in the DropMesh [] folder.

I am not sure if you can increase the TC volume directly. There is an option to have a dynamic volume, that will grow up to a certain limit that you set. Though to be honest if you found it was running out of room you could just create a new TC volume that was bigger and transfer everything across!