Cloud Storage....anyone doing this?

Cheetah Designs · 16 Oct 2010 at 17:55

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?

Cheetah Designs · 17 Oct 2010 at 10:48

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

Cheetah Designs · 17 Oct 2010 at 11:52

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.

Cheetah Designs · 17 Oct 2010 at 13:03

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?

Cheetah Designs · 17 Oct 2010 at 14:30

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?

Cheetah Designs · 17 Oct 2010 at 15:14

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?

Cheetah Designs · 17 Oct 2010 at 16:50

Hmmm....it seems to sync it a lot, even when there arent any changes.....there must be an easier way.

Where is flaw in the security model anyways? (out of interest)

Cheetah Designs · 17 Oct 2010 at 19:55

SiriusB said:
As long as it isn't transferring the whole lot each time, what's there to worry about? I imagine it has some kind of option to change the sync frequency if it really does concern you. And what do you mean by an easier way? How else do you expect it to update other drop boxes automatically?

tntcoder pretty well summed up the security implications above. So using encrypted files is definitely a must if you are concerned about the security/privacy of your data.

The way it works normally (unencrypted) is fine as it only syncs if it detects a change....

...but using an encrypted partition and syncing the trucrypt volume, it syncs all the time without any changes...I'm probably just be to fussy about it.

Cheetah Designs · 17 Oct 2010 at 20:14

SiriusB said:
Is the TruCrypt volume mounted while doing this? Windows does stuff in the background that could be causing changes to the encrypted volume. If it is mounted, unmount it and see what happens.

Yeah its mounted....and for convenience I would like it to remain mounted.

Cheetah Designs · 24 Oct 2010 at 16:10

Purely out of interest, would a "DropBox admin" have access to my password for dropbox then? (Or any site admin for that matter)

Cheetah Designs · 24 Oct 2010 at 16:57

tntcoder said:
Not the plaintext password no, but they wouldn't need it because they would have direct access to the server where the data is stored.

It was more for if I decided to encrypt data using the same password (in a theoretical world - yeah I know you shouldn't etc....)

....I just wanted to know if they could see the plaintext version.

Cheetah Designs · 24 Oct 2010 at 20:01

I'm pretty sure its fine....but for files I want secured: Its secure if I 7zip them up with password encryption on (AES256) right?