Re-examining Dropbox and its alternatives

[devnullius]

Thank you for an excellent breakdown of what the "problems" really are.

That said, I never really liked Dropbox. And Spideroak, well... It needs to grow it's software a little more.

The online storage I keep using and installing is Zumo-drive. See it as a secure online USB drive. Upload & storage is secure (no details), and it adds a drive to your Computer - you can just drag / drop / manipulate files like you do with an ordinary drive on your windows computer. Also, it has an online portal where you can browse your files from your internetbrowsers. Sharing is also no problem (user/public). And many more! You can use this link to test-drive it (link will give you +256MB). Maximum free account 2,25GB.

--> https://www.zumodrive.com/referrals/dir/23JMGM4Mm

It has been a while since I tested ADrive, software was bad, but I see it popping up more and more... I've been replanning on testing it once again, might do it one of these days ; )

Thank you for the alternatives mentioned in the comments until now - I'll check them out (inforelay.com, jungledisk.com, wuala.com).

Peace!

Devvie

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[dynamikel]

I've just read the article on DropBox - and what concerns me is the factthat Password Manager uses DropBox to enable it to synchronise your passwordsbetween PCs, Macs and your iPad or iPhone. Presumably this means someone mightget access to my passwords.

Does anyone know if RoboForm is the same (it synchronises on the cloud and doesn'tuse DropBox if you use RoboForm Everywhere).

[Woody]

I've just read the article on DropBox - and what concerns me is the factthat Password Manager uses DropBox to enable it to synchronise your passwordsbetween PCs, Macs and your iPad or iPhone. Presumably this means someone mightget access to my passwords.

I don't know Password Manager, but if this description is correct http://www.wpcentral.com/password-manager-review , Password Manager encrypts its database using AES 256. If true, only you have the key, and Dropbox is a fine way to distribute the password database.

[stevebythebay]

I've Dropbox on a number of Windows 7 (64 bit) and Mac systems. On one, I had issues and attempted to uninstall and reinstall Dropbox due to some errors. In trying to uninstall and clean up everything (incl. the Dropbox folder in Roaming) and then reinstalling I get very odd errors about not being able to read the dropbox.exe file or having sufficient permissions on a folder (I'm running with full admin privileges and even launched the install as Administrator), and then when attempting to abort the installation, finding the installation process hanging.

Seems others have run into similar issues. Love to know if anyone's figured out how to completely clean out a system or if this has to do with something in the current download.

[jnealand]

For those of you needing access to your data through the internet, you might look at pogoplug. You connect it to your local area network, attach a USB hard drive, set up an account via pogoplug.com to control access and you can see all your info, even from a smartphone. Just another alternative.

Being an old timer who used to work in the mainframe days, I think of the cloud as just a big mainframe that is shared by many users and many apps. When PCs came out everyone wanted to move to PCs so that they controlled their own data, now we are putting it back into a mainframe. Just that it is not down the hall or within out physical complex. What goes around comes around. The youngsters here probably don't even know what a mainframe is / was. LOL.

[stevebythebay]

Had one of these for a few years and it eventually died, though the drive kept on going, which was the surprise. If you're not really concerned with the power consumption of using these devices for what may turn out to be somewhat limited use, then it's probably a good alternative to putting your "stuff" out in the 'net. However, when you're away there's the issue of managing the environment, if anything goes wrong (router, PogoPlug reboot, disk issues, whatever). When it's on a server that's shared and managed by others, there may be a better chance of higher availability, or at least support.

p.s. I was able to "fix" Dropbox by booting into Safe Mode (no network), cleaning things up, and running the installation. Seems that there must be some resources that the installation cannot either obtain or get control over that exist in a fully running system.

[HEAVEN888]

I've been using PogoPlug as an alternative to DropBox. PogoPlug has support for all PC platforms, iPhone, Android except Blackberry. There is no fees and no limits on file sizes. You can encrypt your files before uploading them. You are in total control of your own cloud.

Jack C.

[wesn5wa]

You gave a good rundown on DropBox.

What are the thoughts on Yahoo MyDrive?

[cybercrone]

One thing that I'd be leery of and that I don't see mentioned in anyone's articles is the fact that Dropbox doesn't necessarily store the file you send. If it already has a file that it "sees" as identical, it just gives you a copy of that one instead.
Now I know from experience that especially with photos, the software that makes those decisions can be wildly faulty. I used a WS recommended program to dig out duplicate photos on my computer and when looking over the duplicates it found, ran into some that were so bizarre it was hard to believe. One "duplicate" - and this is a true story - had paired a picture of my 6 yr old grand daughter doing gymnastics on the beach with a photo of a massive male rhinoceros that I took in Kenya.
There were many, many false pairings, and I would advise anyone who values their photos to stay far, far away from this program.

[cavehomme]

Interesting to highlight this privacy issue, but totally disappointing to recommend just one product as an alternative, that's a definite placement. We need a bit more analysis, objectivity and a few proposals please. Not a happy subscriber! By the way, trying out Sugarsync and it has 5GB free account and more flexibility, actually much more than I need but may be interesting for many people who want to also backup as well as have a Dropbox alternative - worth checking out, but I would like to try a few more alternatives before I decide.

[NTLS]

Dropbox, Sugarsync, Cloud, et ceteras, are not for me. Security is my most important point and having any data strored anywhere except my system is not acceptable. Besides a cloud is a bit too damp and may cause my bits to drip or drop.

[dpm39560]

Another alternative to DropBox and other cloud storage/sync services is NAS (network-attached storage) with internet access. I've avoided using Dropbox and its competitors for security reasons; I only store files that I don't mind others seeing on MediaFire.com. That service allows unlimited sharing and downloads, even though it is plagued by ads shown to those who want to download the files.

Recently, I have purchased a Buffalo CloudStor Pro ($254, free shipping at Amazon) which gives me 2TB of storage. Here's why I'm so tickled with it: (a) I own the device - it sits in my office attached to my router. (b) It appears on my network as a networked hard drive, so all my computers can access it at network (not internet) speeds. (c) I can access shared files from anywhere, such as when I'm on the road, by logging in to my account through the free PogoPlug services. (d) I can share any single folder or file on that drive with anyone I choose. They can download without creating an account, but they can also upload if they create a free account. (e) I can delete anyone's access at any time. (f) If I am ever concerned about security, I can change the passwords on my account, or simply unplug the drive.

With 2TB of storage for a one-time cost, no additional monthy fees, and the ability to add another hard drive inside the unit - this seems to me to be a much better choice than DropBox.

David in Mississippi