Dropbox

The_Hurricane

Hi All,

I was told today that Dropbox was going to be installed on PC's within my department this week.

My understanding is that Dropbox is a device that allows me to access files on other PC's, is this correct?

Thanks

HappyMJ

It's software that saves your files to the internet...if your computer crashes you have backups on the internet. No need to manually back up as long as you have saved the files in the correct folder.

The_Hurricane

Useful device.

How safe are the files stored online and how expensive is it to avail of such a service?

jaydeeuk1

I use dropbox for our work stuff, encrypted databases etc, also paid for version control.

The only thing I wish it did was allow storing on a nas drive (without a hack). I have a raid NAS setup which we dump on all our backups, image library for developement, some minor SVN backups etc. No real need to have dropbox installed on each PC. Dropbox say it isn't meant for that, and I understand their point, it just works better for me.

Its excellent imo, gives me peace of mind if one of my servers blows up.

Think it cost $100, (plus extra for version control, being able to get deleted files)

The_Hurricane

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

I use dropbox for our work stuff, encrypted databases etc, also paid for version control.

The only thing I wish it did was allow storing on a nas drive (without a hack). I have a raid NAS setup which we dump on all our backups, image library for developement, some minor SVN backups etc. No real need to have dropbox installed on each PC. Dropbox say it isn't meant for that, and I understand their point, it just works better for me.

Its excellent imo, gives me peace of mind if one of my servers blows up.

Think it cost $100, (plus extra for version control, being able to get deleted files)

Two points, what is a NAS drive and finally is Dropbox the same as Cloud storage?

bod1467

NAS = Network Attached Storage. (But I'm sure you can/could Google the acronym yourself)

Cloud? Pretty much - yes. With a degree of seamless integration to auto-backup your files.

Apreciar

In the past Dropbox have been criticised because of their lack of security, passwords have been hacked. I use it but for files that do not be so secure. For secure files I store on Wuala which is encrypted on my side before they are stored and no one at Wuals has my password to lose.

S0litaire

The_Hurricane wrote: »

Two points, what is a NAS drive and finally is Dropbox the same as Cloud storage?

NAS = Network Attached Storage. it's a box that usually sits on your network that users can access to store files.

Cloud Storage = Internet based Storage basically a NAS on the net that you can get access to anywhere.

Dropbox is a basic Could Storage option.

Personally I'd not touch DropBox (or any of the unsecured Cloud services) with a barge poll for business information. (but that's just me)

As for costs : Drop box is free for personal use (up to 2Gb of storage free) it goes up to $9.99 month per user for and extra 100Gb up to $49.99 for an extra 500Gb per year.

Dropbox for business is $795 for up to 5 users per year, and extra $175 per additional user. No storage limit

At those costs it might be cheaper getting buying a physical server and hosting it somewhere else! Then you have complete control over it.

alanwsg

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

The only thing I wish it did was allow storing on a nas drive (without a hack).

I've just installed a Netgear ReadyNas 102 at home which does exactly that.
It allows you to synchronize a folder on the NAS with a folder in your Dropbox account.
(This is only available in their latest NAS's that run their "OS6").

The_Hurricane

I think I have this straight now but could someone check my statements below to ensure they're correct?

A NAS device is physical rather than being a cyber only entity?

Cloud storage is internet based storage than can be accessed anywhere?

Dropbox is a reduced version of Cloud storage?

Neither Cloud or Dropbox are secure storage devices and if possible a server should be used instead for better security?

jaydeeuk1

The_Hurricane wrote: »

I think I have this straight now but could someone check my statements below to ensure they're correct?

A NAS device is physical rather than being a cyber only entity?

Cloud storage is internet based storage than can be accessed anywhere?

Dropbox is a reduced version of Cloud storage?

Neither Cloud or Dropbox are secure storage devices and if possible a server should be used instead for better security?

A NAS drive is a physical device, basically a hard drive or 2 (or 4/8 at the upper price range). It isn't strictly a backup device, its more of an always available device, eg its cheaper to leave on 24/7 than a PC, quieter, smaller and most can be configured to do a lot of things a basic PC could.

Yup, cloud storage, which drop box is, is a where all your files are saved on someone elses servers, somewhere in the world. They're responsible for keeping these available so you don't have to purchase hardware or server space. You can then install apps that download copies of these files to your PC, tablet, phone etc. If you edit it and save, its saved back to dropbox server, and then a copy is sent to your ipad, tablet, pc etc.

Yes you could have your own servers (our company has a rack at a Leicester datacenter) but if you hosted master copies on there, you'd still have the same problem of availability if your firewall blew up, cable failed (and you don't have redundancy - all above and beyond what an average user would need) server crashes plus it isn't that cheap.