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.: Extend your Hard Disk to the Web |
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Store It on the Web
Low Cost Services Make It Easier than Ever
All your important files--text documents, spreadsheets, music and videos, you name it-may start out sitting safe and snug on your PC's hard drive. But what if the drive goes belly up, or runs out of room? And what if you'd like an easy way to share those files with coworkers or friends? Web-based storage services let you back up your data, store your files on a Web server, or share them quickly and simply with anyone, often at no cost.
Offsite backups are the safest way to protect data. The sic services bellow are free or offer no-cost trials. However, you still must provide credit card information to access the trial versions, so be sure to cancel if you decide that a service isn't for you.
Extend your Hard Disk to the web with the free service of Box.Net. You get 1GB of free space and a clean, lean Web 2.0 interface with this service. File management, including the ability to tag your files and folders with simplicity is a 10. Box.net offers little in the way of extras. A stand-alone program that will synchronize with your desktop folders is still in the works. And while you can stream music, you can play just one song at a time, and only through Box.net's own little desktop player applet. The free version has some limits as you can't upload files larger than 10MB and you can download only one file at a time. But a cheap and worth paid options - $5 a month for 5GB or $10 a month for 15GB do away with these limits and offer both mobile access and support for additional users. We highly recommend it
. ElephantDrive, offers 500MB of free Web storage space and the pay plan is more expensive than others similar free service. With $10 per month or $100 per year you get up to 10GB of storage. Mozy, pay service is around $20 for up to 5GB, $30 for 10GB, and $40 for 20GB, and you get only five free restore operations per month - should be more than enough for most users. Both IBackup and XDrive cost the same, and their features are almost identical: multimedia streaming, browser-based file management, and file sharing. However, unlike XDrive, IBackup doesn't require that your friends open an IBackup account to view the files you want to share with them. The service's client software isn't as easy to use as the XDrive Desktop client. Xdrive supports file sharing and streaming of media files to cell phones, and you can manage your files via the XDrive Desktop client, or in a browser via the service's Web interface. Unfortunately, despite its features, the XDrive Desktop client stumbled too many times as runtime errors and failed backups. The client software for FirstBackUp service uses is well designed, but lacks an automatic backup capability during a PC's idle time. The services provides just one simple pricing plan: $4 per month (three months minimum) for up to 50MB, $8 per month for up to 300MB, $12 per month for up to 1GB, and $2.75 for each additional gigabyte. Those costs are affordable as long as you're backing up only limited amounts of data, but by the time you reach 5GB, the charges come to a total of $23 per month and the double if compare with same other services.
To Find Ample Storage Online, anyone who owns a digital camera or an MP3 music collection knows it doesn't take very long at all to fill up a hard drive. If you have a broadband Internet connection, you could save some of the cost of a new hard drive by using one of the many services offering free or dirt-cheap online storage.
For music and video playback two good options are Streamload and Online File Folder – the best choice for integrating online storage with day-to-day work. Godaddy's online storage service is decidedly businesslike. Online File Folder's clean, Explorer-style Web interface makes file management a breeze. But you don't even have to fire up your browser if you map the service as a network place in Windows, which then permits you to transfer files and folders by dragging and dropping them from within Explorer. This is the only one of the storage-focused services that lets you zip and encrypt your files and folders via the Web interface and a small downloadable program allows you to sync an online folder with a folder on your desktop, so updating one automatically updates the other. You have no free option, but you pay by the year rather than monthly, and for only $10 a year per gigabyte (up to 10GB) isn't bad, considering all the extras you get. Streamload Mediamax offer good space of free storage and as befitting the name, Mediamax emphasizes storing your music, video, and photos. When you upload files, the service automatically sorts them under such tabs as "Photoshare" and "Music Locker." With Streamload's easy streaming options, the service acts as a ready-access library for all your media files. You just select a few songs or whole folders, choose Play, and listen via your favorite media player. Unfortunately, you can quickly use up the free service's monthly 500MB download maximum. The limit leaps to 25GB (and a whopping 250GB of storage) for the cheapest paid plan ($15 a month).
Share the Web Way for sure, and you can attach umpteen files to an e-mail and blast it to three or four dozen of your nearest and dearest, but, oh, the hassle--adding each address, selecting and attaching the files one by one, and then choking the pipes of your ISP and those of each recipient. A better way is to post the files on the Web and send everybody a single URL so they can retrieve and open the files on their own, at their convenience. The best of web-sharing cake is that many of the services are completely free of charge. The best for its simplicity is YouSendIt and 4shared.com for its winning interface.
YouSendIt lets you upload files to its Web servers for temporary storage, you can include a personal note along with the upload, and then sends an e-mail to the person with whom you're sharing that explains how to pick up the file. You're notified when the file is sent and when it's picked up, and also the recipient's name is automatically added to your YouSendIt contacts, too. While you can send your file to several people at once, the "Send To" field limits to 128 characters. The free version limits the file size to 100MB and your upload are stored for seven days or for a total of 25 downloads per file. As option, with $5 per month it raises the size limit to 1GB, the per-file storage period to 14 days, and the downloads to 100. 4share.com offer free service up to 500MB of storage and lets you upload an unlimited number of files -though no single file can exceed 25MB in size. All of the folders you place on the site servers are permission-based, so you can easily make some folders available to anybody while restricting access to others. The nice feature is that you can also password-protect your folders, which adds another layer of security. Visitors access the folders through an e-mail link. You get more storage, multiple file transfers, and the ability to store files larger than 25MB for fees ranging from $48 to $84 per year. Another good alternative is the Grove Virtual Office acquired from Microsoft in 2006 - http://office.microsoft.com/pt-br/groove/default.aspx. This collaboration service differ from the other sharing sites, which makes them ideal for sharing data with work associates. However, Groove is also great for sharing with friends and family. The service provides you with a private, shared workspace and offers all the critical collaborative functions: file sharing, instant communications, and shared calendars. You can use Groove's desktop application to collaborate on projects and documents by storing and sharing files in various folders; edit and sync Word documents and other text files; view PowerPoint presentations; and enter meeting and other dates on a shared calendar. Besides sending e-mail within Groove, you can also conduct real-time, online meetings using the service's built-in instant messaging tool. If you have a microphone connected to your PC, you can use Groove's cool audio-chatting feature. The service even lets you do multiple tasks simultaneously – better say, participate in an online meeting while uploading files and collaborating on a document. They offer a 60-day trial with some features disabled, but it is for personal use you can continue using the application after the 60 days trial.
* Text edited based in sources from PC World magazine
** Safety Tip - A word of caution to anyone using online storage: never trust an online storage service with the only copy of your vital data. Always have a second location in case a server crushing.
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