Dropbox
is the mayor of Sync Town, working like iDisk but more reliably. And
since anyone can have a 2GB account for free, there’s no reason not to
try it out. Paid accounts are $50 a year for 50GB of storage and $100 a
year for 100GB, so you might decide not to back up your entire hard
drive. But the sync and sharing services are the whole point.
Installing
the Dropbox client puts a new folder called Dropbox into your user
folder, and any files you put in that folder are synced to Dropbox’s
servers. You can access those files through a browser by logging in to
GetDropbox.com. You can also install Dropbox on your other computers
(even Windows and Linux machines), associate them with your existing
Dropbox account, and access your files from there. It’s meant to
replace clunkier methods, such as emailing files to yourself or carting
them around on USB flash drives.
Your
Dropbox lives in your User folder and acts like any other folder in
your Finder. We added ours to our sidebar for extra convenience.
Dropbox
syncs your files instantaneously—we stuck five JPEGs in
~/Dropbox/Photos, and they appeared in our list of synced files on
GetDropbox.com within 10 seconds. Your Dropbox folder contains folders
called Public and Photos by default. You can share files in the Public
folder with friends (even if they don’t use Dropbox) by emailing them a
public URL. To get it, just view your Public folder at GetDropbox.com,
click the file you want to share, and choose Copy Public URL from the
contextual menu. You can email the link or paste it into an IM chat,
and your recipient can view or download the file in their browser.
Drag
some photos into the Photos folder within Dropbox, and Dropbox creates
an online gallery. It’s not as attractive as MobileMe’s online
galleries, but it’s an easy way to share photos online—just email
friends the link to the gallery or right-click any photo and choose
Copy Link Location to get links to specific pictures.
You
can also set up Shared folders from which other Dropbox users can
upload and download files. You invite friends by email address, and
they’re required to sign up for Dropbox accounts. And if they don’t
want to install the Dropbox client on their computers, they can stick
to the Web interface only. Referring friends to Dropbox gets you each
250MB of extra free storage; grab your referral link from GetDropbox.com
> Account > Referral Status. You can earn up to 3GB of free space
from referrals. Joining other people’s Shared folders does affect your
quota, since the files in that folder now show up in your Dropbox as
well.
Any photos you add to Dropbox's Photos folder also appear in an online gallery.
In
our tests, Dropbox was smooth and stable. And it’s convenient: We added
the Dropbox folder to our Finder window’s sidebar, plus put an alias on
our Desktop. Status updates appear as Growl notifications, or you can
see them by clicking the menubar icon.
We
especially liked how Dropbox deals with conflicts. If two users are
working on the same file, whoever uploads it last “wins,” but the
“losing” file is synced to Dropbox and time-stamped with the name of
the computer that did the edit, so you can figure out which version you
want. And we loved browsing our files on our iPhone: Head to
m.getdropbox.com on your device, and log in to view recent Dropbox
activity, browse your files, and view images and documents right in
Mobile Safari.
Super-fast syncing across as many machines as you like. Easily share
photos and files with friends. Great Web interface, plus a client that
integrates seamlessly into Mac OS X. Universal binary.
Joining a Shared folder affects your quota.
craig
October 20, 2010 at 6:37am
Dropbox allows you to share files between your computers and phone with ease, as well as to share files with friends by giving them a download link. to start with an extra 250MB of free storage use a referral link to sign up. if anyone needs one use this: http://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTExMjAzMDUwOQ
jam0715
September 23, 2010 at 11:25am
Mozy and Carbonite both seem to be very reasonable options based on service quality, available space for back-up and price. For the nominal user, Mozy even offers up to 2GB free according to an article I found comparing both backup services. You can read the comparison at http://factoidz.com/online-backup-services-my-comparison-of-carbonite-vs-mozy-backup/
jacky2000
August 12, 2010 at 12:03am
www.DriveHQ.com cloud service is also available on Mac. In fact, DriveHQ offers online storage, online backup, online sharing and collaboration, FTP Server hosting, email server hosting, web server hosting and WebDAV drive mapping services. Most of features are available on Mac, except DriveHQ FileManager; you can still use any FTP Client software, such as FileZilla (http://www.drivehq.com/ftp/ click on software tab) to access DriveHQ cloud storage. On Mac, WebDAV drive mapping is also supported. For more info, please visit:
http://www.drivehq.com/mapdrive/
maczilla
August 09, 2010 at 11:53am
I found a good place where I can backup everything and makes folder to share things with my customers. Its called STOCKLii! You can go see by yourself at http://www.stocklii.com/en. Its A1 ;)
jlbfor
December 30, 2009 at 8:46am
Although DriveHQ does not have a Mac client it is still very useable.See http://www.DriveHQ.com.
See also my website for more lists and links on the subject of online backup.(http://www.online-data-backup-info.com)
Maclover85
December 04, 2009 at 2:12pm
In my opinion carbonite is the way to go, never had any problems so far.
ammarvvip
November 11, 2009 at 8:31am
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benet
November 10, 2009 at 8:26pm
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John_Gordon
October 30, 2009 at 2:45am
I have online account with backupandshare.com.It is the easiest and user friendly service I have seen so far but with almost everything you need as an online backup application. They are also providing Windows mobile backup solution free for their users. So far very good experience, no wonder they are the current topper in http://top10onlinebackup.com
Maclover85
September 27, 2009 at 10:15am
Great article, personally as a new Mac user I have recently started to use Carbonite and without a single complaint, its very good. I would recommend fellow Mac users to make the change to Carbonite
quesonacho
September 24, 2009 at 6:19pm
I tried Mozy based on this review. I had trouble from the start - backups not going to their server, file retrieval failed. It never seemed to work properly. And when I contacted support, I was ignored. No response to my e-mails, no one answers their phone (kept getting voice mail). AVOID THEM. I'm trying Backblaze, hope they do a better job.
ilikeimac
July 31, 2009 at 9:28pm
The summary chart at the end of the article shortchanges Dropbox on a few points: (1) Dropbox does keep deleted files. Till recently it kept them forever, but now free accounts only keep deleted files 30 days, while paid accounts keep them forever. (2) It does have a speed throttle; go to Dropbox menubar icon -> Preferences -> Network. I've heard the "Automatic" setting is 70% of your upload speed.
Timinator
November 04, 2009 at 6:20pm
Just wanted to say I LOVE dropbox. I've been using it for a few months now. It's nice to be able to host a file somewhere easy when I need it. I also like using the "copy public link" option to send people download links for large files.If anyone need a referral link so you start with an extra 250 megs of space here it is:https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTI4NDc0MzY5
tellis30
July 28, 2009 at 5:34am
Guess I'll just keep "Mozying along" Always there, always backing things up. Love it!!
clintbradford
July 27, 2009 at 1:08pm
EVERYONE seems to love Carbonite. Am I wrong to think that I want to be able to control my backups, and be able to schedule them when I want them to run? Carbonite for Windows allows scheduling - but not for Mac.
