Online Storage Sites

[katana]

Yeah, I got my email from Google this morning too.

[topt]

For anybody that may want to access their cloud storage from China - you cannot use Drop box or the new Google Drive - (unless you use a VPN)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/26/baidu_google_cloud_storage/

[FarangBha]

Dropbox have released a new version that will auto upload from cameras and usb's etc. They will give you an extra 3gb if you use this facitlty. Get it here.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Dropbox have released a new version that will auto upload from cameras and usb's etc. They will give you an extra 3gb if you use this facitlty. Get it here.

Yes, I've been using the DropBox Android mobile app for a month or two, the newer version you mention, that automatically uploads my mobile phone photos... Nice feature and works well.

One thing I really like about it is the DropBox file versions are auto named with the year and date items as the file name -- something my mobile phone doesn't do, instead just naming the photos all in numeric, sequential order... So these days, I always pull the DropBox versions to get the naming method I prefer.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

...all my Google accounts say my drives aren't ready yet, and if you log in there, they'll offer to email you when the drive capacity is added to your Google account...

Same here.

Took about 36 hours to get the emails from Google that our 4 GoogleDrives were ready (4 Google accounts between the wife and I).

Still playing/learning with my 7GB MS SykDrive I setup a few days ago...will learn it a little more over the next few days before trying out GoogleDrive...may help me from getting confused between the SkyDrive and GoogleDrive. Will have to say for the few days I've used SkyDrive I like it.

So Pib, did you install the new MS SkyDrive software for your desktop PC that gives you easy access to their file system?

BTW, what I mentioned earlier is correct, the new SD does have a 2 GB per file limit... which is pretty healthy, considering SD used to be 100 MB per file and later 300 MB per file. Now you're getting to the point where you can store entire copies of DVD (assuming you cut out the extra junk) and digital movie files there...

PS - My first Google Drive email confirmation arrived about 24 hours after I first logged on to request access.. Haven't checked my other ID accounts yet.

Edited April 28, 2012 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Pib]

So Pib, did you install the new MS SkyDrive software for your desktop PC that gives you easy access to their file system?

Yeap...sure did....got that little blue clouds icon running in my taskbar.

[katana]

Unfortunately GoogleDrive once installed tries to connect to the internet what seems like every 5 minutes and auto-update via GoogleUpdate.exe. There doesn't seem to be an option in its preferences to stop this.

Did finally find out how to prevent this behaviour but it's annoying nevertheless.

[woodyleonhard]

The online storage world changed last week.

Good overview: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/04/cloud-storage-a-pricing-and-feature-guide-for-consumers.ars

My two cents: http://www.infoworld.com/t/cloud-storage/cloud-storage-booming-trouble-brewing-191818

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Woody, help me out there... because goes out of my area of knowledge...

You did a good column. But on the issue of privacy, aren't there two possibilities: 1 that the service encyrpts the user's data, and 2 the user encrypts their own data before uploading it to the cloud?

If the user is encrypting their own data, doesn't that keep it from prying eyes at the host site, but still allow the user to access their own info? Or am I out to lunch on the whole encryption thing...

I've never had any reason to encrypt anything I've stored in the cloud. But I don't store sensitive things in the cloud as a general rule, also.

BTW, the Google Drive privacy policy (or lack of privacy policy more properly) is ridiculous.

[Pib]

Regarding all these cloud storage privacy policy concerns the more articles I read on the subject, like this Washington Post article, the more it appears to me they are all about the same except some have not been worded as artfully as others.

[astral]

I think the critical word here is SAFE off site storage...........

Remember there is no such thing as a free lunch!!

Recently my seedbox, which I do pay for, was compromised and I lost all the data on there............

I am very dubious about all these "Cloud" options.

Whatever you choose, keep a backup at home as well.

[djayz]

I think the critical word here is SAFE off site storage...........

Remember there is no such thing as a free lunch!!

Recently my seedbox, which I do pay for, was compromised and I lost all the data on there............

I am very dubious about all these "Cloud" options.

Whatever you choose, keep a backup at home as well.

Yeah, I lost (semi-valuable) data a few years back so now I keep a back up on an external HD (which unfortunately I cannot access any more... grrrrr!!!!) AND starting from today, back ups on dropbox AND SkyDrive (25 GB for FREE of charge!). I have two accounts with hotmail so that gives me a total of 50 GB. If that's not enough, I really don't know what is... Thanks to all you guys and gals for the advice. Some great info.

[Guest]

I had big expectations for Google Drive, but at the moment it's like Google+. Big hype, but it just not deliver.

Dropbox is still the king of the cloud file systems, at least on linux user perspective. I'm using linux and share files and directories with my customers all around the world. Dropbox just works. It can be accessed from the command line, file managers, web portal and mobile devices. All very needed.

Google drive seems to save the files somewhere on chromium cache, which is somewhat stupid solution. Maybe just a start, but they have to do a lot before the service can compete with Dropbox when it comes to the functionality and ease of usage.

[Pib]

Being a newbie to cloud storage I find Microsoft SkyDrive pretty durn easy to use.

[bangkokburning]

Worthless. What am I going to do with a meager 5gb of space that I can't already have done for years with Gmail. Oh, 2 gigs - errrr thanks (for nothing).

Cloud - yeah, head in the cloud worthless service.

Of these though, Dropbox is it with Google a close 2nd.

[Digitalbanana]

Google drive seems to save the files somewhere on chromium cache, which is somewhat stupid solution. Maybe just a start, but they have to do a lot before the service can compete with Dropbox when it comes to the functionality and ease of usage.

As the reference link by Woody suggest, Google Drive isn't for Linux. Use Windows and the Google Drive app to store to your drive.

I tried it, but reverted to Dropbox.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Re SkyDrive, there's some free software called Gladinet that gives you local drive access to your SkyDrive account once you set it up.. I assume it ought to work for things like SyncToy and other automated backup solutions...

I haven't tried the backup there myself yet. But I am using Gladinet for direct local drive access to my SkyDrive accounts. Shows up as Drive Letter Z in Windows Explorer... And I believe the free version of Gladinet allows up to two different SkyDrive accounts to be accessed in that way.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Re backup in general...I don't trust anything solo...so I have three levels going for everything:

--second internal hard drive that mirrors the data on my main system hard drive.

--external USB hard drive synced via MS SyncToy

--whole system data online backup via a paid online service called CrashPlan

[Pib]

My backups are via several external USB drives....I usually alternate backups between the drives in case one bites the dust. When it comes to cloud storage I'm only using that to transfer certain stuff (like photos) to family/friends. I'm not to the point that I want to trust cloud storage for files I consider important/private/identity-related, plus I don't travel much/have a job where being able to access your files in the cloud may come in handy/needed. If hackers can break into databases protecting credit credit card/personal info...databases which supposedly have high level/costly protection, then they could break into cloud storage like Dropbox, GoogleDrive, SkyDrive, etc. And sure, could someone break into my house and steal my USB drives/computers...sure they could...guess it all depends on how and where a person wants to save there data and the associated risks of each method.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Pib, I'm not storing any of my sensitive stuff in the SkyDrive, Google Drive, SugarSync kind of places... just music files and photo files and similar stuff...which is more space intensive.

But I believe paid services like CrashPlan use encryption and other security features that are different from the routine file storage places.

[astral]

I just checked the size of my Photo folder - 20Gb

And I have 1 Tb of video archived.

Much cheaper to store at home, never mind the bandwidth needed to upload them.

[katana]

And I have 1 Tb of video archived.

Hi Astral, how many hard disks is that? Or did you mean burnt to DVDs?

[1TB=1000GB]

Edited May 3, 2012 by katana

[Guest]

And I have 1 Tb of video archived.

Hi Astral, how many hard disks is that? Or did you mean burnt to DVDs?

[1TB=1000GB]

I don't see any practical reason to burn anything to DVD's anymore.. well except sending pictures by snail mail to people far, far away.

NAS box with ®synced disk _and_ one off site copy would do. Off site copy to protect against thiefs and fire.

But then again. These are local instances and are not easily available remotely.

(I used to work an company where we replicated data between continents so that the data would be safe even if one country would be wiped out back to stone age. Sometimes we did fly from Europe to US on business class, not because of the people, but because of the data tapes we had with us..

[Crushdepth]

Woody, help me out there... because goes out of my area of knowledge...

You did a good column. But on the issue of privacy, aren't there two possibilities: 1 that the service encyrpts the user's data, and 2 the user encrypts their own data before uploading it to the cloud?

If the user is encrypting their own data, doesn't that keep it from prying eyes at the host site, but still allow the user to access their own info? Or am I out to lunch on the whole encryption thing...

I've never had any reason to encrypt anything I've stored in the cloud. But I don't store sensitive things in the cloud as a general rule, also.

BTW, the Google Drive privacy policy (or lack of privacy policy more properly) is ridiculous.

If the data is being strongly encrypted on *your* computer and only you have the key, then it can sit in the cloud safely. Spideroak does this.

If the service provider encrypts the data at their end and keeps the keys (iCloud), they have full access to it, as does anyone who can present them with a court order etc.

There was an in depth review of the security of half a dozen services a couple of weeks ago on the Security Now podcast. Most of them got a fail.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Thanks for that info source, CD... TWIT (This Week in Technology) is a great resource on technology, and I keep up on various of their podcasts, but I didn't know Security Now had done an overview on cloud storage security...

Here's the link for the show notes on that podcast:

http://wiki.twit.tv/...ecurity_Now_349

The online backup provider I'm using for my system, CrashPlan+, was one of the cloud providers reviewed, and seemed to get among the better security recommendations, including the following info from the show notes:

Security: Free plan is 128-bit Blowfish Plus plans are 448-bit Blowfish (slow key schedule is good!) FULL (optional) TNO-level Security using a "Private Password" to decrypt the encrypted encryption key.

Now if only someone would translate what the heck all that means... The only Blowfish I know is the Japanese kind that will kill you if not prepared properly prior to consumption.

BTW, the "TNO" references above and in the show notes mean "Trust No One" security.

Edited May 4, 2012 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[astral]

And I have 1 Tb of video archived.

Hi Astral, how many hard disks is that? Or did you mean burnt to DVDs?

[1TB=1000GB]

DVD's you must be joking

I haven't used them for years.

I have two 1 Tb disks, both are 2.5" models so they are easily portable between my notebook

and the WD HD player in the living room.

One has accumulated TV series

The other music and documentaires

In addition I have a 2Tb disk, 3.5" with external power for a master backup of the smaller disks

and the data on my pc.

[katana]

Ah, yes, I see. I was getting my Tb and Gb mixed up and was out by a factor of 1000.

[Crushdepth]

Thanks for that info source, CD... TWIT (This Week in Technology) is a great resource on technology, and I keep up on various of their podcasts, but I didn't know Security Now had done an overview on cloud storage security...

Here's the link for the show notes on that podcast:

http://wiki.twit.tv/...ecurity_Now_349

The online backup provider I'm using for my system, CrashPlan+, was one of the cloud providers reviewed, and seemed to get among the better security recommendations, including the following info from the show notes:

Security: Free plan is 128-bit Blowfish Plus plans are 448-bit Blowfish (slow key schedule is good!) FULL (optional) TNO-level Security using a "Private Password" to decrypt the encrypted encryption key.

Now if only someone would translate what the heck all that means... The only Blowfish I know is the Japanese kind that will kill you if not prepared properly prior to consumption.

BTW, the "TNO" references above and in the show notes mean "Trust No One" security.

Blowfish is an encryption algorithm developed by a reputable cryptographer, Bruce Schneier. Its been around a long time, no problems there.

One thing I don't like about Crashplan is that they store your encryption key on *their* servers. Ok its encrypted, but only as well as the password you chose. Its still better than the shitty situation with icloud though (Apple reserve the right to delete files they don't like!). The Boxcryptor app for Google Drive and Drop Box works the same way as Crashplan.

Far better if only you have the key, and all en/decryption operations are done on your local machine. Then nobody can touch your stuff without your permission.

Edited May 6, 2012 by Crushdepth

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

FULL (optional) TNO-level Security using a "Private Password" to decrypt the encrypted encryption key.

It looks like Security Now is saying CrashPlan's paid plans will allow the user, as an option, to have their own secured password to protect the encryption key.... Thus, if a user is doing that, I'd assume that means no one at CrashPlan or elsewhere would be able to access that user's data unless they had or could guess the user's encryption password.

[astral]

That sounds like the BestCrypt container encryption, which is pretty good.

Sensitive data can always be encrypted at home, and then the container placed in the Cloud.