Dropbox
By Wayne Maruna
Annual Nag
We’ve
just rolled over into a new year, a traditional time for resolutions. Mine are easy – I just pull out last year’s
list and change the date. It’s also the
time of year when I make my annual appeal to all computer users to resolve to have
a system imaging backup plan in place, and failing that, at least some sort of
data backup strategy. I favor using an
external hard drive and either a program called Macrium Reflect (free) or
Acronis True Image Home (not so free). If
working with an external hard drive and creating image backups seems like too
much of a challenge, at least consider on-line data backup services like Mozy
or Carbonite, which charge a monthly fee but automate the process of backing
your data files up on some distant server.
Some day you will be either very glad you did, or very sorry you
didn’t. I’ll take glad over sorry any
day, and you should too.
On to DropBox
With
that mandatory reminder out of the way, I’m devoting this month’s article to a
different type of internet data service called Dropbox. I discovered this while exploring applications
for my new smart phone, but I actually use it more across my home network of
computers. Dropbox combines elements of
file synchronization, file sharing, collaboration facilitation, and data
backup. If you have more than one PC in
your home – and I think that is now more the norm than not – you’ll likely find
a way to use Dropbox.
Let
me give you an example. Because I’m
goofy, I have six, sometime seven, computers in the house. My wife and I use a program called Personal
Mailing List to keep track of addresses and phone numbers. We may need to access that info, add to the
data base, or make changes regardless of the machine we are using at the
time. I don’t have a home server – very
few people do - so data files are kept on each individual PC. I’ve loaded Dropbox on each PC. It creates a Dropbox folder within the
Documents folder. I keep the address
data base file in the Dropbox folder.
Anytime I make an addition or change to the data base and save the file,
the Dropbox service automatically sends the changed file to my little piece of
‘the cloud’, and the program then takes care of synchronizing that changed file
onto all the other machines where I’ve got Dropbox installed. If the other machines are off at the time,
they’ll get synchronized the next time they’re powered up. I don’t have to worry about copying the file
to all the other machines across my network, and I don’t have to use email or a
USB flash drive to transfer the data to the other
machines. The program takes care of it
for me effortlessly.
In
my role of TabMail administrator, I am frequently adding, modifying, and
deleting subscriber info. I do this on
the web, but I also like to keep a list with more comprehensive data in an
Excel file on my PC. When I travel, I
take a laptop. With Dropbox, I don’t
have to worry about which machine I make my Excel changes on. No matter the machine, Dropbox makes sure all
machines are updated to contain the same info.
The same info is even accessible via my smart phone.
If I
am somewhere without my laptop or smart phone – which admittedly would probably
mean I’ve been kidnapped or dropped from a plane – I could access any files
within Dropbox by going to any computer and logging into my account on the Dropbox
website. I can keep photos in a folder within Dropbox and give select people a
password to be able to access only that folder from their own computers. I can also give people file-specific access to
my Dropbox account and let them collaborate on making changes. The service will
keep version history for 30 days in case someone really screws something up.
I’ve
been using Dropbox for a couple of months as I write this, and I think it is
totally cool. As long as I don’t become
a pack rat and can keep my total Dropbox folder size under two gigabytes of
space, the service is free, which is totally way cool. Crossing over 2GB is going to cost, though,
with 50 GB of space setting you back $10 per month. Maximum size right now is 100 GB for $20
monthly.
Dropbox
runs on Windows XP and newer, Mac OS X Tiger and newer, and certain Linux
distributions including Ubuntu and Fedora Core, so it provides an easy way to
sync files automatically across platforms.
You
can learn more by going to www.dropbox.com. There are competitors out there,
including SugarSync. But probably the
major alternative would be Google Docs, where all your data resides on some far
off server, and you access the data from whatever machine you are on at the
time. You don’t need to worry about file
synchronization since there is only one file kept in one place, not multiple
copies squirreled away hither and yon. For
now, I’ll stay with DropBox. I’ve not
yet reconciled myself with relying on someone else to store and protect my data
on some machine I can’t walk over and smack when it needs it.