Alan Cohen

Almost Everything on the Internet is free.  But how useful is it?

Over the past few weeks I've found some genuinely useful services for online storage of... stuff.  I never really thought about it, but there are actually three different scenarios where I want to store stuff online:

1. Automated backup of files.
2. Sharing files that are too large to email (i.e., multi-megabyte behemoths that might overflow an in box.)
3. Centralized storage to access files from any computer on the Internet. 

After some experimenting, it turns out that each of these is a substantially different task, each best filled by a separate free service.

The three tasks that I used to find a good solution for these scenarios was:

1. Setting up an automatic offline backup system for my dad's computer.  Dad produces a lot of documents that need backup.   Since Dad is not technophile, the system must be totally automatic.

2. Share some with my colleagues some videos that I'd produced for the OpenMedic project. I wanted them to approve the videos before I put them on the OpenMedic site.

3. Sharing files between the three computers that I typically use on a given day.  Note that I typically use a CVS server for work files, but some things are just not appropriate for CVS - e.g., quickly jotted meeting notes that I need to write into meeting minutes, and so forth.

Xdrive 

I signed up for a free account on Xdrive, which is owned by AOL.  Xdrive provides 5 GB of storage, which can be accessed in a plethora of ways via a Web interface or a Windows application.  At first blush, it appears that Xdrive can fulfill all three of the above tasks.  However, it turns out that: 

• Xdrive is great for centralized storage (task 3) - other than it corrupting a number of files that I stored there, making them unreadable.  Xdrive's optional Windows software (Xdrive Desktop) actually makes your Xdrive space look like a drive in windows, e.g., the 'X' drive in Window's Explorer.  Once this is done, copying files to your Xdrive account is as simple as copying a file between two folders on your computer.  Xdrive has a slick mechanism for performing the physical copy in the background, so your system responds quickly even when a huge file is being copied.  I presume that the mechanism continues incomplete transfers that are interrupted by computer shutdown - but I didn't tried it.
• Xdrive is usable non-optimal for mailing huge files (task 2).  You can create an Xdrive folder, upload files to it, and enter a list of email addresses to whom a link will be sent - however, these recipients need to have an AOL screen name (i.e., account) to retrieve the files.  This is not horrible, but is a definite annoyance.
• Xdrive did not work properly for Dad's backup (task 3).  On the initial backup of his My Documents folder, the backup would pause after a few minute- and stay paused for hours.  At this point, clicking the cancel button froze the Xdrive Desktop  - killing the application from Windows Task Manager was required to resolve the freeze.  When I restarted the Xdrive Desktop and restarted the backup it continued downloading from the point at which it had paused, which is good - but clearly, having to continually restart software to complete a backup is a non-starter.

I had hoped that Xdrive would meet my need for sharing files among multiple computers, but was disappointed by its flaws, particularly corrupted files - the prospect of my files getting obliterated makes Xdrive a non-starter for me. 

Mozy

For Dad's backup, I next tried Mozy.  Unlike Xdrive's Swiss-Army-Knife approach Mozy does only one thing - backup your PC's files online.  It does a great job of this - takes only a few minutes to install and start, and works quietly in the background.  A 2 gigabyte account is free - an unlimited(!!!) personal account is 5 bucks a month, and a "professional" account is a monthly $4 plus $0.50 per gigabyte.

Another bonus of Mozy is security.  By default, all of your data is encrypted before it leaves your computer, so it can't be read by hackers while en route to Mozy's servers.  You can optionally also use a private key of your own, which will keep your information encrypted even when it's on Mozy's servers, and only decrypt it when it's restored to your computer - this means that it's virtually impossible for anyone, including the folks at Mozy, to read your files.  The downside is that if you lose your key, you can kiss your data goodbye - nobody will be able to read your files stored on Mozy.

All in all, Mozy is a no-brainer.  The free personal edition is perfect for keeping personal documents backed up.  For even better protection, I plan to get a paid personal account to keep my Acronis backups (full disk images) online.  So, Mozy fulfills my need for automated backup.

YouSendIt

After poking around the 'net looking for information and recommendations, I tried YouSendIt.  It couldn't be simpler to use - fill in your email, recipient's email, a message, and select the file on your drive that you want to upload.  Click the button and you're done.  The file is uploaded, and an email sent to the recipient with a link to download the file.

YouSendIt accounts range from advertising-supported free service for sending files up to 100MB, to a $30 per month business plan that permits 2 GB files to be sent, and has other niceties.  YouSendIt is a no-brainer: it works, and it's free.  This fulfills my need for a way to share large files.