Saturday, May 15, 2010

Dropbox.com

I just recently discovered this gem. Dropbox.com is a free (has a free level of use) cloud based file backup and retrieval tool. But it does a lot more:
  • You get 2 GB (or 2,000 MB) of storage space to start with.  I only have 10 MB on this Blog site.

  • You can get more space, up to 3 more GBs, by inviting friends to sign up. You get an addition 250 MB for each referral that joins and they get that also.  Go to https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTMzNDY3MTE5 and sign up and we will both get 250MB.
  • You can download and install clients for Windows, Mac, Linux and iPhones that create a dropbox folder on your computer that you can just drop files into and they are automagically backed up and synched with the other computers you used. I have this installed now on my office Dell, my work Netbook, my home Mac and my iPod and it is wonderful.
  • It even has a web access site so you can access your files from a computer without the client being installed. For example if you were on your friends or a public computer lab.
  • You get a Public folder in your Dropbox that you can get the URL for files in that folder and use this to share files to anyone without a dropbox account. I tested with with an eXe website module and it worked.
  • You can also share any of the other folders with other dropbox users and use this for collaboration.
  • You can put any types of files up in the Dropbox, even video clips, so if you have a large file too large to post on your blog or portfolio site, you can put it in here and link to it.
  • You can also share your photo files using the photo albums in the Photos folder.  I am using this to distribute photos to my students.
  • It even keeps a log of the changes to your files that you make and allows you to undelete a file.
  • Did I mention it was free. You can pay and get more space. $10 a month gives you 50 GB and $20 gives you 100 GB.  Last summer I bought a 1 TB (1000GB) USB external harddrive for $130, and I will use that for backing up most of me stuff.  But, for files for projects that I am working on day-to-day and my course docs, I am going to use Dropbox.
Give it a go, https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTMzNDY3MTE5 and provide some feedback.

Rod Corbett

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