Dropbox, found it useful and saw no thread on here

[bluesin]

I came on here to see if DBR had a dropbox referral thread in off topic, and found we had no threads on it. For those of you that know what dropbox is, then this thread probably won't help much, but for those of you that don't here's a basic overview:

Dropbox is a web/cloud based free storage option. Here is their link telling you what they're about https://www.dropbox.com/features. I've found it incredibly useful for sharing files with a friend in Michigan, streaming music to my iphone and ipad to keep their space free for apps and other things, storing photos when I'm going on vacation so I can show family, and a bunch of other incidentals. Really, it's been a life saver for important document backup for when I've forgotten my thumb drive or forgotten to email myself a final draft.

Anyway, if you want to sign up here is my referral link http://db.tt/LQysSkn - it get's me an extra 500MB of space for every one (up to 16GB) who signs up with the link, and you get extra space for using a referral link instead of just signing up. Use a .edu address if you have it, you get more space with referrals. Even if you don't use my referral link (though I hope you will :p) I suggest checking it out, the 2GB you start with is enough to be a real help. And if enough people are interested then posting referral links here ought to help everyone.

[Bluedog]

Looks like a good service. I haven't used it and I'm sure it's fine, but just thought I'd point out that a Duke alumnus Dylan Smith started a similar service prior to Dropbox called Box.net.

http://www.box.net/

I'm a sucker for things started by Duke people...call me biased. ;) He didn't actually graduate Duke, though, as he dropped out sophomore year to work on his startup. I think he was in the Class of 2008. I don't really know the plus/minuses of dropbox vs. box.net (I haven't used either) so you'd have to research it yourself.

Edit: Well, one comparison is that box.net gives you 5 GB for free while dropbox gives you "only" 2 GB.

[mr. synellinden]

I came on here to see if DBR had a dropbox referral thread in off topic, and found we had no threads on it. For those of you that know what dropbox is, then this thread probably won't help much, but for those of you that don't here's a basic overview:

Dropbox is a web/cloud based free storage option. Here is their link telling you what they're about https://www.dropbox.com/features. I've found it incredibly useful for sharing files with a friend in Michigan, streaming music to my iphone and ipad to keep their space free for apps and other things, storing photos when I'm going on vacation so I can show family, and a bunch of other incidentals. Really, it's been a life saver for important document backup for when I've forgotten my thumb drive or forgotten to email myself a final draft.

Anyway, if you want to sign up here is my referral link http://db.tt/LQysSkn - it get's me an extra 500MB of space for every one (up to 16GB) who signs up with the link, and you get extra space for using a referral link instead of just signing up. Use a .edu address if you have it, you get more space with referrals. Even if you don't use my referral link (though I hope you will :p) I suggest checking it out, the 2GB you start with is enough to be a real help. And if enough people are interested then posting referral links here ought to help everyone.

Coincidentally, just set up a dropbox account this weekend. Agree that it's a very useful service - saves me from having to email files to myself.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

How good is security on these sites? Is everything encrypted so no one else can see your stuff? Can others steal it? My wife asked me about Drop Box yesterday. Sounds good, but I think I'll let others test drive it for a while and work out the bugs.

[DukeUsul]

How good is security on these sites? Is everything encrypted so no one else can see your stuff? Can others steal it? My wife asked me about Drop Box yesterday. Sounds good, but I think I'll let others test drive it for a while and work out the bugs.

I trust it as much as I trust most anything else out there. The data is encrypted in transit and there are reasonable measures against intrusion. Though, like anything, it can certainly be hacked. I use it for "typical" information, but wouldn't put my bank account numbers and passwords out there.

My wife and I both have Dropbox accounts. I have a shared folder that she has access to with which we can share files. We both have the app on our laptops, work PCs, and phones. I'm very happy with it.

[DevilAlumna]

In a similar vein, Windows Live from Microsoft offers free storage/syncing.

Live Mesh (http://explore.live.com/windows-live-mesh?os=other) keeps you in sync across as many machines as you choose, and backs up as much as 5GB of storage onto the Skydrive service (http://explore.live.com/windows-live-skydrive-get-started).

[bluesin]

How good is security on these sites? Is everything encrypted so no one else can see your stuff? Can others steal it? My wife asked me about Drop Box yesterday. Sounds good, but I think I'll let others test drive it for a while and work out the bugs.


I trust it as much as I trust most anything else out there. The data is encrypted in transit and there are reasonable measures against intrusion. Though, like anything, it can certainly be hacked. I use it for "typical" information, but wouldn't put my bank account numbers and passwords out there.

My wife and I both have Dropbox accounts. I have a shared folder that she has access to with which we can share files. We both have the app on our laptops, work PCs, and phones. I'm very happy with it.

I also wouldn't put anything on there in the vein of credit card info or bank accounts, but only out of prudence. Dropbox uses SSL encryption for data transfer and AES-256 encryption on the server side (which is good enough for the US government at the TOP SECRET level and has never been defeated in a brute force hack). That seems about as secure as I could hope for.

I know of quite a few businesses that have Dropbox integrated into their operations, including some solo practitioners/lawyers who use it as a means of having quick access to important documents concerning their current case load. I don't know that I would go that far in trusting it (even if I wasn't still looking for a job in this wonderful NC legal market) but it's worth noting that they don't feel exposed to liability for using the service. Dropbox has been around since September 2008 so the bugs have pretty much been worked out, I've never had a bug (or otherwise) related issue and I've been using it pretty extensively for over a year now.

As for box.net - from my own research they seem much more business centered, and their free trial appears to be a limited version of what box.net offers to the paid tiers. They really appear to be catering to two different clienteles, with Dropbox being more individual centered and box.net being more concerned with dynamic information sharing in a larger business setting. Dropbox also has some pretty well developed tweaks from the user base that I have not heard of for the box.net service.

As a side note box.net's CFO graduated from Duke with an bachelor's drgree in economics according to their home page, while their CEO dropped out of business school (Southern California). They didn't give a graduation date but box.net was founded in 2005. http://www.box.net/company/leadership


In a similar vein, Windows Live from Microsoft offers free storage/syncing.

Live Mesh (http://explore.live.com/windows-live-mesh?os=other) keeps you in sync across as many machines as you choose, and backs up as much as 5GB of storage onto the Skydrive service (http://explore.live.com/windows-live-skydrive-get-started).

I found Windows Live to be cumbersome when I last used it, and their 50MB per individual file limit was a source of irritation for keeping media in the cloud, plus it wasn't as well (or at all) integrated for sharing via mobile platforms or with other users, though that may have changed (I have not heard that it has). If you just want a place to store items in the cloud as backup though Skydrive is a solid service from what I remember.

[duke74]

I know of quite a few businesses that have Dropbox integrated into their operations, including some solo practitioners/lawyers who use it as a means of having quick access to important documents concerning their current case load. I don't know that I would go that far in trusting it (even if I wasn't still looking for a job in this wonderful NC legal market) but it's worth noting that they don't feel exposed to liability for using the service. Dropbox has been around since September 2008 so the bugs have pretty much been worked out, I've never had a bug (or otherwise) related issue and I've been using it pretty extensively for over a year now.

My firm (public accounting) does not allow the use of Dropbox for any client or related material - including as a means for sharing files with clients. We are only permitted to use our own sharing mechanisms (erooms, etc).

[Bluedog]

For four hours on Sunday, visitors could use any password to log in to other customers accounts on Dropbox. Just thought I'd bump this up to let anybody that uses dropbox know and to give warning that cloud computing still isn't completely 100% secure and without its potential faults. If you use a cloud, you may want to re-assess putting any sensitive information there.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/22/technology/dropbox_passwords/index.htm?iid=EAL

[bluesin]

For four hours on Sunday, visitors could use any password to log in to other customers accounts on Dropbox. Just thought I'd bump this up to let anybody that uses dropbox know and to give warning that cloud computing still isn't completely 100% secure and without its potential faults. If you use a cloud, you may want to re-assess putting any sensitive information there.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/22/technology/dropbox_passwords/index.htm?iid=EAL

That's really good information to have out there, I'd almost forgotten about this thread since it's been months since I posted it. Personally, I still only really use dropbox for media and the occasional personal (non-sensitive) document. I should point out that www.lifehacker.com (http://www.lifehacker.com) has some really really informative articles about not only securing your dropbox files using encryption (basically a second layer of security) but also has a very extensive back catalog of information regarding getting the most out of a variety of cloud based storage options. I'm at work so I don't have time to dig up specific links, but a search for dropbox on their site will give you a good list of articles. Truecrypt + dropbox = pretty darn secure encrypted files that are then uploaded to the cloud. That's the combination I would recommend for anyone who has to use cloud based storage for sensitive information but is (rightly) concerned about security. Here is a quick explantion of it anyway http://wiki.dropbox.com/TipsAndTricks/Truecrypt

I'm a big fan of truecrypt, it's definately worth a look for anyone who needs some serious security on their laptop/desktop/other and doesn't think a basic password is going to be enough. Plus, if you really want to you can pretend to be a spy and hide your real OS inside a shell OS both of which are encrypted and fully functional, but only one of which holds your real files. It's useful for overthrowing despotic governments or for hiding birthday invitation lists and christmas present ideas from family members on a shared computer.

I should start posting in basketball threads again before I become known as that guy in the dropbox thread :p

[Reisen]

For four hours on Sunday, visitors could use any password to log in to other customers accounts on Dropbox. Just thought I'd bump this up to let anybody that uses dropbox know and to give warning that cloud computing still isn't completely 100% secure and without its potential faults. If you use a cloud, you may want to re-assess putting any sensitive information there.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/22/technology/dropbox_passwords/index.htm?iid=EAL

Just to note, that article is a month old. This happened in June.