Lately I’ve been thinking about tryout out DropBox. Brigada User Bill originally tipped me on it. He pointed out that if we have more than one PC/Mac, we are always moving files from one system to another. Usually we email them to ourselves, “sneakernet” them with a USB drive, or manually leave them at a site like DivShare or some other online document-handler. DropBox takes it a step further, apparently. It’s a free utility that, once installed as a tiny client, creates a folder on your computer. Drop files into that folder, and they magically appear on all of your other computers. Delete a file: deleted on both/all of your computers. Update a file: updated everywhere. Works across Macs and PCs, and even your iPhone. Bill touted two other features. He pointed out that you can also retrieve your files from any internet browser at your DropBox account. What’s more, he reminded me that we can designate folders within your DropBox folder as “shared” and then anyone on our share list can see them. So we could set up a team, drop photos in our shared folder, and bingo – they have the photos the next time they log on to their computers. The best thing about DropBox is — it’s free. Sound too good to be true? I know. It did to me too. That’s why I’m asking, in the comment box following this item, would you tell us, if you’re a DropBox user, are there downsides? Is there a security risk? Is it really as smooth as they say?
(Thanks for the tip, Bill!)
The online seminary I’m enrolled in, http://www.rockbridgeseminary.org, uses drop box for all of us students to build our learning portfolios. Seems to work well and is easy to use and access. We use the free version.
I use a free Dropbox account to share files with my wife’s computer and also make data available to others in the mission. It works very well for me.
I have used dropbox for about a year. I think it is a great backup system. I use several programs that have weekly or monthly backups (Quickbooks, Donation etc) I select the Dropbox folder for the back up site. It synchs with other computers and also has a web interface. I would rate it a 9 out of 10.
I have used Dropbox for about a year also. It is very good for sending files back and forth. I have various “hats” I wear – personal use, church website admin, ministry site and then the odd project or two for different ministries where we can freely upload and share files round. I have found it pleases everyone – geeks, techs and NO-techs alike. So far I have NOT found any down sides. I have used it for secure situations too, but recognisably however, I am from a world where that is not my 24 hour experience (only part of it).
We started using Dropbox about 3 months ago. Simple, flawless so far. I’m expanding it so my wife and I can stay synced on several ministry and personal files. Have used it to securely share large files with people in restricted access countries too.
We love it!
My family and bible-study have been using Dropbox for the last several months with no problems. The ease of use is tremendous. We drop our files in the shared folder and collaborate easily.
One problem is if two people have the same file open at the same time. Nothing will ever be lost, but you can get a “conflict” copy that will need to be looked at. Tip: make sure to quit Word, Excel, etc. if you are editing a shared file. Don’t just close the document, because it may keep an “in use” status on the file until the application itself quits. Dropbox never syncs locked files.
PS: the “getdropbox” link has been changed to plain old “dropbox” Here is a link
http://snipurl.com/dropboxlink
Hi All, someone forwarded this to me and I thought I’d comment.
I as Dir of Info Systems for International Teams (Canada) and we use Dropbox extensively and love it – so do my users. It is simple and works well. There are a few “gotcha’s”… Theres’s no read-only shares, other then giving links out of the ‘public’ folder… Once shared, if a folder is renamed and shared again it uses the original name (can be confusing)… User need to learn to ‘leave a share’ rahter then delete folders as it deletes it for everyone (there is undelete available ;v)… and of course you cannot share a folder under another share so folder structure is critical possibly.
It sync’s very fast and is smart about how it does it. It is also cross platform – meaning it works on Mac, Windows and Linux based computers.
It is highly recommended. I’ve looked at lots of solutions.
Karl *<:v)
I agree it appears to be a great tool to accomplish a specific purpose, and I may well begin using it for limited purposes.
Nevertheless … some other thoughts:
– YOUR data remains on SOMEBODY ELSE’S computer. This may be an acceptable risk for some people, for some topics.
– If you access this data from a public computer or from a friend’s computer, then it’s your responsibility to ensure that all TMP files, etc, are deleted from that computer before you sign off completely.
– There are countries in the world who are concerned enough to monitor where computers connect to from their country. While SSL and other technologies are good, they also can raise suspicion about what might be hidden.
On a different note,
– I didn’t see any references that would show me that a particular file had been updated. It would be nice to know without having to check the folder every day.
– It would be nice to be able to work offline, then automatically upload a new version of a file. At the moment, this doesn’t seem possible unless you create a copy of the file, edit it, then move it back to the correct folder.