Drop Box – Easy access to files for everyone!
November 30, 2009 / Updated: June 20, 2017 / Lena Shore
Filed under: Internet, Software Review
I ran across DropBox a couple weeks back. My dad is using it for some of his projects and told me about it. It’s pretty cool and I bet you can find a use for it. Dropbox is software that syncs your files online and across your computers.
Put your files into your Dropbox on one computer, and they’ll be instantly available on any of your other computers that you’ve installed Dropbox on (Windows, Mac, and Linux too!) Because a copy of your files is stored on Dropbox’s secure servers, you can also access them from any computer or mobile device using the Dropbox website.
- One place for everything. Look at their tour.
- Works with Mac or Windows
- Access the same dropbox from any computer so everyone has access to the same files.
- Everything is automatically backed up
- Share files or keep them private. Or both!
- Restore deleted files
The basic version is FREE! You get 2 GB of space! This way you can try it out and see if you like it for no risk. If you need more space than that, you can also purchase their 50 GB or 100 GB plans for $9.99 and $19.99 respectively.
Ideas for using DropBox
- Keeping project files available to multiple people in your group instead of having multiple and slightly different copies of the same files.
- Sharing photos with friends and family
- Keeping passwords, address books, or other important files you might need
- Storing a sales presentation you need access to.
- Giving access to clients so they can upload files and photos in an easy way.
I’m sure there are many ways to use dropbox that I haven’t thought of yet and many more you will think of that I haven’t. After all, we all work differently.
I think it’s a really useful and neat application and hope you’ll try it out. I’m betting it will make your life a little easier.
I love Dropbox… probably going to sign up for a plan just because it’s so nice and I want to support it, although I probably don’t actually need more than the 2GB I have now. (I wish they had some kind of intermediate plan, like $5/month for 10GB or something.) Some more random things about it:
– If you get your friends to sign up, you both get an extra 250MB on the free account. You also get 250MB for finishing their online tutorial, so don’t skip that.
– Dropbox hashes files internally and won’t actually use your upload bandwidth for a file that is already somewhere in their storage. For example if you copy a Linux install image into your dropbox it will probably sync instantly, since chances are good that you’re not the first one to upload that file.
– Likewise, Dropbox only syncs the parts of files that change, so it’s pretty good with big files.
– It doesn’t just let you restore deleted files, it actually keeps old versions so you can roll back changes.
– They have a free iPhone/iPod Touch app which lets you view your files online, as well as saving selected files for offline access.
– Using Snow Leopard? Until they release the 0.7.x client, grab a prerelease from the getdropbox.com forums, if you want the icon overlays and context menus in the Finder.
– Caveat: Dropbox doesn’t store Mac resource forks or metadata; some files (especially from apps that have a history predating OS X) might be damaged if you put them in it without enclosing them in a disk image. They’re working on this.
And some more suggestions on how to use it:
– It works well with git (and probably bzr and hg as well); share a private repository among developers and machines without using a separate server or a paid account on a repository hosting service.
– Got something on your home machine that responds automatically to files dropped in a folder? Point it at your Dropbox and control it remotely.
–Rob
This is GREAT additional information. Thank you Rob! I had wondered about using it for web development, but didn’t mention it since I hadn’t tried it. :w00t: