17 Online File Storage Services Tested

prostoalex writes "PC World reviewed 17 online file storage services. According to the summary: 'Of the 17 services we tried, our favorite backup service is IBackup, while the GoDaddy Online File Folder is our pick of the storage sites. And for sharing files, we like the free 4shared.com service.'" They're also thoughtful enough to include a warning about the pitfalls of saving your data online.

Comments

good idea, still too expensive

[yagu]

I've been waiting a long time for the arrival of internet storage -- I'd much rather let someone else manage the integrity and provide peace of mind.

Concerns about services going out of business, security, their own data integrity aside for the moment (but NOT to be ignored), these listed and reviewed services still far exceed prices I'm (and I'm guessing many others) willing to pay. I easily have 100+GB I would like guaranteed safe and ongoing synced and always backed up.

For now, I continue to maintain multiple hard drives on multiple machines with scripts that maintain backups, not easy, but effective and way more cost effective. And I expect soon NAS will come down in price enough to easily compete with any internet service -- of course internet services should come down in price too.

Sigh... always just waiting for that tipping point, that threshold, but at the same time seeing my requirements always slightly ahead of that threshold... pictures get bigger, videos get easier, and my mp3 collections (ripped from my own CDs) is a given constant.

Also for large internet storage, the big-pipe problem remains. I want an online storage from which I have reasonably unencumbered upload and download access. It would also be nice to see full T1 speeds at least (something not accessible to normal DSL or even cable subscribers). Don't know if and when that gets solved, and if solved how much additional expense is incurred. Sigh again.

Re:good idea, still too expensive

[Aceticon]

Actually, from the article, the yearly prices for storing any significant amount of data (100Gb+) are so high that buying an external HD pretty much pays itself in 1 or 2 months. From the article:

Mozy's for-pay service is cheap compared with the norm: $20 for up to 5GB, $30 for 10GB, and $40 for 20GB--per annum. You get only five free restore operations per month, but that should be more than enough for most users.

and

The pay plan is more expensive than that of the other free service I looked at, Mozy, but at $10 per month or $100 per year for up to 10GB of storage, ElephantDrive's per-gigabyte rate is half that of either IBackup or XDrive. If your system doesn't have a fast upstream broadband connection, however, it could take days to upload multigigabytes of data to this or any other online storage service.

*sigh*

Perils

[Lord_Dweomer]

The major peril given a single-word mention in the article is PRIVACY. Remember, Google handed over Gmail emails, there's sure as hell nothing stopping them or any other company from handing over all of your data to the courts and probably even the NSA if they asked for it. Their advice to encryptt should be taken seriously. Can any more encryption-savvy slashdotters suggest some powerful encryption tools that would be suitable for backing up files online to be accessed from a remote location?

sounds like a security risk

[NynexNinja]

Anyone who takes thier data seriously would never think of doing such a thing. You have no idea what happens when your files get copied to some third party network.

Re:sounds like a security risk

[cdrudge]

But couldn't use use that same argument with any type of hosting/shared server? How about companies like Iron Mountain that handle off site backup storage/archiving? Even if you kept 100% of your data in house, unless you keep everything under a very tight lock and key, it's still subject to employee/insider theft/misuse.

Re:GDrive

[OverlordQ]

Gmail Drive is good if you dont mind it being slow, unreliable, and having the possiblity to completely fail at any given moment. Much less Google locking you out if they decide they dont like people using Gmail as a file backup.

ftp

[Anonymous Coward]

whats wrong with ftp?

Re:ftp

[mrs clear plastic]

The ftp protocol is not encrypted. Your account name and password is transmitted in the clear over the network.

Pleas, by all means, use scp instead of ftp. The scp protocol is covered (encrypted). It is part of the ssh suite of applications. Every Linux system comes with it. There is a suite of tools for Windows called Putty. They also include scp.

Truly

Cleara

Re:And thankfully...

[Kyle_Katarn-(ISF)]

I'd also note that Apple's .Mac service is missing. It provides AFP, WebDAV, and web-based access for Mac (and Windows) users, as well as online file storage, online file, calendar, mail, and preference syncing, online backup, and the normal collection of web and email services.

I reckon that's probably because it was written by PC World. Whaddya think, hmm?

Where have the nerds gone?

[shoolz]

Why are we discussing the merits of 17 different online storage services when you can host your own for pennies? Mine is a PII 75Mhz that I bought for $25 and it's sitting 3 feet away from me.

Re:Where have the nerds gone?

[kcomplex]

The only reason I would want online backup is to protect against theft, fire, multiple hardware failure, or other disasters. Being three feet away isn't quite far enough.

I am surprised by how high the prices on these services are. I just checked my Dreamhost account, and I now have over 25 gigs available for $10/month. I had no idea it had grown so much since I last checked.

Re:Where have the nerds gone?

[cgenman]

A friend of mine was dilligent about backing up all of her data. She kept a comptuer and USB drive. She never left the USB drive plugged in, in case a faulty power supply sent a spike down the line. She dilligently backed everything up every week. She followed all of the prescriptions.

Then someone broke into her apartment and stole both her computer and the USB drive sitting next to it.

I often think of that, when I think of the backup hard drive I keep in my computer case.

Data safety guarantees

[Animats]

Well, let's see what they commit to contractually:

• Ibackup Pro Softnet makes no representation or warranty ... (C) that the data and files you store in your account will not be lost or damaged.
• XDrive Xdrive, in its sole discretion, may terminate your password, account or use of the Service and remove and discard any Data within the Service if you fail to comply with this Agreement. ... XDrive makes no representation, warranty, or guaranty as to the reliablity, timeliness, quality, suitability, truth, availability, accuracy or completeness of the service or any content.
• FirstBackup Subscriber does not desire this Agreement to provide liability for loss or damage due directly or indirectly to occurrences, or consequences there from, which the service is designed to deter or avert. If subscriber desires additional liability coverage, it shall be the subscriber's sole responsibility to secure it from an insurance carrier or other agency of subscriber's choice, at subscriber's own expense. Subscriber shall bring no suit against FB as a result of any loss arising from this Agreement.
• Acpana The software product and all services are provided "as is" without any warranty or condition of any kind, either expressed or implied. Use of the software product and all services is at end user's own risk
• ElephantDrive The company's aggregate liability, and the aggregate liability of its licensors, to you or any third parties in any circumstances is limited to $100.
• Mozy You understand and agree that ... you will be solely responsible for any damages to your computer system or loss of data

So, even though some of these outfits make advertising claims like "IT NEVER FORGETS ElephantDrive uses military-grade encryption and large scale disaster recovery techniques so your data is stored safely for as long as you keep your account.", they don't stand behind those claims. It would thus be inappropriate to trust any of them with important data.

This is one service you don't want to go cheap on

[imaginaryelf]

You say it's too expensive and then you say you're concerned about these services going out of business.

Well, you can't have it both ways. A cheap backup service is much more likely to go out of business.

Backup is one service where you don't want to go to the lowest bidder.

If your data is important enough, you'll pay a professional service a professional rate, to back it up. A backup service should be much more than some guy selling off pieces of his own USB drive attached to the Internet.

Re:This is one service you don't want to go cheap

[Znork]

"A cheap backup service..."

An expensive backup service might be expensive because it's buying shiny crap at exorbitant rates. Which makes it even more likely to fail than the cheap one. The price tells you nothing about either what equipment they're using, the failure rates of said equipment, their redundancy level, or their solvency.

"Backup is one service where you don't want to go to the lowest bidder."

Yep, that's one of those typical backup salesman lines to watch out for.

Backup is, in the end, about this: redundancy, redundancy and redundancy.

For backup purposes, you'd be better off buying cheap pieces of USB drives off two different guys in their basement than a single expensive service.

You _do_ want to go for the lowest bidder. Several of them, in fact. Redundant array of inexpensive backup solutions, as it were.

Re:encryption is still legal

[tehshen]

Everyone has interesting data. Most of my e-mails could be considered "boring", but they're interesting enough for Google to search through them to generate ad keywords so they can show ads at me.

An MP3 collection leads to "buy this type of music!" ads. Photo albums (with tags) lead to "Go to this place!" ads. There's a lot that can be found out from your files, even if you think they're uninteresting.

Re:And thankfully...

[CastrTroy]

I'd just recommend that if you know how to use FTP, go for a web hosting service. I pay $7.95 and I have 20 Gigs of space and 1000 GB of transfer. So, I can store tons of stuff, and have lots of other features like a blog and photo galleries. It's much cheaper than these services look, and you don't need any special software installed to access your stuff. Even windows comes with command line FTP.