My new favorite free utility: Dropbox
Lately I've been playing with Dropbox, a free utility for Macs, Windows and Linux based machines. It's a pretty simple concept; an internet drive that allows you to sync your files between multiple machines. There is really not too much to using it; a small application is installed that monitors a folder on your hard drive (normally placed in the user's home directory but you can put it anywhere). Dropbox monitors changes to that folder and if a file is updated it is pushed up to your virtual drive on the interwebs. If you have multiple machines with Dropbox installed and pointing to the same account then they will automatically pick up the changes.While this sound like something that can just as easily be accomplished with a network share, the nice thing about Dropbox is that the files are automatically copied to the machine's local drive. In my case I have three physical machines: a Mac Pro, a MacBook Pro and an HP Slimline that serves as an Ubuntu workstation. In addition I usually have a Windows XP instance running on my Mac Pro using VMware Fusion. As I am currently working on some file importing routines for my product I am jumping between machines frequently; now if I make a change to files I need globally I see this little notice pop-up on each machine:
Mac (Growl notification)
Windows XP
Linux (Ubuntu)
So if I make a change anywhere it is auto-reflected wherever I need it. If I then grab my MacBook Pro for a meeting and the place I'm going doesn't have internet access I still have a locally updated copy of the files that will be updated as soon as I get back to a live connection.
If you are away from your machine and need access to those synchronized files you can log in from anywhere and download the files from your account. You can also place your files into a public folder that will allow you to share them with others, though I haven't tried that feature yet.
Dropbox comes with 2GB of storage for free; you can upgrade to a 50GB version for $9.99 / month or $99 / year. I've had it running on all of my machines for about a week now and have been impressed with how easy it is to use.
Got a great solution for keeping files synchronized on multiple machines? Drop a note in the comments, I'd love to hear about it.
Comments
I've been using Dropbox since the summer, I've found it to be very useful as well. I particularly like the ability to share select folders with multiple other Dropbox users. I used it to share my recorded lectures for a graduate class I taught last year. The size of the recordings were to large for the university's course site, but the 2 GB of Dropbox was just enough for the full semester of lectures.
"BY UTILIZING THE SITE, CONTENT, FILES AND/OR SERVICES, YOU CONSENT TO ALLOW DROPBOX TO ACCESS YOUR COMPUTER TO ACCESS ANY FILES THAT ARE PLACED IN THE 'MY DROPBOX,' 'DROPBOX' FOLDERS, AND/OR ANY OTHER FOLDER WHICH YOU CHOOSE TO LINK TO DROPBOX."
I take that to mean that files are not encrypted and that Dropbox could have full access to your data should they want it.
--Jim
The day I downloaded dropbox was the day I began to plan to drop mobile me. It just works!
And, in fact, data is encrypted - see https://www.getdropbox.com/help/27 (one of their Top 10 questions).
Finally, for documents I am particularly sensitive about (e.g., financial statements), I copy to a TrueCrypt encrypted volume that resides in My DropBox folder - works great.
[btw, I have no affiliation with DB, just love the service]
Throughput has tripled compared to the Apache WebDav server I had running behind the Netgear router, and and instead of the router crashing daily it's been running perfectly since I bought it.
The best $299 I've spent in a long time.
Makes iDisk seem pathetic. I like Box.net better for file sharing though.
Dropbox still has a few growing pains, but awesome overall.
It finally has folder purge, but I wiish it had bulk purge folder operations, and better file sharing features like box.net. They say it's coming soon.
It's a memory and CPU hog, but it's SOOO worth it.
Jon from Dropbox here--
Just wanted to chime in with a few things re: our security/privacy. First off, I'll be the first to admit that our terms and service may seem a bit draconian in nature, and we've been working with our staff to put out a new revision that seems less 'big brother'-ish.
On a second note, all files are very secure: everything is transferred over SSL and encrypted with AES-256 before being stored on our backend. We're never permitted to view user files, and even in cases of troubleshooting we only have access to metadata (dates, sizes, filenames, etc).
If you guys have any other questions, just direct them to jon at getdropbox dot com
Thanks!
To synchronize pretty much everything else between my computers I use Unison.
Your response to the last post reminded me that you can also use Dropbox with your iPhone. You can sign in on the web site and open the documents that are formats that the iPhone can typically open.
Thanks for mentioning that Chris!
That was a great idea! I have been using Dropbox for a while and lets me access files across all of our computers and between home and work.
I just tried the web link on my iPod Touch and it works great! Thanx.
TheOtherLarry