An industry friend and I were arguing over Dropbox while eating Greek pizza in Germany. "I have all my files on it," he boasted, "100GB worth. I lost my Macbook, but it didn't matter, because I didn't lose any of my files."
I agreed Dropbox was worthwhile for select files that are important while on the road, or for sending files. For instance, my ebook "Inside ARES for Linux" is 30MB; Gmail and other email system reject files that large, with the typical limit being around 10MB. Or the file exceeds the mailbox capacity:
But Dropbox is no good for me and all my files, because my hard drive holds 655GB data, with secondary hard drives acting as backups. DropBox cannot handle this much data.
The largest personal plan on DropBox is for 500GB storage, and costs an even $499 a year. Their 'Team' plan starts at 1TB storage, but it must be really expensive, because Dropbox doesn't publicize the cost on their site; you need to ask them for a quote.
(One of my backup systems is my notebook computer with its 750GB drive, which comfortably holds all my desktop data. It cost me about as much as one year of that 500GB Dropbox plan.)
The solution is, of course, to not use Dropbox or its competitors. The solution is to use TeamViewer, which is free for personal use.
TeamViewer is meant for seeing and running the desktops of other computers, normally. I use it for tech support of the computers run by my wife, my father, and my mother-in-law. I have it on my desktop and notebook computers, as well as on my Android smartphone and tablet. I began using TeamViewer after I found that it makes connectiond to remote computers effortlessly: I created an account with TeamCenter, and then set up the same account on all computers to which I need access. Whenever I need to access one, it is just a click away -- no logging in or tedious exchanging of passwords, such as with Microsoft's unusable remote computing software that is included free with Windows.
TeamViewer includes a file transfer utility. I assume it is FTP with a nice interface. Because the software already links to the computers I need to access, there are no passwords, default folders, and other settings to specify. Just click and go.
This saved me on my recent trip to Europe, where I needed to access about four files I had back home, files that would have no reason to be on Dropbox. While sitting in the dining room of my aunt's sister's Berlin apartment, I clicked File Transfer, selected the files I needed, and then dragged them from one pane to the other. This was a lot cheaper than paying $499 a year.
Bonus Tip: When you order pizza in Germany, make sure you don't get the "pepperoni" topping. Over there, pepperoni is not sliced meat; it consists of very long, very hot, whole, pale green peppers.
try this http://www.ammyy.com
Works well, doesn't require installation or specific config, works behind gateways NAT as well as within one LAN.
Posted by: Eugene | Nov 23, 2012 at 03:59 AM
Thanks for the lead. Ammyy looks almost identical to TeamViewer.
Posted by: Ralph Grabowski | Nov 23, 2012 at 05:46 AM
You cannot use team viewer for backing up. Drop box allows small backs up and transfer at the same time.
Posted by: pasmon | Sep 12, 2014 at 05:10 AM
Another option that is not discussed which I love is http://www.fileapartment.com - it's simply a better solution. $3.99/mo for unlimited storage with a 7-day free trial, you can't beat that.
Posted by: ms | Jan 03, 2015 at 04:47 PM
FileApartment does not specifically support CAD formats, while TeamViewer does. For this reason, it cannot be "a better solution," as commenter ABC writes.
Posted by: Ralph Grabowski | Jan 04, 2015 at 09:33 AM