7 ms·

Dropbox isn't even the cheapest or best file syncing service, they're basically all a commodity at this point and if they don't want you as customers... just go

by vxNsr 8y ago

Dropbox isn't even the cheapest or best file syncing service, they're basically all a commodity at this point and if they don't want you as customers... just go elsewhere.

mxuribe 8y ago
Would you kindly provide recommendations? I'm looking for a sync service which can run on windows AND linux (which is why onedrive and google drive are out)...and i'm willing to pay a fair monthly fee.
- swiley 8y ago
  Just use syncthing. It works better, is open source, and runs on everything.
  - acdha 8y ago
    Doesn't that require you to play sysadmin running your own servers?
    - xj9 8y ago
      syncthing is p2p, you just run it on the devices that you want to sync with
    - snerbles 8y ago
      No. There's already a peer-to-peer relay infrastructure in place for when your devices can't make direct connections to each other.
      - acdha 8y ago
        That sounds like the answer is actually yes because you have to run the various computers, provision enough storage to hold everything, secure them, and make sure you have a backup plan.
        snerbles 8y ago
        > run the various computers That's a vague assertion that can apply to anything. > provision enough storage to hold everything Syncthing can ignore directories/patterns at the local level. > secure them And this notion somehow doesn't apply to your Dropbox credentials or shared folders? Furthermore, Dropbox has access to your data - with Syncthing that's limited only to the synchronized devices. > have a backup plan Another non-sequitur. Either tool can be part of a backup solution.
        acdha 8y ago
        > > run the various computers > > That's a vague assertion that can apply to anything. It's a very specific assertion which does not apply to every thing: with syncthing, you need to operate every piece of the system. With a cloud service, you are delegating that to other people, presumably professionals. That's a big difference for most people and it has significant implications for things like backups — e.g. if someone breaks into your house and steals two computers, did you just lose every copy of your data? > > provision enough storage to hold everything > > Syncthing can ignore directories/patterns at the local level. That's an unrelated topic. This is about the total size of your data and whether it fits on multiple devices without inconvenience. If you have a phone and a laptop, do you have enough storage for a full copy of everything? If not, you need to add a third computer, deal with external drives, etc. One appeal of cloud services for many people is that you can save your data without needing to have enough space to have a full local copy and still be able to access it. > > secure them > > And this notion somehow doesn't apply to your Dropbox credentials or shared folders? Furthermore, Dropbox has access to your data - with Syncthing that's limited only to the synchronized devices. Again, this is a comparison question. A service has a separate security trust boundary so someone who compromises your account doesn't get infrastructure-level access and cannot permanently delete things without you having a chance to recover. If you're doing it yourself, you're taking on that responsibility entirely yourself. Maybe you're confident with that, maybe you're not but it's something that you absolutely have to think about for a data storage system. > > have a backup plan > > Another non-sequitur. Either tool can be part of a backup solution. You might want to check the definition of non-sequitur – it's not a get-out-of-jail-free card for avoiding an answer. Just to reiterate, ask what happens if your hard drive starts corrupting blocks, someone steals your computer, your house burns down, you get malware which encrypts every file on your computer, etc. With Dropbox the answer is “I buy a new computer and restore my data. Since the malware couldn't overwrite the older copies, I lost nothing”. If you're self-hosting, that could have the same answer but it requires more skills and ongoing commitment to do things like off-site backups. What I've found to be sadly common is that people do these comparisons without actually matching equivalent levels of service and then get a painful educational lesson when something goes wrong and they lose something they cared about.
  - jonknee 8y ago
    I guess you could say it runs of everything unless you use one of the two most popular operating systems in the world: Android and iOS.
    - cesarb 8y ago
      There's syncthing for Android: https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing-android https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing-android
      - jonknee 8y ago
        Whoops, the website could make that more clear. "Works on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and OpenBSD."
      - anotherevan 8y ago
        Only recently started playing with SyncThing (about the time SpiderOak's warrant canary expired). To my mind, the Android app leaves a bit to be desired. Usually you don't want your phone to hold local copies of everything in the shared folder(s) as it is usually space constrained. You want to be able to view and pull files down as desired (possibly with the option to flag individual files to always be cached locally).
    - Fnoord 8y ago
      Not sure what you're on about, its right in F-Droid [1]. What is or isn't on iOS is in Apple's control. I recommend to take a look at Nextcloud. You can use it to control your own files, calendar, etc without some third party using it for data mining. [1] https://staging.f-droid.org/search?q=syncthing&lang=en https://staging.f-droid.org/search?q=syncthing&lang=en
    - swiley 8y ago
      It runs very well on android with termux. Like most open source software: don't bother with the "apps" just install it in termux the same way you would on any other computer.
- justinclift 8y ago
  rsync.net seems to get mentioned around here every now and again. I haven't used them though personally, so not sure of good/bad/etc. Unlike what their name (rsync) suggests, they do seem to support Windows clients and aren't *nix only: https://www.rsync.net/resources/howto/windows.html https://www.rsync.net/resources/howto/windows.html
  - mxuribe 8y ago
    Same here, I had heard rsync.net mentioned previously...HOWEVER, i did NOT know they had a windows client. Thanks!
  - lreeves 8y ago
    The documentation for the Windows client (1) almost seems like a joke. In the screenshots the text gets cut off in the UI, there's sentences that say "don't use this versioning feature we're about to talk about" and tons of text that's been striked-through. There's also zero mention if the client supports backing up open files via volume shadow snapshots which is basically requirement number one for any Windows backup client. 1 - https://www.rsync.net/resources/howto/windows_backup_agent.html https://www.rsync.net/resources/howto/windows_backup_agent.h...
    - rsync 8y ago
      We're really all about the direct unix to unix connection. The point of rsync.net is that you can log onto any unix system, anywhere, and interact with your cloud storage - with no software installation or configuration necessary. The Windows Backup Agent works very well and has recently been updated but the documentation you are seeing reflects the fact that it is a secondary function here at rsync.net that is mostly provided for the convenience of customers in mixed environments. We are not a dropbox alternative.
  - znelis 8y ago
    I had a pretty underwhelming experience with rsync.net and their cheaper version without snapshots a year ago. Speeds where initially 1MB/s on a gigabit connection between Sweden and their Switzerland location. After complaining they exempted me from traffic shaping and I got 2-4MB/s instead.
- Chilinot 8y ago
  I would recommend Syncthing. Fully open source. It is however self-hosted. But they have clients for basically everything, including mobile phones.
  - mxuribe 8y ago
    I used to run syncthing...but about 1 year ago (when i started with current employer) they blocked it. i forgot what port it uses, but my employer gave me the ol' wag of the finger for "using an unauthorized app". Funny how dropbox was not blocked but syncthing was.
    - Spivak 8y ago
      Welcome to the world where everything except 80/443 is blocked. Sucks but you can still make things work.
  - Avamander 8y ago
    It doesn't support symbolic links at all, deal breaker for me. I can't afford to start duplicating content just because it can't follow a symlink.
    - Chilinot 8y ago
      Have you tried hard links?
- austurist 8y ago
  What about Adrive? They don't have Linux client, but they support WebDAV, rsync, (S)FTP(S). I guess, getting some pretty stable client for these protocols won't be a challange.
azinman2 8y ago
Why do you say it isn’t the best?
- vxNsr 8y ago
  I was gonna suggest onedrive but realized they don't have a linux client. Honestly for linux, dropbox might be your best bet...
  - azinman2 8y ago
    What makes you say onedrive is better than Dropbox?
    - vxNsr 8y ago
      Because of its close integration with Office 365, and it's cheaper.
      - azinman2 8y ago
        You said it wasn’t the best file syncing... office 365 integration doesn’t seem to suggest that one drive is a better file syncer... especially because Microsoft owns office. I’d expect that. Gdrive does Gsuite integration, but I wouldn’t knock other services for not having that. I’ve seen many other services have major issues syncing files... dealing with conflicts, corruption, random file types like issues around Mac resource forks and file-folder types, etc. I’ve seen weeks of work get lost because gdrive stopped syncing, then when resuming overwrote all of a colleagues updated files. Dropbox has solved all such problems.. in part because they’be been around forever, but also because they’ve hired great talent to do nothing but sync. I trust them way more on that core competency.

by vxNsr 8y ago

Dropbox isn't even the cheapest or best file syncing service, they're basically all a commodity at this point and if they don't want you as customers... just go elsewhere.

mxuribe 8y ago

Would you kindly provide recommendations? I'm looking for a sync service which can run on windows AND linux (which is why onedrive and google drive are out)...and i'm willing to pay a fair monthly fee.

swiley 8y ago
Just use syncthing. It works better, is open source, and runs on everything.
- acdha 8y ago
  Doesn't that require you to play sysadmin running your own servers?
  - xj9 8y ago
    syncthing is p2p, you just run it on the devices that you want to sync with
  - snerbles 8y ago
    No. There's already a peer-to-peer relay infrastructure in place for when your devices can't make direct connections to each other.
    - acdha 8y ago
      That sounds like the answer is actually yes because you have to run the various computers, provision enough storage to hold everything, secure them, and make sure you have a backup plan.
      - snerbles 8y ago
        > run the various computers That's a vague assertion that can apply to anything. > provision enough storage to hold everything Syncthing can ignore directories/patterns at the local level. > secure them And this notion somehow doesn't apply to your Dropbox credentials or shared folders? Furthermore, Dropbox has access to your data - with Syncthing that's limited only to the synchronized devices. > have a backup plan Another non-sequitur. Either tool can be part of a backup solution.
        acdha 8y ago
        > > run the various computers > > That's a vague assertion that can apply to anything. It's a very specific assertion which does not apply to every thing: with syncthing, you need to operate every piece of the system. With a cloud service, you are delegating that to other people, presumably professionals. That's a big difference for most people and it has significant implications for things like backups — e.g. if someone breaks into your house and steals two computers, did you just lose every copy of your data? > > provision enough storage to hold everything > > Syncthing can ignore directories/patterns at the local level. That's an unrelated topic. This is about the total size of your data and whether it fits on multiple devices without inconvenience. If you have a phone and a laptop, do you have enough storage for a full copy of everything? If not, you need to add a third computer, deal with external drives, etc. One appeal of cloud services for many people is that you can save your data without needing to have enough space to have a full local copy and still be able to access it. > > secure them > > And this notion somehow doesn't apply to your Dropbox credentials or shared folders? Furthermore, Dropbox has access to your data - with Syncthing that's limited only to the synchronized devices. Again, this is a comparison question. A service has a separate security trust boundary so someone who compromises your account doesn't get infrastructure-level access and cannot permanently delete things without you having a chance to recover. If you're doing it yourself, you're taking on that responsibility entirely yourself. Maybe you're confident with that, maybe you're not but it's something that you absolutely have to think about for a data storage system. > > have a backup plan > > Another non-sequitur. Either tool can be part of a backup solution. You might want to check the definition of non-sequitur – it's not a get-out-of-jail-free card for avoiding an answer. Just to reiterate, ask what happens if your hard drive starts corrupting blocks, someone steals your computer, your house burns down, you get malware which encrypts every file on your computer, etc. With Dropbox the answer is “I buy a new computer and restore my data. Since the malware couldn't overwrite the older copies, I lost nothing”. If you're self-hosting, that could have the same answer but it requires more skills and ongoing commitment to do things like off-site backups. What I've found to be sadly common is that people do these comparisons without actually matching equivalent levels of service and then get a painful educational lesson when something goes wrong and they lose something they cared about.
- jonknee 8y ago
  I guess you could say it runs of everything unless you use one of the two most popular operating systems in the world: Android and iOS.
  - cesarb 8y ago
    There's syncthing for Android: https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing-android https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing-android
    - jonknee 8y ago
      Whoops, the website could make that more clear. "Works on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and OpenBSD."
    - anotherevan 8y ago
      Only recently started playing with SyncThing (about the time SpiderOak's warrant canary expired). To my mind, the Android app leaves a bit to be desired. Usually you don't want your phone to hold local copies of everything in the shared folder(s) as it is usually space constrained. You want to be able to view and pull files down as desired (possibly with the option to flag individual files to always be cached locally).
  - Fnoord 8y ago
    Not sure what you're on about, its right in F-Droid [1]. What is or isn't on iOS is in Apple's control. I recommend to take a look at Nextcloud. You can use it to control your own files, calendar, etc without some third party using it for data mining. [1] https://staging.f-droid.org/search?q=syncthing&lang=en https://staging.f-droid.org/search?q=syncthing&lang=en
  - swiley 8y ago
    It runs very well on android with termux. Like most open source software: don't bother with the "apps" just install it in termux the same way you would on any other computer.
justinclift 8y ago
rsync.net seems to get mentioned around here every now and again. I haven't used them though personally, so not sure of good/bad/etc. Unlike what their name (rsync) suggests, they do seem to support Windows clients and aren't *nix only: https://www.rsync.net/resources/howto/windows.html https://www.rsync.net/resources/howto/windows.html
- mxuribe 8y ago
  Same here, I had heard rsync.net mentioned previously...HOWEVER, i did NOT know they had a windows client. Thanks!
- lreeves 8y ago
  The documentation for the Windows client (1) almost seems like a joke. In the screenshots the text gets cut off in the UI, there's sentences that say "don't use this versioning feature we're about to talk about" and tons of text that's been striked-through. There's also zero mention if the client supports backing up open files via volume shadow snapshots which is basically requirement number one for any Windows backup client. 1 - https://www.rsync.net/resources/howto/windows_backup_agent.html https://www.rsync.net/resources/howto/windows_backup_agent.h...
  - rsync 8y ago
    We're really all about the direct unix to unix connection. The point of rsync.net is that you can log onto any unix system, anywhere, and interact with your cloud storage - with no software installation or configuration necessary. The Windows Backup Agent works very well and has recently been updated but the documentation you are seeing reflects the fact that it is a secondary function here at rsync.net that is mostly provided for the convenience of customers in mixed environments. We are not a dropbox alternative.
- znelis 8y ago
  I had a pretty underwhelming experience with rsync.net and their cheaper version without snapshots a year ago. Speeds where initially 1MB/s on a gigabit connection between Sweden and their Switzerland location. After complaining they exempted me from traffic shaping and I got 2-4MB/s instead.
Chilinot 8y ago
I would recommend Syncthing. Fully open source. It is however self-hosted. But they have clients for basically everything, including mobile phones.
- mxuribe 8y ago
  I used to run syncthing...but about 1 year ago (when i started with current employer) they blocked it. i forgot what port it uses, but my employer gave me the ol' wag of the finger for "using an unauthorized app". Funny how dropbox was not blocked but syncthing was.
  - Spivak 8y ago
    Welcome to the world where everything except 80/443 is blocked. Sucks but you can still make things work.
- Avamander 8y ago
  It doesn't support symbolic links at all, deal breaker for me. I can't afford to start duplicating content just because it can't follow a symlink.
  - Chilinot 8y ago
    Have you tried hard links?
austurist 8y ago
What about Adrive? They don't have Linux client, but they support WebDAV, rsync, (S)FTP(S). I guess, getting some pretty stable client for these protocols won't be a challange.

azinman2 8y ago

Why do you say it isn’t the best?

vxNsr 8y ago
I was gonna suggest onedrive but realized they don't have a linux client. Honestly for linux, dropbox might be your best bet...
- azinman2 8y ago
  What makes you say onedrive is better than Dropbox?
  - vxNsr 8y ago
    Because of its close integration with Office 365, and it's cheaper.
    - azinman2 8y ago
      You said it wasn’t the best file syncing... office 365 integration doesn’t seem to suggest that one drive is a better file syncer... especially because Microsoft owns office. I’d expect that. Gdrive does Gsuite integration, but I wouldn’t knock other services for not having that. I’ve seen many other services have major issues syncing files... dealing with conflicts, corruption, random file types like issues around Mac resource forks and file-folder types, etc. I’ve seen weeks of work get lost because gdrive stopped syncing, then when resuming overwrote all of a colleagues updated files. Dropbox has solved all such problems.. in part because they’be been around forever, but also because they’ve hired great talent to do nothing but sync. I trust them way more on that core competency.