Author Topic: Yet Another "Cloud" Storage service (Read 1114 times)

Xairbusdriver · « **on:** June 08, 2014, 03:26:53 PM »

If you are a customer, you've already received an email about your free 1GB space. I know, it's a pittance these days! But, as a customer, you can send in a friends name and get another 10MB if they accept the 1GB of free space. Send a message to your favorite Hostgator 'friend' (I believe at least one Admin uses Hostgator, besides me).

Of course, like Apple, DropBox and all the others, they expect you to want/need more than 1GB for anything useful! Here are their rates (~~discounted price~~):

~~$5.95~~

~~$6.95~~

~~$7.95~~

~~$8.95~~

~~$9.95~~

6 mo and monthly rates are more, of course.

More info at <their site>.

<Apple's old iCloud plan>

Proposed iCloud Drive:

DropBox

Apple & Kumquats?

psssst... hey buddy, have I got a deal for you?! Look at these watches!

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #1 on:** June 08, 2014, 03:40:57 PM »

Uploaded more than the 1GB allowed to see what would happen. Stopped gracefully at ~1GB. However, when I deleted everything, I noticed a fairly quick text notice that I may have to wait up to 24 hours for the changes to take effect. 24 hours?! Looks like this thing is not designed for speed... Of course, there's a very unlikely possibility that I misread the text. OTOH, the app won't allow me to upload anything some ten minutes after deleting everything... The web interface does show zero files/bytes stored. Quitting and restarting the Mac app doesn't cause any updating, however. Perhaps this program is not yet ready for 'Prime Time'?

Perhaps there are intentional 'hoops' created to 'manage' traffic?

Sooz · « **Reply #2 on:** June 08, 2014, 05:37:32 PM »

Ohhhhhh, ohhhhh, me! me! ME ! !

Just wanted to say that with all the *issues* I have in terms of technology and my questions posted here, and of course my needing step-by-step (with pictures) instructions, I am happy to say I have used (free) Dropbox successfully!!!!! Ohhhhh, glorious day! Yes, I did! I wanted to share!!!!!

At any given moment, of course, that could change, and if so, I'm blaming my anesthesia brain from April !!

Smiles,
Sooz

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #3 on:** June 08, 2014, 09:01:35 PM »

Congratulations!!! I think DropBox has done a great job of making things close to what we see on the Desktop. Actually, their mobile display is even better than the one for the Mac!

Update on JustCloud: The app still claims I have used all my space and won't let me upload anything. Of course, the apps display says I have 1GB available and 0 B (bytes, I assume) used. So much for their communications skills...

Paddy · « **Reply #4 on:** June 09, 2014, 07:59:00 AM »

Jim, a couple of notes/questions. JustCloud is an affiliate of Hostgator, not owned by them. They're part of "Just Develop It!" Backup group in the UK, and their other products include MyPCBackup, Backup Genie and ZipCloud. Also, according to one review I read, they use Amazon's S3 program.

Here's a review of JustCloud - it says that the free trial only allows 15MB - did they change that in the last couple of months? http://www.findmycloudstorage.com/justcloud-review/

Not much of a backup solution if you have to copy the files in a folder one by one!!!!

This is the thing that really bugs me - these services are pushing themselves as "backup" solutions, when in reality, they're far too limited by the technology to serve as adequate backups for anything beyond a few files. Cloud backups are inherently limited by the speed of the upload/download (to say nothing of the user's potentially capped internet service; until I switched to Rogers unlimited a couple of months ago, I could only have uploaded a fifth of my data a month - and that's if I did nothing else!) and are therefore utterly useless for a complete backup solution as far as I'm concerned. It would take DAYS for me to get everything backed up. By all means use online services to back up limited sets of things - photos, important documents/projects or things you want to be able to share with others easily. But as a secure, complete solution? Nothing beats a bunch of redundant physical backups - including one kept off-site.

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #5 on:** June 09, 2014, 08:44:49 AM »

And Hostgator is not independent as they once were, as I believe you mentioned over a year ago. "Economy of scale" often means nothing more than higher profits for the 'umbrella' entity. So far, Hostgator's hosting service seems stable but I've not read any reviews of recent history on that.

There is a desktop app that does handle scheduled backups (they suggest once a day) and you can select what gets backed up. It can also bet set to wait until your computer has been idle for a specific time. Of course, that just means you haven't been doing anything for x minutes/hours and you may return just after the backup starts. Time Machine handles those interruptions quite well since it usually moves but a few MBs of data each time. I have SuperDuper run about an hour before the Mac shuts down for the night, when the computer is more likely to be "idle".

"Cloud" storage is probably useful for a business which can afford a faster-than-consumer connection. I hope they also realize it should be only one of many backups.

The pricing is probably a time-limited promotion ("Be the first 100 callers and get this deal NOW!"). I think it's mainly designed as an 'add-on' for Hostgator resellers. But they are certainly willing to take anyone's money!

I think you know I agree with your basic philosophy about "Cloud" backups. I'm not pushing or selling this one. Of course, I'd be happy to send DropBox someone's addy if they'd like to start using that. That's the only way I ended up with 6.75GBs of space! And I use barely 1.5GB even after 5+ years! I think it's obviously one of the most mature services but even they are really geared to businesses not individuals. So far, the proposed iDisk revival seems the best deal price wise. But it's still not enough for most of our needs and it will still have the bandwidth/speed problems.

Paddy · « **Reply #6 on:** June 09, 2014, 09:36:05 AM »

Hostgator is owned by EIG. And...guess what? So is JustCloud. My previous searches hadn't yielded that (not in the Wikipedia listing) - but EIG's own site lists them. So...I stand corrected, somewhat. Hostgator doesn't own JustCloud, but both of them are owned by the same entity/behemoth.

As for Hostgator, I've seen absolutely no decline in service since EIG bought them up. I have over 10 clients with sites hosted by them and I've had no issues with any of them that haven't been quickly resolved via their support system, which is quite simply excellent in my experience. So far, so good. I only hope that it continues!

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #7 on:** June 10, 2014, 02:15:12 PM »

Further experiences, or lack of satisfactory ones, suggests a slightly rushed rollout...

As I explained above, I tried to upload more than the 1GB allowed. While I managed to delete the files and a folder that had uploaded, I still get a "No More Space Available! Buy More Now!" screen. I have 'communicated' with the JustCloud "User Experience Team" a couple of times. Here is the next to last response:

QUOTE

I would like to inform you that using the Drag and Drop function, you can select files for backup. However, you it is not possible to backup an entire folder using the Drag and Drop function. I have reviewed your account and observed that, no data has been backed up so far which means that you have 1 GB of backup space available to backup your data. Please select individual files and check if you are able to backup using Drag and Drop.

So, this tech agrees that there is nothing stored in my 1GB space, confirming that I am not completely insane.

It's also important to note that one must drag n' drop ONLY files, not a folder/directory of them. As requested, I attempted to upload a file via the Dn'D method. And not even several files or even large ones; I selected a single, 1.4MB file! Result? Nothing but the "Buy More Space!" window.

Not impressive...

A second reply to my report about the single file attempt is as follows:

QUOTE

One of the best ways for us to find the fault is to take a look through some error logs within your application to see exactly where the problem lies.

Please follow these steps:

1. Hold Ctrl + Right click on the Application icon in your system tray. (The system tray is in the bottom right of your screen, where your clock/time is located)

2. From the menu that appears click 'Generate Troubleshooting Data'

3. This will create a zip file on your desktop which contains all the information we need to troubleshoot the problem.

Please attach these files in your reply and we will pass this on to our development team for investigation.

Need I bother reporting that I'm not using Windows?!

I did save the logs, however, if they think they would help...

In more positive info, I managed to upload a couple of files in a folder I created. Unfortunately, while they show in a "Sync Folder" they do not appear in the "Shared" nor "myName" folder. The only access seems to be a "Sync Folder button in the web-based interface and the similarly named tab in the app. I do have the option to download, share, rename or delete those files as well as get a bit of info about them.

So far, I've certainly got my money's worth! Nada for nothing!

News:

Author Topic: Yet Another "Cloud" Storage service (Read 1114 times)