Dropbox is a quality online data backup service that lets you store up to 100GB, plus it’s also a good way to sync your files across your various work and home computers and mobile devices. You can share files for collaboration, store and share photo and video galleries, and your data will all be safely backed up on Dropbox's secure servers. Although it’s pricier than similar services, we feel the quality of the service fits the price.
With this online data backup service, you can use the app to schedule automatic backups and control bandwidth usage. Dropbox’s online file manager is very easy to use, plus accessing and sharing files is simple. You can also configure email notifications, connect and sync the variety of computers you use with this service and view your backed up data and monitor the status.
Dropbox is also a quality way to sync files and data you regularly work with and update, such as documents for work or school. For example, say you write part of a research paper at school on your Apple laptop and put it in your Dropbox folder, which backs it up. When you return home, you can then access the document from your Windows PC to continue working on it. The document’s updates will sync across your devices so you’re not constantly trying to remember what version it is.
It’s a great way to collaborate with friends, co-workers and family, plus share photos and video, by sending links or creating quality galleries of your pictures. You can also share music with Dropbox online data backup service.
Dropbox also keeps 30 days of versioning history for all of your files, such as documents that you update regularly, which includes access to files deleted from your local drive. The unlimited versioning is called Pack-Rat, or Dropbox Rewind for businesses, which is a paid add-on.
Dropbox offers some of the best sharing tools we have seen an online backup service provide. It has everything we looked for in terms of sharing tools, and the service also offers a free iPhone and iPod Touch application.
With Dropbox, you can share folders or image galleries that are viewable by anyone, either with a link or by sharing them with a controlled group. It is easy to create a folder for sharing; simply create the folder that contains the items you want to share and then enter the email addresses to which you want to send the sharing invitation. It's incredibly simple. Once you share the folder, Dropbox will immediately send an invitation link to your sharing partners.
Using the iPhone or iPod Touch app, you can access your regular Dropbox account. You can view your files and images and upload images and video taken with your device (with 3G or faster). You can also send a sharing link from your iPhone. Dropbox plans to add more features and abilities to its iPhone app in the future.
Dropbox online data backup service offers nearly every backup tool we were looking for, with the exception of the ability to configure idle backups. Dropbox users have already suggested the service add this feature on Dropbox's user forums, so hopefully the service will add this feature soon.
Dropbox can secure your data and images well; it uses SSL for secure transfers, and encrypts all files with AES-256 before storing them on its servers. Public folders are viewable by anyone who can find them. Photo gallery links give access to anyone with whom you share the link to the gallery, though they cannot access other areas of your account.
You can purchase different amounts of space, including 50GB and 100GB. Dropbox requests you contact them directly if you need more than 100GB, or if you need to purchase Dropbox accounts for more than one person, such as a business. You can get additional space free of charge when you refer friends, family and colleagues to the service.
The service is fairly easy to use. Just download the app and set it to back up your data and forget about it. This is the hallmark of a quality online data backup service. You can also easily put files you want to sync, access and possibly share with others, in your DropBox folders on your computer or mobile device.
For support, you can contact Dropbox by email only. We would have really liked to have seen this service support technical and customer support by chat or telephone as well. Online they post quite a few facts organized by topic and operating system. They also host a tour, a forum and a wiki module that will allow you to post or read others posts on tips and tricks, features, add-ons and more.
Dropbox is a very good data backup service with solid sharing and syncing abilities. Though the price is a little expensive for the amount of backup space you get, the ability to access data from multiple computers and mobile devices is an excellent feature. We also like Pack-Rat, the unlimited versioning service, so you can always pull up older or even deleted documents at any time, in the event you need access to these files.
