Dropbox alternative

[Marc Berry]

Hi all

I asked this on micromart a while ago but never got around to doing it or affording it so I thought I’d ask again on here ready for when funds allow.

My Dropbox became full a while ago, tipping over the 26gb free storage I’ve amassed by recommending friends etc. I’d be happy to upgrade but they have only ONE option which is the 1tb but it’s too expensive to pay each and every month.

The main benefit of dropbox is the auto upload /backup so any suggestions for hardware needed such as server, software for both the device and smartphones and set up help would be appreciated.

Cheers all

Marc

[PlaneMan]

I pay for 100GB of Google drive, £1.59 a month. I’ve got 300GB in total because of Chromebook purchases (you get 100GB free for 2 years). For me that’s plenty.

[blacklion1725]

or a cheapo office 365 personal sub from ebay 1TB online storag eincluded….normally stackable for a few years too..added bonus of a full MS Office package.

[Dave Rice]

Everyone knows what I’m going to say, if you want a server get a Synology. It has an app called Cloud Station that allows you to keep folders in sync between the server and devices. They can be different for each device and you can have multiple folders. You can have multiple devices accessing the same folder.

There are mobile apps for just about everything, including Cloud Station, on both Android and iOS. You don’t need to do any port forwarding in the router as it uses a service called QuickConnect that keeps track of your networks external IP address and does all the connection voodoo for you.

A basic Synology DS115j DiskStation 1-Bay Enclosure is £85 plus whatever size 3.5″ drive you need. A Toshiba P300 1TB is £35. It will download and install Disk Station Manager for you. It will have all the apps needed to run the server, create users, etc. You then choose what extra apps you want (like Cloud Station) from Package Manager List of Packages

Once set up it will automatically update itself and the apps. It’s pretty straightforward to get everything set up and there’s a huge Knowledge Base and loads of You Tube tutorials. There’s a demo version of Disk Station Manager here It’s a virtual session running on a real Synology server.

With Cloud Sync, you can sync and share files with Dropbox and all the other major cloud services. That’s a good way to get all your Dropbox Data on it, then cut the connection and move the data to your new folder structure.

[Drezha]

Synology is a good call, I have the same. However, for moving data about, I use Resilio Sync. You could run it on a Pi with external hard drive nicely as an always on node (as Resilio will only sync when both machines are on). As it’s Bittorrent based, the more nodes you have online, the quicker the data can be synced, though I only have the one always on node (the Synology I have at home).

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Dave Rice]

The way I look at it is a Pi only saves you £30 and adds complications. The good thing about the Synology is it pretty much looks after itself.

[The Duke]

What is the cheapest entry in the the synology club? Atm i get by with a single 1tb drive plugged into my router. It shows up as a disk drive on the PCs and macs(yuk) of the house, and the phones use es explore to see it.

It’s about ⅔ full with films, (dont ask) so at some point I’ll either have to replace the 1tb with a 2tb, and copy everything over, or i could get a dual drive server setup, and get the added advantages of that. Thou i have a few pi’s doing nothing atm, plus a USB hub,though the pi is usb2, so maybe that may slow access down. I know usb3 will happily handle 4 720p media streams at once.

Although that’s never happened at home, only in the car with the hdd attached to a hootoo passport router (and 10kmah battery optional).

Great bit of kit btw, if your traveling far with kids. A real in car Netflix. Also let’s phones (or PC) see each other so then can play mutiplayer wan party style multiplayer mobile games.. All of £20 well spent.

[Marc Berry]

Firstly I had forgotten about google drive so that is a software option but is still a cost every month if I want more than the standard storage.

I was actually thinking more what dave is suggesting. Is there different models dave?

[Marc Berry]

Can’t see how to edit a part, so..

Any thoughts on the WD my cloud?

[blacklion1725]

Marc Berry wrote:

Can’t see how to edit a part, so.. Any thoughts on the WD my cloud?

If you are going for a NAS “personal cloud” honestly get a Synology. Had a WD and a Seagate and they don’t even come close. As posted my Synology was OTT for my needs but what a bit of kit.

[Marc Berry]

So the ds115j, ds116 and ds116 seem to be similar.

Obviously the 115 is much cheaper. I noted the usb 2 whereas the others have usb 3. I know I can find some other differences but any opinions on the differences?

[The Duke]

Om not the biggest One drive (ms) fan, however as it’s related, sort of to this thread, ms is about to roll out File Restore to it, for the files made with office.

I’m assuming the file will need to be constantly saving and syncing all the time, unless it does all the auto saves client side, them uploads all data (file and change data) when the user saves/auto saves.

Either way, it makes ome drive that much more favourable.

http://www.appy-geek.com/Web/ArticleWeb.aspx?regionid=4&articleid=131272237&source=clipper%2B

[Ed P]

It might be OK now, but it had a MASSIVE insecurity in the form of a hard-coded admin log-on. link

Tbh I would worry about any company that does stupid things like that.

[Drezha]

I have a DS116 at home and a DS115j at my girlfriends parents house. The DS116 is faster – it has more RAM and a faster CPU, so I find it better as a power user of all the features (backup, DS Audio so I can stream music, DS Photo to backup my photos, Resilio Sync installed, Cloud Sync running). Mine is also multi user though my girlfriend uses it less often so it’s never always streaming to both of us.

The DS115j is a lot slower, in terms of downloading updates etc. Noticeably so when on the access page – but this is possibly also due to it being located in rural Ireland! However, for the backing up of photos to it and the backup of the single home PC to it, (and then overnight backup to my NAS) is ideal for her parents use.

USB2 or 3 is not really an issue – I have a USB drive hooked up to mine permenantly to back up the main NAS drive every 4 hours, but after the first time, it doesn’t really take that long so it wouldn’t be to much of a pain to use a USB2 drive. I don’t really move files direclty on and off it that much to make it issue and I don’t share the data on the connected USB drive.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Marc Berry]

Cheers

If if wanted it to auto upload any photos taken from either mine or the wife’s phone would that work? By using a synology app on each phone?

Also to access the photos from anywhere in the world as long as either of us had a data connection as we do when checking our Dropbox photos?

And for the above  would the ds115j be enough? The ds116 is tempting but a lot more expensive.

[Drezha]

Auto upload is built in to the DS Photo app, you just have to switch it on when you set the app up and that works fine. Note that DS Photo will only save it to it’s own little folder, it won’t let you play nicely with an existing location (i.e. I store Photos in my home folder under Pictures >My Photos>Year>Month and DS Photo wants it stored in it’s own location). However, that isn’t a deal breaker for me and I just duplicate the photos!

Yes, DS Photo will allow access from anywhere and you can view them all.

The DS 115j should be fine. When you upload the photos to the NAS it creates thumbnails – the 115j might be a bit slower (hence why Synology offer a photo uploader tool on it’s website that allows you to create all the thumbnails etc on the machine that you’re uploading from which will do it quicker). That’s how we backed up my girlfriends parents photos and it was much quicker. Then , unless you’re uploading GB’s at a time, the rest of the time it should be relatively painless and quick.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Author]

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