So remember when companies were giving out a hundred megs of on-line disk space? Well the size of those drives have been keeping up with the growing inbox sizes on popular services like Hotmail and Gmail just to name a few.
Well good old MS has a new Beta out that might make some of you out there in askTheAdmin land very happy. How does 500 MB… of password protected space sound? And how about if we say its free?
This is a web-based file storage and sharing system that gives you 500MB of free online storage. Those following the service’s development probably know it by its former name, Windows Live Folders.
From ExtremeTech:
I tried it out briefly and it shows promise, though there are a few minor
annoyances. The biggest issue seems to be that it’s built around your Windows
Live ID (aka Passport), so you sign in with a passport/Live ID account. That in
itself is not a problem. But you have folders set up that are only accessible by
you, private folders, and folders that anyone on the Internet can access. In
order to give someone permission to access one of your private folders, you need
to check a little box next to their name on a list that is populated by your
Live contacts. In other words, you can only share files (privately, anyway) with people who have their own Live ID and are on your contacts list in either Live Mail or Live Messenger.Outside of that, it so far appears to work as advertised. It is not limited
to working only with Internet Explorer—I used Firefox just fine. It should work on a Mac as well. There appear to be no limits to the type of files you can upload. There is one feature limited to IE, though: You have the option of installing an ActiveX control to drag and drop files into folders, allowing you to bypass the usual form-based upload that is limited to five files at a time.
The interface is pretty intuitive, just click on a folder and simple links
up top allow you to add files, create a new folder, send a folder as a link (or
use this to get a standard HTML link you can use in any web page to point to
your files), or access “Folder Options” to change permissions, rename, or delete
folders.
All in all for free what are you waiting for? I just wouldn’t go uploading any of your M$ torrents – they might not like you using their services to pirate their shiznit. Word
_TheAdmiN_
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So whats the catch? first born? They add a lil sumthin to each file?
I can haz gigabeets plees? I am in ur webz stelin ur bitez. lol
That’s a measley “500 MB” as per the site. That’s Mega- Bytes, not Giga- Bytes-your headline is wrong. Is that amount supposed to be exciting? In an age of easy remote access to home and work, large storage disks in tiny portable packages and live cd’s?
wow dan you are the man… that post was up for hours and no one called us on it. thank you for pointing out our blatant mistake. a half a gig meh…
It’s all good.
You can get the 500GB fix at Best Buy tho’: Hitachi – 500GB for $169 or Hitachi 1TB for $279.
Load up SME server [free] and enable web access for yourself.
@Dan & what about ppl that want online storage:
Google’s has a new service for pay if u want to keep your files on the intermanet. There news is purely about money. Users can purchase up to 250 GB of extra storage for email and photos. Prices start at $20/year for 6 GB, up to $500/year for 250 GB. Presumably Google will continue to increase the free storage offered at Gmail over time (currently 2.8 GB), and charge only for usage over that free baseline.
Now certainly Gmail users are better off today that yesterday – they can now choose to exceed the storage limits by simply paying a fee. But something about the news falls a little flat. Perhaps it is because Yahoo recently began offering free unlimited email storage to all users. We’re a fickle bunch in silicon valley, and like to see the big Internet companies continually one-up each other. Today Google said they were not going to play that game any more. They effectively took their toys and went home. I never thought I’d see that.
@NASnottherapper:
If they have a machine with a decently sized drive a NIC and at least DSL, SME Server [a Linux distro at http://www.smeserver.org will allow you to access it over the web giving you online storage.
Actually, just about any Windows box, Apple/Mac or Linux Distribution has that capability, it’s up to the owner to configure it.
Wouldn’t you rather pay $279 for 1TB that you actually own, instead of renting 250 GB for $500/year?
Google has created some great things, I don’t use any of them personally or professionally other than the search engine, as there are too many unanswered questions about their data retention policies.
I’m honestly surprised how many normally cautious techs have jumped on the “let’s give Google access to everything, about everyone”, bandwagon.
Unless, of course, Google takes a streetview picture of their cat, in the windows. Then, it’s an outrage!
@Dan all great points. but there are different solutions for different people. some people just want something free and easy and dont care about security. if you want pics of my boat take em and enjoy. spread them around.
but if you want enterprise secure you would obviously go with something you manage yourself. SME sounds promising any interest in writing up a review? AtA is always looking for smart well spoken admins? we can offer you total creative freedom.
let us know!
to dan: thanks and good looking out i just grabbed a 1tb drive from bestbuy for 265 flat with coupons.
@Karl L. Gechlik:
Thanks for the kind offer. There is a great installaiton walk-through at: http://www.howtoforge.com/fileserver_with_sme_server7.1
Set Up A Fileserver For Small/Medium Enterprises With SME Server 7.1
Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme
Last edited 02/27/2007
My own experiences I’ll see if I can write up, but I don’t have a UPS, so with tornado-like storms every other day, I’ve having to keep it off a lot now when I’m not home.
@NASnottherapper: Glad you were able to shave some of the price down, you may want to get a UPS as well.
Well, I had to break up the URL:
http://www.
howtoforge.com/
fileserver_with_sme_server7.1
Great resource. I’m going to run through this and set er up next week.
Let me know if you ever want to take me up on the offer – any tech related topic!
Have a great weekend.
a web-based file storage and sharing system that gives you 500MB of free online storage.
it seems to be amazing
I ll try it
keep up your good work
I will be a regular reader of ur blog