Dropbox alternative - "Copy", 20 gigs free

bounchfx

hey guys, not sure if anyone posted this yet, but I came across another cloud storage solution that's pretty new but has some neat features, mainly the fact that when you do a lot of shared files, it splits the storage among how many people are sharing the file instead of it taking up the full space on everyone, which I find pretty nifty.

it's also pretty cool in that you get 15 gigs free to start +5 if you use a referral link (like mine har har: https://copy.com?r=9OTK1M), and anyone you refer also gets an additional 5gb, with no cap currently. I figured this was a good chance to start a referral chain if anyone wants to use mine, then post their referral link and we can all help each other get free space.

I already use dropbox (and love it), but I only have 12 gigs there and like the idea of having a second cloud folder only for inspiration or reference, or a particular personal project.

anyway I apologize if this was already posted about but it seemed pretty neat to me

once again, if you're interested in signing up you should use this link to get an additional 5gb on your account https://copy.com?r=9OTK1M

hope you guys are having a good holiday!

JamesArk

Used your referral link, here's mine should anyone else want to spread the love: https://copy.com?r=8JjlKC

Thanks for this, my Dropbox is getting very cramped.

Kbrom12

This is great, used your referrel bounchfx.

Here is my link - https://copy.com?r=f1mIwE

Overlord

Why not save that money and get an NAS for a cloud storage in your home? That way, you get complete control over the data and the hardware that stores it. It greatly reduces the risk of hackers getting into the servers and accessing your private data (Or just scraping your password and potentially risking you further breaches). It means only you have access to your encrypted files. You can install utilities that make your NAS available over your internet connection so that you can use it to access files with your laptop, PC, smartphone, tablet, etc. The software that does this is FOSS, though there are proprietary versions as well. You can also create an encrypted tunnel between you and your home cloud server so prying eyes can't see what you're uploading nor downloading while on your personal cloud server.

Some cloud services will give multiple users access to the same encrypted file if they all upload the same file to their account, which means you're not the only one that can decrypt your files and there's only one copy available. If the server that hosts that only copy gets hacked, seized, or damaged, everyone that shared that file loses access to it until they get the backups back. So, shared encryption keys? That doesn't sound very secure to me. There's also the whole Megaupload ordeal where thousands of customers lost vital data that was 100% theirs and were not sharing infringing files. The government won't be able to go after individuals and lose your data for you because it's no longer centralized in a big corporate data center.

PRO's:

-You control your hardware.
-Decentralized so government raids don't take away your legal data just to catch a handful of infringers.
-The capacity is dependent on how big and how many drives you use.
-You're the only one that can decrypt your data.
-You can use it as a media server at home and a cloud server when you're out.
-You don't need lots of local storage (Your phone can stream your videos and photos directly to your NAS and Tablet can stream movies from your NAS).

CON's:
-You're responsible for making backups (RAID might be a good idea).
-Your ISP might not have very good upstream service (Asymmetric speeds).
-Larger upfront cost (most home NAS boxes cost $150-$600).
-You might have to get a UPS (Unless you already have one with excess capacity).

KnechtRuprecht

Yay! New datagrave

Heres my link: https://copy.com?r=BcVYAX

iniside

Overlord wrote: »

Why not save that money and get an NAS for a cloud storage in your home?

CON's:
-Your ISP might not have very good upstream service (Asymmetric speeds).

That's why. Not to mention not everyone have static IP (for good or bad, depends how you look at it).

Overlord

iniside wrote: »

That's why. Not to mention not everyone have static IP (for good or bad, depends how you look at it).

You can use DDNS, which is free. I can't argue with the poor upstream. However, I don't trust cloud services. I trust them even less after they shut down Megaupload and lost everyone's personal data. Online cloud services are just too risky. So the logical conclusion would be to make your own backups on a NAS. And while you're at it, you might as well make it accessible online too.

The fact that most ISP's provide such weak upstream service is deplorable. They're trying to keep people dependent on services that make them money (e.g. phone, cable, radio) that we could provide for ourselves. For example, how popular is Spotify and Pandora? Very, right? Now what if you could stream your library from your cloud NAS to your smartphone (actually you can right now if you have at least 1Mbps)? They also don't want you running servers, but the line between server and client is a very blurry one. If you can run a server, you can provide services that would compete with theirs and we all know how much corporations hate competition, even if that competition is a free service.

Jon Jones

Overlord, I get where you're coming from and generally agree with the DIY approach. However, most people won't have the time, patience, money, or inclination to completely roll their own. To me, the biggest appeal of a service like this is that a group of smart engineers have already bought the services and equipment, tested and bugfixed the software, and solved a wide variety of problems that I'd otherwise have to do by myself and not nearly as well. That doesn't address any of your privacy concerns, but don't count out the convenience factor of using something that really smart people fixed most of the problems of already.

Note that I say this as someone that's spending his entire Sunday learning how to set up rsync manually to connect five studios across four countries to sync all my game's art production because of a few problems other people haven't solved yet. :P

Overlord

Jon Jones wrote: »

Overlord, I get where you're coming from and generally agree with the DIY approach. However, most people won't have the time, patience, money, or inclination to completely roll their own. To me, the biggest appeal of a service like this is that a group of smart engineers have already bought the services and equipment, tested and bugfixed the software, and solved a wide variety of problems that I'd otherwise have to do by myself and not nearly as well. That doesn't address any of your privacy concerns, but don't count out the convenience factor of using something that really smart people fixed most of the problems of already.

Note that I say this as someone that's spending his entire Sunday learning how to set up rsync manually to connect five studios across four countries to sync all my game's art production because of a few problems other people haven't solved yet. :P

I haven't overlooked the fact that not everyone has the money, the knowledge, or patience. Though, the savings you would reap by not paying monthly for an ephemeral service does help cover the initial costs and avoids perpetual costs of subscriptions. If you can wait, it's worth it to save up and pursue that course. Products do exist that are virtually plug and play. They might not be the cheapest option, but there are NAS products for everybody that desires convenience and simplicity. The only glaring issue I can really sympathize with is poor upstream performance on residential internet services. I also sympathize with affordability. At the moment I can afford neither option.

Good luck with your project. Have you examined Own Cloud, Sea File, or Bittorrent Sync? I don't know your goals or needs, but one of those might help.

Jon Jones

Overlord wrote: »

Though, the savings you would reap by not paying monthly for an ephemeral service does help cover the initial costs and avoids perpetual costs of subscriptions.

From purely a cost standpoint, Copy is $9.99\mo for 250gb of storage versus $150 to $600 one-time cost for the hardware. Not including time spent setting it up, troubleshooting, dealing with downtime and hardware failures, manually upgrading when necessary, and the increased cost of electricity for the additional hardware, cost of your internet connection if you have a bandwidth-metered plan or are in a heavily-trafficked area (I've had my internet service suspended for syncing to P4 remotely from home due to data usage) it would take 15 months to five years for setting up your own NAS to pay for itself.

And if you're sharing files with people or teams, that's a whole other can of worms. This is going to go beyond the scope of consumer-level usage, but having a robust solution for security, user accounts, different permissions settings, scheduling synchronization for colossal amounts of data that won't bring down a studio's bandwidth during business hours, access via browser or mobile device or tablet, incremental syncing to save bandwidth, selective syncing of folders, tech support for connectivity issues, and either direct or indirect (via tech support) control over which ports and protocols are used to circumnavigate weird IT permissions settings in multiple environments as well as country-wide firewalls are all important considerations for me. The kind of weird shit you run into in the wild is staggering.

Sorry if I seem soapboxy, this is just a subject I've been researching intensely for personal and business use for the last two years in general and last two months in particular, and apparently it's made me picky and opinionated devil's advocate. hahah. Not trying to bust your balls or anything, this is just almost all I've been thinking about lately.

Haven't tried Own Cloud or Sea File yet, but I will now. Rsync's kicking my ass today. Thanks man!

Jon Jones

haha wow, four hours of constant Googling and tweaking and hair-pulling trying to get rsync to work, and your suggestion of BitTorrent Sync (http://labs.bittorrent.com/experiments/sync.html) worked in 2 minutes. Going to test this at the office tomorrow, but right now I've got my two laptops and my Android tablet syncing effortlessly. Thanks Overlord!

rube

Signed up as well, and here's a referral code if anyone wants to use it.

https://copy.com?r=Onla71

WarrenM

Jon - Your position is much the same as mine but from a different angle. Your time is worth something and people tend to forget that in discussions like this. It's like people who suggest that I should install Linux ... yes, it may be free but my time isn't. DropBox "just works" and I don't have to do a damned thing except use it. That's MORE than worth the monthly fee, IMO.

[Deleted User]

Thanks for heads up. Signed as well and here is my referral if anyone would like to join in https://copy.com/?r=VAmVvs

Overlord

@Jon
No problem, I'm glad it helped.

TrampledUnderFoot

Signed up earlier. Liking it so far. The split usage thing is pretty cool.

My link https://copy.com?r=2bNikJ

Snader

Overlord wrote: »

Why not save that money

What money? Dropbox is free. Copy is free.

Neither of these are supposed to work as a backup solution or a mediaserver, btw. You can use them for that to a degree, sure, but then you indeed run into size limitations.

bounchfx

I'm wondering how well Copy would work as a solution for a giant shared reference/inspiration folder between polycounters? I'm thinking since it splits the files up, if we have 40 people on a shared reference folder that's 40 gigs big, that's only really using 1gb of space for everyone to have access to it. I'm just trying to picture how that works locally... I assume one would just need to go to the website to see the full list? what would be available on my pc? etc. that kinda thing.

Joopson

Here's my link: https://copy.com?r=oTG6Jy

Seems like an awesome service.

sltrOlsson

Thanks for the tip

Here's mine https://copy.com?r=gPwQdi

citizen_j

seems cool, let's see how this works.

one more referral here:
https://copy.com?r=WKmSBm

terrenceR

Thanks for this

I'm a massive fan of Dropbox, it's completely changed the way that I move files around. I can't remember the last time that I used a memory stick or CD. However, I'm running out of space and I don't want to have more. Copy.com came at the right time as I didnt want to use Sky Drive because it's too "embedded" in my Windows, and I don't like that.:). I do use less known exclusive cloud hoster for personal purposes - http://mozy.co.uk/product/mozy/personal.

My question is - what are your experiences with copy.com - is it near-Dbox in terms of quality and security?

aeonbluestar

My team and I have been using Copy for two years now and while the early days were a bit buggy, it has just been getting better and better. We use Perforce for our Unreal source control, of course, but for everything else we use Copy. One of the best parts is the "splitting the bill" aspect of it. Our project folder is 24GB in size, but only counts 1.5GB against our quotas since there are 16 of us as members of the shared folder. I currently have my account synced on two desktops, a laptop, and my phone as well.

I can't recommend this service enough.

terrenceR wrote: »

My question is - what are your experiences with copy.com - is it near-Dbox in terms of quality and security?

Copy for us for at least the last year has been on par with Dropbox in terms of quality and security, if not better. Of course will all of the extra features and benefits that Copy provides, especially on the free level, it is always the cloud service I recommend. The free level is great too. While I have been looking for a reason to upgrade to a paid level, the free benefits have been so great that no one on my team has actually had a need to yet.

Torch

Awesome alternative to dropbox, thanks for this. How is it for hosting images? I know that a lot of people link images from Dropbox as they don't have to deal with too much image compression when showing off larger shots of their work - I'll do a few tests to see how it works out.

Lazerus Reborn

citizen_j wrote: »

seems cool, let's see how this works.

one more referral here:
https://copy.com?r=WKmSBm

Used yours citizen:

Mine below~

https://copy.com?r=aYEDFz

Never going to complain about free 20gb storage. That's a instant backup of well 20gb of stuff would you believe!

JohnnyRaptor

Nice one, thanks for sharing.

Used your link Lazerus, cheers

heres mine

https://copy.com?r=jkicJt

mrawolf

Nice!

used yours JohnnyRaptor

and my code.

https://copy.com?r=sIWpZz

4bidn

This is gonna come in handy.

Used yours mrawolf, cheers!

and my code.

https://copy.com?r=KMY40V

And if somebody doesn't have dropbox yet, here is this code. :poly136:

https://db.tt/6l7vHS8w

EarthQuake

Overlord wrote: »

Why not save that money and get an NAS for a cloud storage in your home?

Because local NAS does not = backup?

You should have at least 2 local copies and 1 remote copy of anything you want to legitimately backup. A NAS is a good idea and it gets you that second local copy, but it doesn't protect against fire, flooding, theft, etc, if your backup is sitting a box next to your computer/in your basement/whatever.

Personally, I have multiple computers that backup to a local NAS which automatically backs up to an offsite cloud storage service. I would suggest anyone serious about backup to do the same. I can stand the loss of any two sources of content and still be ok.

edit: lol sorry for responding to a 2 year old post.

4bidn

EarthQuake wrote: »

edit: lol sorry for responding to a 2 year old post.

My fault for digging it up, but I figured she was still warm. :poly142:

soulstice

4bidn wrote: »

This is gonna come in handy.

Used yours mrawolf, cheers!

and my code.

https://copy.com?r=KMY40V

And if somebody doesn't have dropbox yet, here is this code. :poly136:

https://db.tt/6l7vHS8w

Used your code, here is mine if anyone wants to pay it forward.

https://copy.com?r=nGBd1f

Thanks

SideEffect

used yours Soulstice
https://copy.com?r=R9fPKK
Here's mine.
Thank you, I've been needing this for a project right now.