[PLUG-TALK] Public content hosting - box.net, or?

Michael M. Moore moore.michael.m at gmail.com
Sat Feb 26 01:01:19 UTC 2011


On 02/25/2011 04:25 PM, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> There was an article on the Snoregonian about:
>
>     http://box.net
>
> ... a company which provides online storage.  "5 GB free",
> the other pricing options are not clear.
>
> according to
> http://www.box.net/features/complete_list
>
> " Global Folders:
>      Turn any folder into a public web page in one
>      click and give it a vanity URL. "
>
> I would like to externally host large chunks of content for
> my websites - videos, big graphics, presentations - without
> using the limited bandwidth and storage on my virtual server.
> Something like  box.net  looks good.  5GB would hold me for
> a while, but I will probably want 20GB to 50GB over the next
> few years.  Moving providers would mean a lot of URL rewriting
> on my websites, so I want to find a place I can stick with.
>
> I would kinda prefer a little less glitzy interface, which
> I can rsync to and from, but I imagine I can pungle up some
> code to fake it with box.net .  Also, they do not mention
> bandwidth limits.  If I get slashdotted, it would be nice if
> someone else moved the big files for me, but I kinda wonder
> if box.net would like the load that much.
>
> Does this look like a good deal?   Any other providers I should
> be looking at?


I use Dropbox, but only because a non-profit I'm involved with uses it 
for sharing files.  Since it was easy to install on Ubuntu (Dropbox 
provides a .deb) and integrates with nautilus, I use it to share some of 
my own files with myself between Ubuntu and Windows as well as accessing 
and sharing files with others from the non-profit.  Said uses are much 
more limited than what you're thinking of doing, but with that caveat, I 
can at least say it hasn't given me any problems and the site has yet to 
be down or inaccessible.  It's been about 9 months, and so far it "just 
works."

But the same could be true for box.net or other alternatives.  Dropbox 
only gives you 2GB free (I have yet to use even 1GB.)

FWIW,
Michael



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