Drop Box

[ferco]

Have any of you computer literate folks heard of "drop box"....what does it do ? Does it have any utility for ER folks or is it just another toy/gimmick/scam for folks with nothing else to do. A friend mentioned it to me the other day. I'm not that computer savee and reading about it didn't make a whole lot of sense............I'm a Thoreau geek and like to keep life simple !

 

[Tigger]

Dropbox is a very handy system for sharing files online or sending files to friends that are too big to attach to an e-mail. The free Dropbox program uploads them in the background to the dropbox site, while you're doing other things on your computer. Once the upload is complete, your friends or anyone else that knows the exact link, can download them.

You get 2 GB of free space. That's more than enough for me, so I've never needed to become a paying user. When you signup and mention who referred you, that person gets additional free space - if I remember well.

People have found many creative uses for Dropbox. They use it to automatically backup files to, to sync files (bookmarks, documents, etc.) between pc's, to access their documents while on the road, etc.

My only complaint is that it tends to make my pc unstable after a while. But that's no problem, I only run it when I need to upload something and I reboot the pc when it's done. I wouldn't recommend running it permanently though.
[EDIT: I rarely reboot my pc; people who shutdown daily may not see any problems]

As a cheapskate who sometimes needs to share large zipped photo archives, I love Dropbox.

 

[donheff]

I have been using it for more than a year. I haven't used it to share with other people but I do use it to keep a secure copy of documents I want readily accessible. It syncs my bookmarks, syncs an encrypted Password Safe file for my passwords, holds copies of passports, credit cards, important documents, etc. It is one of those indispensable utilities.

 

[donheff]

My only complaint is that it tends to make my pc unstable after a while. But that's no problem, I only run it when I need to upload something and I reboot the pc when it's done. I wouldn't recommend running it permanently though.

Mine is always running on my PC and my laptop, and occasionally called up on my smart phone. I have never noticed any Dropbox problems with any of these devices.

 

[Tigger]

Mine is always running on my PC and my laptop, and occasionally called up on my smart phone. I have never noticed any Dropbox problems with any of these devices.

I should have mentioned that I rarely reboot my pc. I usually put it in hibernation because I still have many programs and documents open.
People who shutdown daily may not see any problems. I think there's a memory leak but the effects take some time to manifest.

 

[Lisa99]

We have it on all of our computers and our iPads.

I use it mostly to upload and organize .pdf files of my MasterCook recipes. I much prefer reading recipes from the iPad rather than recipe cards.

I've also shared the DropBox folder of recipes with DS who lives across the country. He loves being able to make Mom's meatloaf!

 

[donheff]

I should have mentioned that I rarely reboot my pc. I usually put it in hibernation because I still have many programs and documents open.
People who shutdown daily may not see any problems. I think there's a memory leak but the effects take some time to manifest.

Still may be something specific to you. I rarely reboot my main PC and have not had any Dropbox problems.

 

[easysurfer]

Sort of a computer geek, but not too familar with dropboxes. However, I think the idea of keeping things simple and Thoreau rocks

 

[Koogie]

Been using it with no problems for about a year. We use it at my company to do backups of all the important data daily. Sort of a cheapskates version of an online harddrive......

 

[WM]

I was introduced to it through a work client and mostly use it as a backup for work stuff and to share files with colleagues. But it's also very handy for sharing audio or video clips with family/friends.

I always have it running on my pc and shut down every night; have not seen any problems from it.

I also use box.net for online storage, and although it's not as easy to use as dropbox in some ways, I love that it uses tags for files. I store a lot of reports on there and I can assign various tags to each one rather than having to store it in one particular folder.

 

[Goonie]

I have been using it for more than a year. I haven't used it to share with other people but I do use it to keep a secure copy of documents I want readily accessible. It syncs my bookmarks, syncs an encrypted Password Safe file for my passwords, holds copies of passports, credit cards, important documents, etc. It is one of those indispensable utilities.

I've been using Dropbox for a little more than a year also. I don't use it to share files with other, but only to store files that I may need when I'm away from my desktop computer. I have it on my laptops and my iPhone. It's great for my travel docs, pdf's of my reservations, and anything else that I need access to when on the road. It's also great for recipes....when I go to the store I can access a recipe via my iPhone to see what ingredients I might need to buy for it, and then I use it while cooking things up instead of chasing a recipe card around the kitchen.

One of the the nicest things about using Dropbox is that if I update or correct a document that's in my dropbox, I don't have to make the changes on the desktop and the old laptop and the new laptop etc. I update the file in one place and it's done! Plus it's nice to know that if my hard drive crashes, my files on Dropbox remain intact!