Cloud storage ???

[#1]

Quote from: Un

... encrypted ...

I only ever upload encrypted data.

Quote from: Un

I wouldn't use it for low importance stuff as it takes too long to upload data at 10Mbps.

I WISH I could upload at that rate. Currently I'm only getting a constantly rising and falling rate of between 0.6kB/s to about 40kB/s, but predominantly at the lower end and with lots of idle in between. I uploaded a 78Mb file the other day as a test of uploading to Dropbox on this connection and it took several hours. Suffice to say I'm not uploading to my Dropbox until the cap is lifted.

[#2]

I have several cloud storage areas - Dropbox (2.5GB), Google Drive (5GB) and SkyDrive (7GB) - all free. The only one I'm using seriously is Dropbox where my brother and I lodge files relating to our holiday home since we share the task of utilities etc between us. Works faultlessly. He uses his Dropbox for website backup too - again works but since it doesn't delete files as has been noted, it needs clearing out from time to time. I also use Google Drive for file sharing with others - again no problems.
However for general backups I use a portable hard-drive.

[#3]

I backup my important data to my brother's NAS device (in Luxembourg) on a nightly basis using rsync (over SSH). He, and a growing number of my family, does likewise in the opposite direction from their machines to my always-on server. As the backups run overnight they don't eat into anyone's bandwidth allowance and only the changes are transferred anyway so it's not very intrusive.
There's probably around 1TB of data in total so a fair chunk to be otherwise paying for. Besides which, I'm not sure I'd trust a 3rd party without which I didn't have a personal relationship however - my data is too precious to leave in the hands of someone that doesn't care beyond how much money they're making from it.
I also perform automated local backups for redundancy and ready high-speed access to the data.
Whatever you do I'd recommend ensuring it is 100% automated otherwise the day you forget will be the day you pay the price.
Mathew

[#4]

Can anybody on ADSL2+ with Dropbox tell me what their upload speeds are like? I've had terrible trouble getting stuff uploaded. I had thought it was due to my upload being capped, so waited for the uncapping. Now that's done I'm currently getting a rubbish floating around 80kB/s sometimes rising briefly to about 124kB/s, and often dropping to around 6kB/s. What I don't know is if it's my line or the Dropbox servers which are the problem.

[#5]

But you don't get a copy of any files more than 24 hours old...
On my main PC, I have a second disk to which I do a full backup of all data files on a weekly basis, an incremental basis on a daily basis.
Backups are deleted after 31 days.
In addition (!) I use rsync periodically to backup files alternately to folder A and folder B on a NAS in the next room.
Dropbox is used for a small amount of storage...
(You have to configure Dropbox for max upload / Download speeds - try right-clicking on it).

[#6]

As always, check your backup always works in both directions !

[#7]

Quote from: Un

(You have to configure Dropbox for max upload / Download speeds - try right-clicking on it).

Hmm - I was wondering how I could work out what the upload speed was - in order to respond to the previous posting - I've now looked at Preferences > Bandwidth to find Download set to "Don't Limit" and Upload set to "limit Automatically" - perhaps that's why it's slow or even stops sometimes. I'm usually only dealing with a few files max per day.
The help link provides this info:
Bandwidth
The bandwidth tab contains the options that control the rates in which you allow Dropbox to sync. For instance, you can throttle your upload/download speed in order to save bandwidth or increase upload speeds to save time. Dropbox tries to be smart when deciding on how much bandwidth to use. By default, upload and download speeds are set to 100% and 70% of available bandwidth respectively.
Download rate
   Don't limit - Select this radio button if you want Dropbox to download files from the Dropbox server at the fastest available speed.
   Limit to - Limit the rate of download by entering your own download rate in kilobytes per second. Entering "0" will tell Dropbox to download at the fastest speed available
Upload rate
   Limit upload rate automatically - Select this radio button if you want Dropbox to determine the speed at which to upload your files when it is syncing
   Limit upload rate to... - Choose your own upload rate here in kilobytes per second

[#8]

Quote from: Un

But you don't get a copy of any files more than 24 hours old...

Who, me? If so, on the contrary!
You can implement rolling snapshots such that you have backups that are 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, etc old. There are plenty of ways of doing such - there's a nice write-up of one method here. The real beauty though is that with hard links you don't take any more space up than the entirety of the unique data i.e. 10 snapshots only take up the space of the first snapshot plus whatever's been created since.
With this approach we can roll the clock back to any point in time as per the granularity of the schedule. We tend to make them daily for a month, then monthly for a year. The daily's cater for accidental file deletions and the monthly's for changes of mind(!). Yearly's are done as a one-off static dump for archiving.
Mathew

[#9]

Quote from: Razer

Can anybody on ADSL2+ with Dropbox tell me what their upload speeds are like? I've had terrible trouble getting stuff uploaded. I had thought it was due to my upload being capped, so waited for the uncapping. Now that's done I'm currently getting a rubbish floating around 80kB/s sometimes rising briefly to about 124kB/s, and often dropping to around 6kB/s. What I don't know is if it's my line or the Dropbox servers which are the problem.

Not had any issues like that on capped ADSL2+ uploads overnight. Although I've manually capped the throughput to 30KB/s for Dropbox, so as to allow other network usage not to be slowed down too much. With that in place upload speeds are pretty constant at 30KB/s. Oh and that's using wireless too (Netgear though, not the 'free' PN one).

[#10]

I was doing much better with a wifi tethered mobile with my uploads than I am on the line. I don't know how you can be happy with 30kB/s.

[#11]

30KB/s is 864MB per 8hr free overnight period - that's probably enough for most people's circumstances on a daily basis.
Mathew

[#12]

Quote from: MJN

Quote from: Un But you don't get a copy of any files more than 24 hours old... Who, me? If so, on the contrary! Mathew

Very interesting!
I'd heard that it was possible to use hard links to effectively get daily full backups (without needing any space beyond that of incremental backups).
I've never used a hardlink - even though they take up no space and so couldn't work out how the scheme worked without the details.
You can always spare a few bytes for a symbolic link in normal circumstances. 

[#13]

Hi All
Many thanks for the various insights and approaches, much appreciated
For what it is worth CrashPlan have a Black Friday offer on at the moment (found ref to it on Photography forum I also belong to) link here https://www.crashplan.com/bigsale/ right now $3.00 for 1 year Unlimted storage from 1 PC or $7.20 for 2 to 10 computers.
On the face of it too good an opportunity to miss for trying/using a Cloud based storage option in the mix of such a backup plan???