Using webspace for file storage

[PJ White]

Morning all

It dawned on me that I needn't pay for online file storage. I've got webspace. I could just create a directory somewhere no one knows about and upload files to it.

Is there a snag to this? I feel there must be or everyone would do it. Is it frowned on by service providers? Is it insecure in some way?

Has anyone else done this and hit problems?

Cheers
PJ

[Ben Tudor]

1: security through obscurity is no security.

2: I don't know how much web space you have,  but online storage and sharing sites offer free storage in the gigabit size range

3: Your ISP may already offer storage space as part of the package

4: Someone suggested something similar with Gmail a few years back.

Hope that's useful.
Ben

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[Louis Barfe]

Yes, I did this for a bit with the unlimited webspace offered by my
hosting company. Until, that is, they sent me a very polite email saying
that using the webspace as storage was against their terms and
conditions. They just told me to let them know when I'd retrieved and
removed everything I needed to retrieve. It might be that it's not
against the Ts&Cs of your host, so check.

L

[PJ White]

On 03/04/2014 14:11, Louis Barfe wrote:
> Yes, I did this for a bit with the unlimited webspace offered by my
> hosting company. Until, that is, they sent me a very polite email
> saying that using the webspace as storage was against their terms and
> conditions. They just told me to let them know when I'd retrieved and
> removed everything I needed to retrieve. It might be that it's not
> against the Ts&Cs of your host, so check.

Hmm, not such a bright idea then. Thanks Louis and Ben.

I just checked. It's against the t&cs:

"The Customer shall at all times use the web space exclusively as a
conventional web site. The Customer shall not use the web space or the
Services in any way which may result in an excessive load on the
Equipment, including but not limited to installing or running web
proxies, using the Customer’s allotted space as online backup or
storage, or mirroring mass downloads."

What do you do now. Louis? Would you have a recommendation for online
storage?

Thanks again
PJ

[John Thompson]

Not sure if you are already using a cloud-based back-up service, but Amazon might be worth a look. You can pay less than the normal rates with one of its services (Glacier?) if you are prepared to pay more to download your backup, should you need it. If that’s hardly ever, then that’s a good option.

Otherwise if you just want to store files for accessing when you are out of the office, away from home etc, dropbox or similar should do the job. You can increase the free basic space allocation by introducing “friends" to the service...

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[PJ White]

Thanks John.  I'll look at Amazon. I sort of use dropbox a bit, but I've never got systematic about putting things in a dropbox folder. I'd prefer something I can just set a scheduled backup of folders I've chosen and then ftp them or whatever.

(That said, Dropbox saved me hours this week, when I found I had used it for a critical project & my main machine collapsed under the strain.)

Cheers
PJ

On 03/04/2014 17:42, John Thompson wrote:

[Ryanscribe]

Hi PJ: I use Dropbox quite a bit, I confess. I also have Apple's .Me service, which I use for additional backup + a couple of spare external hard drives. I know there are plenty of other (cheaper) alternatives, too.

[John Thompson]

If you use a Mac, this might help http://www.haystacksoftware.com/arq/

More than likely a PC equivalent around somewhere.

On 3 Apr 2014, at 20:54, PJ White <pjwhi...@gmail.com> wrote:

[John Thompson]

Best not use Dropbox for anything confidential…

http://grahamcluley.com/2014/03/dropbox-privacy/

[Guy Clapperton]

I've recently started using Microsoft OneDrive and it's great. Save everything to the cloud instead of your computer so it's not so much backed up as 'out there' whenever you need them.

Regards

Guy

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[PJ White]

On 03/04/2014 20:59, John Thompson wrote:

Best not use Dropbox for anything confidential…

http://grahamcluley.com/2014/03/dropbox-privacy/

Thanks for that, John. I like his adage: "Don’t call it ‘the cloud’. Call it ‘someone else’s computer’. That really helps you consider the security consequences of what you are doing."

Don't know how secure or encrypted MS OneDrive is - but thanks, Guy, I'll look into it.

PJ

[Ryanscribe]

On PJ's point just there, about so-called 'Cloud' security, does anyone feel the need to use the type of encryption programmes on offer/mentioned in that article...? Given that the NSA can spy on everything and everyone nowadays ... :)

[Ben Tudor]

Chances are, any encryption you're using is either backdoored (commercial stuff) or breakable anyway, if not by brute force, then by quantum computing. The question is whether what you're doing is of enough interest to an organisation like the NSA. The problem is, if you are encrypting stuff, it's unusual enough to attract that sort of attention anyway. Secondly, the sort of processing power required to break stuff can now be hired, very easily, from companies like Amazon or Microsoft or SAP.

Quantum's a good one, too - and Simon Singh's Code Book is a great intro. There are early quantum computers in use at the moment, but how productive they are is anyone's guess. Like a lot of quantum and quantum crypto questions, it's something of a Schroedinger's Cat. Which is, neatly, in and of itself a quantum question.

Might be over-thinking this. Oooh - lunch.

[Chris Wheal]

My first ever news editor from Electronics Weekly got in touch last month looking or some help with a new website launch about cloud computing, so I have written thousands of words on the subject in recent weeks.

My biggest concern is that I seem to spend a hell of a lot of time in places with zero wifi or mobile data signal. It is this factor, more than any other, that deters me from using the cloud any more than I need to.

The idea that I would not be able to access my documents - in the worst case not be able to open my virtual desktop - on any train heading south of London, for example (absolutely terrible signal all the way to the coast), working anywhere in the Cotswolds, Cornwall, Devon, Cumbria etc is what scares me. Essex council said recently they had chosen not to go to the cloud precisely because it would mean their staff would be unable to work out and about in the county because of zero connectivity.

Chris Wheal
t: +44 20 8694 9412
m: +44 7831 268261

On 4 Apr 2014, at 11:43, PJ White <pjwhi...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Marc Beishon]

On Friday, April 4, 2014 1:00:20 PM UTC+1, Chris Wheal wrote:

 

The idea that I would not be able to access my documents 

But that's not how the services work - they sync folders so you can get at them on multiple devices but the content is still on your PC. And with Office 365 you can of course edit docs offline - you only have to login at certain intervals to maintain your subscription.

M. 

[Chris Wheal]

That is how Dropbox works, yes, but many cloud services mean you access your virtual desktop and all the apps you need from any device - iPad, Mac or PC laptop etc.

Even with Dropbox, if someone else had worked on the shared document I would need to be connected for the version on my computer to be updated with the amendments.

Chris Wheal
t: +44 20 8694 9412
m: +44 7831 268261

[PJ White]

On 04/04/2014 12:36, Ben Tudor wrote:
> Chances are, any encryption you're using is either backdoored
> (commercial stuff) or breakable anyway, if not by brute force, then by
> quantum computing. The question is whether what you're doing is of
> enough interest to an organisation like the NSA. The problem is, if
> you are encrypting stuff, it's unusual enough to attract that sort of
> attention anyway. Secondly, the sort of processing power required to
> break stuff can now be hired, very easily, from companies like Amazon
> or Microsoft or SAP.
> Quantum's a good one, too - and Simon Singh's Code Book is a great
> intro. There are early quantum computers in use at the moment, but how
> productive they are is anyone's guess. Like a lot of quantum and
> quantum crypto questions, it's something of a Schroedinger's Cat.
> Which is, neatly, in and of itself a quantum question.
> Might be over-thinking this. Oooh - lunch.
>

Overthink away. I'm learning so much.

Yesterday I learnt that obscurity is no security.

Today I learnt that if you get the best security around you draw
attention to yourself and are doomed on that score.

Such fun.

PJ

[Marc Beishon]

On Friday, April 4, 2014 1:25:57 PM UTC+1, Chris Wheal wrote:

That is how Dropbox works, yes, but many cloud services mean you access your virtual desktop and all the apps you need from any device - iPad, Mac or PC laptop etc.

Even with Dropbox, if someone else had worked on the shared document I would need to be connected for the version on my computer to be updated with the amendments.

Obviously you don't deploy a virtual desktop that requires a permanent connection to workers with no connection... and the Dropbox example is common to any shared system.

Plenty of other ways to sync as you go. The most obvious case being email. 

M. 

[John Thompson]

You could always buy a portable drive and carry that around with you.

And the data on that could be encrypted if necessary - useful in case of theft or loss as well as making it harder to snoop if it falls into the wrong hands.

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[PJ White]

On 04/04/2014 15:18, John Thompson wrote:

You could always buy a portable drive and carry that around with you.

And the data on that could be encrypted if necessary - useful in case of theft or loss as well as making it harder to snoop if it falls into the wrong hands.

That's definitely one option I'm considering, among others. I've got a vision of sorting everything out into different folders and with different back-up strategies - dropbox for everyday basic work projects that I might work on different machines, supplemented by OneDrive and Google drive. Then having photos, confidential files and stuff on an external hard drive encrypted where necessary.

There are implications for file organisation. I'm not even sure if the years-old way of sorting folders by project or client even makes any sense any more. What's the point of all those folders, alphabetically ordered? Could just chuck everything together and look at it in date order.

I need to think this through systematically. Trouble is, thinking like that isn't my strong point. But it would be good to have things ordered, synced and available, with guaranteed & scheduled back-ups.

PJ