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Dropbox Transfer

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Re: Dropbox Transfer

#171

Post by johnchristopher »

bachmeier wrote: post #84
johnchristopher wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlikely. I have seen 0 send links around and wetransfer is still king of the office. I'd like to see some numbers, though.

> Unlikely. I have seen 0 send links around Do you routinely monitor a large portion of file sharing that goes on in the world? Sorry, but this is just a weird (but common) way to make a claim that [something in the tech world] is not used... I personally use Firefox Send all the time. Works very well and I trust it to do the job.

> Do you routinely monitor a large portion of file sharing that goes on in the world?

I routinely receive assistance requests for expired links that lead to data loss (as in at least once a week) during work hours and assistance requests like "how to upload a folder of files, not just that file" or "where do I put the email ?" or "why are the files gone ? I just sent the link again but my contact says it's not working".

None are about FF send (not for a lack of trying).

> Sorry, but this is just a weird (but common) way to make a claim that [something in the tech world] is not used...

I monitor enough, without having all the variables in the world and the number of TCP packets that went through Firefox send at hand, to form an opinion that goes something like: "Yeah, that FF send thing isn't catching enough users to impact wetransfer usage significantly any time soon or to force Dropbox into releasing their own spin of the thing." Hence my question - that you conveniently cut off - for numbers. It shows that I am ready to change my mind, that my opinion is just... my opinion.

Yeah, people navigate the world with intuition and mushy feelings and opinions. What's weird is that you are surprised by it and feel like pointing it out.

Of course there'll always be people using niche things... doesn't mean it's relevant at large.

Hacking Gameboy ROM in your free time ? Pretty cool. Guess what, that console is still dead.

> Sorry, but this is just a weird (but common) way to make a claim that [something in the tech world] is not used...

I don't believe for a moment that you are "sorry".

Sorry, but this is just a weird (but common) way to try to pass for being polite while truly offering a condescending and insincere apology before telling someone that he's wrong.

Do you have numbers to add to the conversation ?

> I personally use Firefox Send all the time. Works very well and I trust it to do the job.

So do I. So big what ?

Re: Dropbox Transfer

#172

Post by jweather »

bayindirh wrote: post #23
saagarjha wrote: post #2

Does normal Dropbox have “download notifications”? Is this any different than just emailing a link to a shared Dropbox file?

Dropbox transfer notifies you of views and downloads. I'm a paying user and using transfer to send files to friends. It's very useful. Transfers auto-expire after a week and links invalidate so it's maintenance is minimal for the normal user.

The annoying thing is that you can't turn off those notifications, which pop up in your tray and e-mail box. If there were options for turning off notifications it would be perfect for my use case.

Re: Dropbox Transfer

#174

Post by Namrog84 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #167
ec109685 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what their ratio of ingress to egress bandwidth is. I would assume most people write more than they read from the service or does Dropbox actively push any changes to all devices?

> or does Dropbox actively push any changes to all devices? I may be misunderstanding your question, but it seems to me that this is literally the whole point of the service. Dropbox is a folder that syncs. You change something on one device (one write), it updates everywhere (multiple reads). They do have some tricks to lower their bandwidth usage. AFAIR, if multiple devices are in the same LAN, only one gets synced…

> "Also, they have (recently introduced) a sync option, in which fake files are visible in your file system, but no actual contents get put on the drive until you try to open them. "

I thought that was a first in the earliest of versions and was one of my favorite. At some point they removed it and made you choose which folders to sync. At which point I abandoned using it. So maybe they are reintroducing it or I am misremembering something.

Re: Dropbox Transfer

#175

Post by rurp »

severaldayz wrote: post #138
rurp wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any proof that Google does not? Scanning user's private data to target them with ads is the primary reason Google offers services. Absent other evidence, the default assumption should be that Google scans as much data as they can.

Proving absence of something is an unreasonable standard. Your answer does sound like "no, there is no such evidence" to my ears, though.

I guess I wasn't clear. I had something in mind like a public statement from Google saying that they do not scan a particular set of data. I would accept that as evidence. Absent a statement from them either way, I assume they read whatever is uploaded to their servers.

Re: Dropbox Transfer

#176

Post by tomc1985 »

gravitas wrote: post #102

Collected alternatives from the comments here: https://wetransfer.com/ https://swisstransfer.com/ https://transfer.midrive.io/ https://send.firefox.com/ https://transfer.sh/ ps: I really wish HN supported basic markdown so we can make bullet lists and other simple formatting controls, nothing wild like citation/footnote support just the top 5-10 markups. Trying to make a list of URLs to share looks like ass here.

Looks fine to me. What's wrong with using asterisks as bullet points?

Re: Dropbox Transfer

#177

Post by anderspitman »

gravitas wrote: post #102

Collected alternatives from the comments here: https://wetransfer.com/ https://swisstransfer.com/ https://transfer.midrive.io/ https://send.firefox.com/ https://transfer.sh/ ps: I really wish HN supported basic markdown so we can make bullet lists and other simple formatting controls, nothing wild like citation/footnote support just the top 5-10 markups. Trying to make a list of URLs to share looks like ass here.

Might also consider https://file.pizza for p2p transfers. And my own service https://patchbay.pub. Or fibridge [0] if you want to self host. The main advantage of patchbay and fibridge over other solutions I've seen is they support range requests, so you can do things like streaming and resumable transfers.

[0] https://github.com/anderspitman/fibridge-proxy-rs

Re: Dropbox Transfer

#178

Post by TeMPOraL »

Namrog84 wrote: post #174
TeMPOraL wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or does Dropbox actively push any changes to all devices? I may be misunderstanding your question, but it seems to me that this is literally the whole point of the service. Dropbox is a folder that syncs. You change something on one device (one write), it updates everywhere (multiple reads). They do have some tricks to lower their bandwidth usage. AFAIR, if multiple devices are in the same LAN, only one gets synced…

> "Also, they have (recently introduced) a sync option, in which fake files are visible in your file system, but no actual contents get put on the drive until you try to open them. " I thought that was a first in the earliest of versions and was one of my favorite. At some point they removed it and made you choose which folders to sync. At which point I abandoned using it. So maybe they are reintroducing it or I am m…

I've been using Dropbox since its early days and I don't remember seeing this feature until very recently. But it's possible I missed it in the past; I always treated Dropbox as a syncing service, not storage service, so I synced everything to every device (and later opted for selective sync on some devices; e.g. I didn't need a copy of my personal photos on a laptop I use for work).

Re: Dropbox Transfer

#179

Post by brazzy »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #167
ec109685 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what their ratio of ingress to egress bandwidth is. I would assume most people write more than they read from the service or does Dropbox actively push any changes to all devices?

> or does Dropbox actively push any changes to all devices? I may be misunderstanding your question, but it seems to me that this is literally the whole point of the service. Dropbox is a folder that syncs. You change something on one device (one write), it updates everywhere (multiple reads). They do have some tricks to lower their bandwidth usage. AFAIR, if multiple devices are in the same LAN, only one gets synced…

The mobile clients only show you what's there and download on demand, at least that's the default.

Re: Dropbox Transfer

#180

Post by rhodysurf »

Strom wrote: post #99
rhodysurf wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this happen recently. Our photographer from our wedding shared the photos on dropbox but we couldnt see them because we didnt have dropbox pro and the folder was over the free size limit! Why does it matter how much space I have if someone else is sharing them with me?!?!

It's not about your space, it's about your payment. If someone like a pro photographer shares their stuff with clients all the time, then their dropbox subscription won't necessarily cover all of that bandwidth. [1] Companies like dropbox only mention bandwidth in fine print or buried somewhere deep in the FAQ, but bandwidth is a key resource that every dropbox user consumes and dropbox has to pay for. -- [1] It migh…

It makes sense when you look at it that way. But as a customer it leaves me with a crapy taste in my mouth since its the only cloud service I have encountered that has that restriction. But then again, the free tiers for the others are all 5 GB or larger so I never would have had this problem in the first place.
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