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BitTorrent’s Secure Dropbox Alternative Goes Public

torrentfreak.com

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Re: BitTorrent’s Secure Dropbox Alternative Goes Public

#81

Post by AnthonyMouse »

slg wrote: post #29
notdonspaulding wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a rendezvous server that also serves as a fallback relay in case two devices that want to sync are behind highly-unfriendly NATs. In that sense, it's exactly like Dropbox. But it doesn't store your data, so yes, one device must always be on in order to sync with a new device. However, if you have a device that needs changes made on another one, it will just wait around and sync whenever the device with change…

That might very well rule Sync out for personal use by the general public. The benefit of Dropbox (and similar server backed services) is that the most up-to-date version of a file is simply there as soon as you are connected to the Internet. Most people who have two computers won’t be using them both at the same time. For example, a common use case for these services is syncing files while you are traveling. Requiri…

I haven't yet looked to see how this service works so correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that you could solve this problem by either leaving the desktop turned on (so that it syncs immediately whenever the laptop changes), or coordinating with the IT department and having them do the same using a file server the desktop will have access to (which IT departments will like because it makes it easier to centralize backups).

Re: BitTorrent’s Secure Dropbox Alternative Goes Public

#82

Post by axusgrad »

mseebach wrote: post #53
andrethegiant wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100Gb of Dropbox costs $10/month, BitTorrent Sync is free.

Dropbox has your stuff stored away in a fairly secure facility, while BitTorrent Sync just syncs between machines you've installed it on. That's worth something. Of course, you can just rent a cheap VPS somewhere and have it sync your BTS folders, but I think you'll be hard pressed to find a VPS with 100 GB storage for less than $10/month.

Also, Dropbox is user friendly. I can recommend it to my family members, and they have a referral program to encourage me to do it. What does BitTorrent Sync do that rsync cannot?

On the other side of the argument, I bet BitTorrent Sync will become as friendly as Dropbox, and perhaps third-party backup services will offer what Dropbox does. At that point, rsync's only advantage would be an open-source license.

Re: BitTorrent’s Secure Dropbox Alternative Goes Public

#83

Post by nostromo »

buro9 wrote: post #9

Really nice, but the thing is... Dropbox has gone beyond just file sharing. One example: I used to use Flickr for photo sharing, but cameras got better, images got bigger, and I have a lot of photos. I moved from Flickr to Picasa as it could cope with the directories full of photos and I didn't have to manually upload them and Google's storage space was cheaper. Then I ran out of space... over 100GB of photos, where…

Sharing photos was solved for the 99% by Facebook & Apple & Google. If you're a photographer with gobs of high resolution photos Dropbox is perfect for you, but I imagine that is a niche pain point.

What is a much bigger opportunity is a way that easily lets groups share music and movies. This cannot be solved by a centralized service like Dropbox for legal reasons. This is what would concern me if I was Dropbox; BTSync's killer feature is off limits to Dropbox without a complete change in architecture (and some soul searching about if they want to risk ending up like Kim Dotcom).

Re: BitTorrent’s Secure Dropbox Alternative Goes Public

#84

Post by buro9 »

niels_olson wrote: post #66
lifeformed wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice bike.

Yeah, I'd like a little more info about the stem. It looks like a quill, but then there's that cam. I've had bad luck with those in the past, wondering how this one is done.

I've updated the photos in the link above to include more build photos.

The bike is made by a gent named Robin Mather who lives in the South West of England. His website is unfortunately a poor one, but he's got coverage elsewhere: http://apracticalguide.wordpress.com/ http://www.bespoked2012.co.uk/BespokedBristol/Robin_Mather.h... http://www.headsetpress.co.uk/features/robin-mather-building...

The stem is a fully bespoke (the whole bike is) ahead stem. It uses a barrel with a 6mm allen bolt through it. The barrel is split in two and the bolt squeezes the two halves to give a large contact area with the stem. It's worked well, no complaints.

One of the goals of that bike was to design it such that it looked aesthetically clean of bolts, fixings and braze-ons.

An example of that is the rear rack... remove the rack and mudguard and there is clearance for cyclocross tyres, and there are no braze-ons that give even a hint that the frame can take racks.

I was going for a single multi-purpose frame (touring, cyclocross, urban-fixed) by simply changing wheelsets and basic things... any change should be a 10 minute job. But yet, even with multiple uses I did not want to compromise the looks to achieve it.

The photos show the bike in the most complex configuration, the Rohloff hub, the dynamo front hub, the racks, the mudguards, the flat handlebars with Rohloff shifter. But basically you can strip it to a fixed gear bike with belt drive and just a front brake in 10 minutes, and then shove it in a suitcase (S&S couplers) and go travelling with it.

And even with all of that... the bike may be custom, but I kept everything compatible with standard parts so it's easy to get a long life from the bike as parts will be available. That stem... well, any stem can go on there.

Robin's a cool guy too. Which helps when you go this crazy on spec'ing a bike.

Re: BitTorrent’s Secure Dropbox Alternative Goes Public

#86

Post by jjsz »

This ideological P2P sync will only work if the server you're using it on has the highest chance of staying on. Which is a home server.

How can BS connect to ownCloud to push the updated files to avoid an emergency where, you're not a Dropbox member, and your device was stolen and turned off?

Re: BitTorrent’s Secure Dropbox Alternative Goes Public

#88

Post by webwanderings »

This isn't a Dropbox alternative by any means. From what I could understand, you need to keep two of your machines ON in order to sync. The best it could be called is replacement of your USB drive.

AeroFS does something similar and it apparently doesn't require keeping two of your machines On at the same time, though it didn't work for me as advertised, so I gave up on AeroFS.

Using Dropbox in the title with this, is misleading.

Re: BitTorrent’s Secure Dropbox Alternative Goes Public

#89

Post by eknkc »

illicium wrote: post #79
weej wrote: post #40

This is great; however, folks can still securely store data on cloud services. They just need to take a Trust No one (TNO) approach and encrypt their data to disk. For example you can use TrueCrypt and create/mount a drive volume that is fully encrypted while synced across a file share storage/sync service like DropBox. The only downside is that you have to install the TrueCrypt application on your client device, whi…

Another downside of using Truecrypt is that when you make a change in your volume, the whole volume file gets reuploaded to your storage/sync service. A better solution is to use .sparsebundles (Mac only) or something like BoxCryptor/encfs that encrypts files in the volume individually

Is it? I believe dropbox handles files in up to 8MB chunks. If a chunk is not modified, it's not re-uploaded.

I use encfs though, good suggestion.

Re: BitTorrent’s Secure Dropbox Alternative Goes Public

#90

Post by TheHippo »

wereHamster wrote: post #17

They have a native linux 64bit client, that's great! The linux binary is cli only, but provides a web interface on port 8888. However, the daemon binds to address 0.0.0.0 and not just localhost (127.0.0.1 or ::1)! So make sure you have a firewall. Otherwise everybody can access the web interface and thus your secrets.

Or use a config file and bind to whatever you want. Also you could specify a username and a password for the web gui.
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