Dropbox

Card's author : Outils-r�seaux et SupAgro Florac

Card's type of licence : Creative Commons BY-SA

To begin with :

Dropbox is a backup service to synchronise and share data, it is very simple. You download a programme that only takes up a small space on the task bar. Then you allocate a file on your computer that will be backed up and synchronised on the Internet. You log on and you're set: now, all forms of files, copied or backed up in your Dropbox documents will instantly be sent via the Internet is a safe way.
This allows synchronising your data automatically on all computers (desktop, laptop, work) and easily sharing documents with other users. Files are available on the hard disk, meaning you can work with them even without an Internet connection.
The free version comes with 2 G of space but the paying version allows you to extend this capacity.

Official website : http://www.dropbox.com

Keywords :

Tool's boxes : Briefcase

Introduction :

Requirements :

Some practical uses :

Synchronising your files automatically on all your computers without issues with versions (Which is the good version? The one on my laptop? The one on my pen drive?)
Sharing a file and documents (of all types, office, images…) with one or several people
Working on your documents even if you have no access to the Internet
Creating a photo gallery visible to all easily
Having a public space on the net to upload large files and send files that are too heavy to send via email
Having an automatic backup of your files
Having access to files from any computer with an internet connection.

Using the tools :

Going further :

Advantages :

All files always at hand, from any computer
Sharing all supported document formats in real time, automatically and with different people
Working on files even if you have no internet connection
Backing-up files automatically
Dropbox saves the last versions of files, so older versions can be recovered in the event of an error.

Drawbacks :

Sharing files doesn't work very well when it's a document that several people are working on at the same time or during the same time period together (i.e. filling in a file to be submitted in two days time, planning for network members) since when two people work on a document at the same time, both versions are saved and then changes to merge the documents must be done manually.

For this kind of use it is preferable to use a tool that allows synchronized changes such as Etherpad or Google Document

Having two Drobpox accounts on the same computer is complicated and often causes errors
Documents in shared files use space on the 2G allocated.

Licence : Proprietary software, Freemium

Using : Easy

Setting up : Easy