Online back up that backs U up…
3 Stars – It Rocks!
2 Stars – Not So Bad!
1 Star – Hope they didn’t quit their day job!
LiveDrive
Freelance Weekly Rating: 3 Stars
About: LiveDrive is the online storage provider offering UNLIMITED file storage. The company’s vision is for its users to store their files on LiveDrive instead of their PC. Either on the web or your mobile LiveDrive wants to become the user’s personal storage space on the Internet. It is unlimited, secure and is there forever.
Set Up: Once the user has setup a Livedrive online account, the user can access the “Account Settings” tab and select the “Software Download” option to download the “Livedrive Desktop Client”. After that LiveDrive can be accessed as any other computer drive on the users PC.
Navigation: LiveDrive offers a Windows XP/Vista client that adds a virtual drive to your PC (a Mac version is coming soon); therefore, letting the user access, drag-and-drop files, and store-and-share files with all the convenience of an external hard drive.
Sharing: Store everything online and have access from any computer. LiveDrive is integrated with Zoho, iPaper and Facebook. It also provides online video player, online music streaming, online file access and editing – making it easier to access and share files. Files can also be accessed from any mobile phone. And, the user can download and upload files using any FTP client.
Pricing: Livedrive offers unlimited storage for $129.95 a year or a 100GB limited account for $55.95 a year.
Customer Service: LiveDrive’s can be reached via Chat, Phone or Feedback form.
Recommendation: Because of LiveDrive’s drag-and-drop concept, its interface to other online applications, convenience of streaming music, video player and simultaneous file editing directly from other computers, I highly recommend this application.
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Mozy
Freelance Weekly Rating: 2 Stars
About: Founded in 2005 in Plesant Grove, Utah and is part of Decho Corporation. Mozy’s motto is of making simple things simple and complex things possible.
Set Up: First sign up and create a MozyHome Free account. Then, download and install the software. The MozyHome backup software downloads in just seconds, and step-by-step instructions guides the user through the installation process.
Navigation: Mozy’s navigation is vey simple all the user needs to do is to check the boxes next to the types of files he/she wants to back up or select specific files and directories, and MozyHome does the rest.
Sharing: Online back up files can be encrypted and available from anywhere.
Pricing: Mozy costs $4.95/month per computer.
Customer Service: Mozy can be reached via E-mail, Chat, and Phone.
Recommendation: Even though Mozy does not offer music file streaming, video player or simultaneous editing from other computers, I recommend this application.
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Carbonite
Freelance Weekly Rating: 1 Star
About: Carbonite launched its online backup service in May 2006. It revolutionizes the market for consumer and small business backup services by offering unlimited backup space for a flat low price.
Set Up: Carbonite installs a small application on the user’s computer that works quietly in the background. It looks for new and changed files that need to be backed up. Its integration to the operating system makes it looks and feels just like part of the computer. There is no new interface for the user to learn.
Navigation: Carbonite’s installation places a virtual drive icon in My Computer folder that shows a directory tree of shortcuts to online files that have been backed up; therefore, making files very easy to find.
Sharing: Carbonite’s online access offers a convenient way of recovering files from another computer in the event the user’s computer crashes or is stolen.
Pricing: Carbonite costs $54.95/year per computer with unlimited back up space.
Customer Service: Carbonite can be reached via E-mail, Chat, Phone and Contact Us form on their website.
Recommendation: Since Carbonite only offers back up with out any additional features like the ability to run files directly from their website, I will recommend using another application.
Freelancing is my life. It's what I know, it's what I'm good at, and I can't imagine doing anything else. You can call me "Freddie the Freelancer"… because I'd prefer not to use my real name for reasons that I'll tell you about in a moment.
3 Comments
As more & more people are looking towards online backups, the distinction between backups & synchronization must be made. If you’re looking for backups, I agree to go with Mozy (and you can save 20% with a Mozy Promotional Code). However, if you’re looking for synchronizing and sharing, LiveDrive is a good choice.
Livedrive advertises military grade encyption using the L Drive, but the L drive does not have a secure connection from the client. If you run wireshark you can see outgoing packets on your L Drive are transmitted free and clear. Posts to their forums go without response….
As for chat.. there is no support chat sessions.. please review there webpage once again. In addition , there is no contact numbers on there website.. if you want to call them, you must email them and request it.
I bought a Livedrive subscription on the back on this review, what a mistake.
Their service is clearly not yet mature and I wouldn’t trust it with anything important.
Their backup software “misses” files, its very slow to find the files for backup that have changed, their website is a joke showing data that is clearly out of date, you can’t always access your files, and today the’ve run out of disk space.
I would stay well clear of these people untill they get their act together.