internet sites to explore

i'm going to do a series of post and talk about each and every site you should explore in net IMO
this is the first of the series

so let's start
in this post i'm going to tell you sites for online back up


In today’s digital world, our entire life — both work and home — are tied to computers. Hard disks are unpredictable and are prone to failures leading to data loss. Research shows that every year 43% of computer users lose valuable data. The best way to hedge your data storage risk is to store critical data on the cloud.
Cloud storage services offer paid monthly subscriptions either for unlimited storage or for hundreds of gigabytes of data. Most of us do not have that much critical data to backup and therefore it would be a total waste of money. And for those of us who have data which cannot be stored using the 1 or 2GB free space offered, we have a list of four of the best free online storage services that offer free space of more than 10GB.

Windows Live SkyDrive

Despite having a name that is quite a mouthful, Windows Live Skydrive is one of the most popular and extremely useful cloud based service from Microsoft. Windows Live Skydrive offers a hefty 25 GB free storage space to all users.
There is absolutely no need to install and configure a desktop client. All you have to do is log into the Windows Live Skydrive account wit your Live ID and you can just drag & drop files into the folders. In addition to having password protected private folders, you can create new folders, make it public and share the files with friends, family or coworkers.
Each folder has a unique weblink which you can mail to anyone you want and the files can accessed from any web connected device like a PC or a smartphone. You can read our review of Windows Live Skydrive here.

IDrive

IDrive is a top notch remote online backup solution. Like all its competitors, IDrive offers 2GB free storage for users to evaluate the service. With desktop clients for Mac & PC, true archiving, continuous data protection, time line restore, versioning and many more world class features IDrive is a rock solid online backup platform. Wondering how IDrive is relevant in this list? Patience, dear readers is a virtue! Now immediately after signing up, we will be redirected to a sign up onfirmation and referral page.

You can refer IDrive to your friends by submitting the email login credentials of AOL, Gmail, MSN or Yahoo. If there are more than 5 valid email addresses in your address book, IDrive bumps up your account with a free 10 GB storage space. This referral space does not expire and is on top of the 2 GB free space of the basic plan. Contacts you refer get two emails from IDrive promoting their product and if you want to bypass this, sign up with an email id you sparsely use thereby not annoying your friends & family.

humyo

With its free account, humyo provides one of the best free 10GB online storage solutions. The free storage space is split into two parts – 5GB for media files (Photos, Videos, Music) and the rest of the 5 GB for non-media files. Since this being a free account, we will not have access to the desktop client. But fret not, humyo has a brilliant web-based file explorer that allows you to upload, share and download files in a jiffy.

Binfire

Binfire offers a free 10 GB online storage space for all your files, which can accessed from a intuitive web interface. Just like Windows Live Skydrive, Binfire also lets you create and share multiple folders with your friends and family. You can also send emails right from within the Binfire account.
Each one of these services have their own strong suites. Personally, I use IDrive for backing up data and found it to be seamless & blazing fast. With the launch of Office Web in a few days, Windows SkyDrive is going to be a Google Docs killer. And, if you are a media junkie, humyo is the right fit as you can stream media and view images directly from your account.
If you need more storage than 25 GB, check out how to score 50 GB free storage space online from Wuala here. Do you know about any other examples of the best free online storage solutions that offer 10 GB or more free space?

dropbox

Installation and Pricing

Installing Dropbox on a Gateway P-7808u FX was as simple as downloading the application and clicking “I’m new to Dropbox” when prompted. We created an account by filling in our name, e-mail, and password. We were then presented with three Dropbox subscription models: Free (2GB), $9.99 per month/$99 per year (50GB), $19.99 per month/$199 per year (100GB). Although not wallet-breaking, Dropbox is pricier than Microsoft’s free Windows Live Sync option, which offers users the ability to create up to 20 folders that contain a maximum of 20,000 files each.
Clicking the Dropbox icon in the taskbar opened the dedicated My Dropbox folder, into which we placed files that we wanted to sync. This is in stark contrast to Windows Live Sync, which integrates directly into the Windows’s folder structure, and as such isn’t as centralized (photos are in the My Pictures Folder, music in My Music, etc.). We prefer Dropbox’s approach because it allows users to see all of their synced files and folders in one central location on the desktop in a standard Windows Explorer-styled window.
Dropbox contains two subfolders by default: Photos and Public. The Photos folder is where you stash your pictures, and the Public folder gives every file placed in it a URL for those times when you wish to share data. To get the URL for a file, right-click on it, move to the Dropbox submenu, and click “Copy public link.” Others can access this folder without needing a Dropbox account.

File Syncing Performance

Syncing begins once you complete the setup process, and your new Dropbox folder becomes populated with your files. We installed Dropbox on four computers (an Acer Aspire One D150 , a Dell desktop, a Gateway P-7808u FX, and a Mac mini), and had no problems retrieving and updating our documents. A 4.97GB folder of mixed media was synced with Dropbox’s servers in 9 hours and 53 minutes, which was on a par with Windows Live Sync’s time of 9:49. Once uploaded, the folder was immediately available on our other PCs. We were able to download a 114MB video clip from our office PC’s desktop in 4 minutes and 59 seconds, which was almost identical with Windows Live Sync’s 4:51 transfer time. One new feature is LAN Sync, which automatically syncs files between local computers instead of downloading them from Dropbox’s servers, allowing for a faster data exchange.

Web Interface and Other Features

To access files from another notebook on which Dropbox isn’t installed, you can log into www.dropbox.com. Using the Web interface, we could view account information (including account type and remaining capacity) and My Computers, which let us see the last activity on one of the linked computers or remove it from the syncing circle. You can also see your Referral Status; Dropbox awards users 250MB of free extra storage for every person you introduce to the service, for a total maximum of 3GB per free account.
Other Web features include the ability to create shared folders, as well as download, rename, copy, or delete individual files. Dropbox keeps full file revisions (even in the free version), so you can revert to an older version simply by clicking a radio button and then selecting Restore. Free accounts have only 30 days to undo deleted files.