There are a myriad of ways to get large files to other people. You can email them, since most email services, like Gmail, now support pretty large file sizes. You could drop them to a flash drive or portable hard disk and take them to someone. You could also use one of the many file transfer/hosting services on the ‘net such as Rapidshare or sendthisfile. All of these have some drawbacks. Unless you pay for upgrades (up to 100usd per year or more) at these sites, you are stuck with waiting times, download limits, and the possibility of your files being deleted.
Opendrive, in addition to attempting to address some of these issues, goes one step further, and takes your web browser completely out of the picture. Summed up, Opendrive gives you a remote hard drive up to 100gb that you can access anytime, anywhere, from any net-enabled device, and even share these files with others you choose.
Now, Opendrive is not without a weak spot common to the Rapidshare model. You’re putting your files in someone else’s hands, and you have no real idea where they are, or who can access them. Realistically, though they assure the security of your data, anyone at the service’s datacenter could rifle through your crap anytime they chose. Like most other companies these days, Opendrive has a privacy policy here, which tries to address this concern.
Files are monitored for potential threats including Spyware, Virus, Cracking and Phising, illegal activity, and other harmful entities. Upon request of legal or governmental agencies users data may be provided wgeb required to do so.
Phising? Wgeb? Spell-check people. F7 is right in the middle at the top. Anyway, if you’re working on plans for a new, unpatented, revolutionary device that may lead to sustainable nuclear fusion, or trafficking in pirated copies of PONG, let’s store that somewhere else, eh?
A 6 field sign up and 3 meg download followed by a very short installation and restart results in a tray icon and a new drive icon in Windows Explorer. OpenDrive is currently in version 1.1 for XP and Vista users. There is no Mac version available yet, but they insist on their website that one is on the way. Use it like a local or network drive, albeit with a login.
You’ve got one gigabyte to use at your leisure. Copy to or from, drag and drop files from other folders, just like a local drive. If you need more space, the upgrades (you knew it was coming, don’t whine) run you roughly one US dollar per Gig per year, up to 100 Gigs. Larger drives available on request.
I was able to upload files to my OpenDrive at about 180kb/s, the max my connection permits. Transferring from OpenDrive granted me a speed that varied depending on time of day and such, of 90 to 160kb/s.
Want to share your files? Get your associate to sign up for OpenDrive (recall, this entire reg and install process takes less than 90 seconds, not including the required reboot). Right-click on a folder within your OpenDrive and enter that person’s username or the email they used to sign up. They’ll be granted full access to that folder. Use with caution, of course.
To access your Opendrive from another net-enabled device, go to OpenDrive’s parent site, www.boxstr.com and use the online interface. Additionally, current BOXSTR.com users are already signed up for OpenDrive.
In conclusion, even though the service’s site seems to be somewhat poorly maintained, one gig is a bit on the small side, (Gmail is up to what, 8 gigs?)and the transfer speeds could be better, eliminating the need for a web interface rates pretty high in my ‘cool’ book. There’s potential here.
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