TMCnet News
The process of keeping your data in the Cloud [Mercury, The (South Africa)](Mercury, The (South Africa) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Internet file-sharing services (which fall under the umbrella term "Cloud Storage") work in much the same way - you upload your data to a server on the internet, which then stores it and makes it available for subsequent download via a link - that's the basic feature. Additional services added by each provider may include the ability to synchronise these files across multiple computers linked to an account, enhanced security to limit the level of access to files, back-up functions that allow you to undo changes or restore deleted files, or linked "apps" such as e-mail, word processing or spreadsheets so that you can create, edit, share and store files completely online with no need to download a copy to your computer. This is where most traditional office suite software is heading, as more and more applications become "Cloud" services, hosted and run completely on the internet. Today I'll tell you about two free file-sharing services from Google and Microsoft. Google's Gmail and Microsoft's Outlook.com (formerly known as Hotmail) include file sharing in the form of Google's Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive. Using the web interfaces for either product, you can easily upload files from your computer and then send a link to the file by e-mail. Of course, you'll need a free account (e-mail address) at Google or Outlook.com. If you don't already have one, you can sign up easily on the login page. Google Drive: Log in to Gmail (www.gmail.com). In the top right corner, click the little square icon. From the list of apps that appears, click "Drive". The Drive interface loads. On left hand-side, there's a red button labelled "Create". Just to the right of this is an arrow point upwards. Click the arrow - that's the "upload" button. From here, you can browse your computer to upload a file or folder to your Google Drive. Once that's done, you can right-click on any file and choose "Share" to share the file with e-mail contacts. Outlook.com: Log in to Outlook.com (www.outlook.com). Once signed in, you should be in the e-mail interface. At the top left of the screen, next to the "Outlook.com" logo, is a little arrow pointing down. Click this arrow and it will pop up with a list of your services. Click "OneDrive" to open your OneDrive. As with Google Drive, you can upload files and folders from your computer. Simply click "Upload" at the top of the page. Once you've uploaded a file or folder, right-click it and choose "Share" to share it with e-mail contacts. Sync tool The methods I've described above work fine in most cases but there is another way to get files from your PC to the Cloud - by using the simple desktop sync tools provided by Microsoft and Google. These programs create a folder on your PC called Google Drive or OneDrive. Whatever you place in these folders is automatically synced to your cloud-based Google or Microsoft account. If you install the tool using the same account on multiple computers, it will even keep the data synchronised across all of them and back it up. Google's Drive for PC can be downloaded at www.tinyurl.com/gdrivedownload and Microsoft's OneDrive equivalent can be found at www.tinyurl.com/onedrivedownload. Microsoft and Google's services and tools work in similar ways and compete on features, so it's hard to choose between them.. One factor that may sway users with older PCs is OneDrive's sync tool doesn't support Windows XP whereas Google's Drive does. Both give you 15 gigabytes of free cloud storage and there's nothing to stop you using both services to give you a combined 30 gigabytes. Both providers are trusted household names with a reputation to protect and the resources to manage security issues. However, using any cloud service implies you trust the service to look after your data. Think twice before depending on a free service to share sensitive or private data - unfortunately, there is no perfect online solution for that. The Mercury (c) 2014 Independent Newspapers (Pty) Limited. All rights strictly reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |