THIS artical explores different means for storing documents on-line.Keeping
files on a Net
server helps access them from any computer onthe Web. Many netizens use G-mail kind of
Web based e-mail services forthis purpose. Tools/services such as G-mail drive(http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm) and XmailHardDrive(https://www.xmailharddrive.com), meant for easy upload of files on to your G-mailaccount, facilitate this process. Feature packed
service Though one can use a G-mail type of service as an on-line storage, aproduct specifically serving this purpose is preferable. Thefeature-packed on-line storage service e-snips (http://esnips.com),which provides you one GB space for free, will be quite handy intackling your storage problems. After registering an account with theservice, download the browser-toolbar/client, created for helping youto store documents/web-pages directly from the browser/machine. Besideshelping you upload documents from the local storage on to its server,e-snips features tools for storing fullor part of web pages. Forinstance, if you want to store only a picture found on a web page,select the image and access the relevant `Snip' option. You can alsosave part of the screen as an image file. The screen can be captured inthe shape of a triangle or ellipse or rectangle. In addition tobenefits mentioned above, the service enables sharing of folders withyour friends/colleagues. Whenever you add a new document to the sharedfolder, your clients will be notified automatically. Recently thisauthor tried out the new on-line backup product, Mozy(https://mozy.com/) which is still in its testing phase. This utilityallows you to encrypt/store files on its server for free. To back updata, you need to download the Windows XP based Mozy client. Thisauthor is yet to make extensive use of the service. Another web basedstorage solution worth a trial is Streamload (http://www.streamload.com). It lets you store up to 10 GB for free; but the
free accountholders cannot download files of size above 10 MB. Of course, you canuse the good old FTP server as well for keeping your files on-lineprovided you have an account with an FTP server. The trouble with anFTP server is the need for an FTP client to transfer files. Onesolution is to employ a program like NetDrive(http://www.acs.uwosh.edu/novell/netdrive.htm) for converting your FTPaccount into a local drive. Once the FTP account is mapped into a localdrive (say as X:) you can transfer files to/from the server using theWindows file manager or normal DOS commands (like copy, xcopy and soon). .
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