The Internet evolves on a daily basis. Not only do new websites appear (and disappear!) frequently, but even the way we use the 'net changes frequently. Much of this evolution is driven by the new high-speed connections that cable modems and DSL provide. The concept of your home PC being an isolated computer in your home or office is changing to a more network aware view.
One area that I believe has matured lately can be categorized as "Personal Information Management". There are now many websites that allow you to store and manage personal information and data files. Some of these websites are devoted to particular types of files, such as photo storage. I would like to focus in this column on the storage of general files. Why?
Let me be frank here. Getting my clients to backup their critical data is similar to getting my young grandson to take his bath, and they are just as childish about it! Nobody wants to take the time to do it. Also, one of the stumbling blocks on the road to good backup is that people don't have a good medium to save the data on. Backup hardware can be expensive; backing up to floppy disks is cheap but just not practical with today's large file sizes.
If you have a high speed Internet connection, there are now free online services that allow you to store and retrieve data directly on the Internet. Three of the more popular are X-Drive (www.xdrive.com), i-drive (www.i-drive.com) and Driveway (www.driveway.com). These services give you 10-50 MB of data storage for free, and its easy to use - just log on to their website and you will have tools to upload, download, and manage your data. With some systems you can also have the Internet data appear as if it were another drive on your PC and you can then use the standard Windows Explorer to move files around.
If you need more storage than the amount given for free, you can enlarge your storage for a fee.
10-50 MB is not a lot of storage. You are certainly not going to do a full backup of your multi-gigabyte hard drive, and even with a high-speed Internet connection it would not be practical. But for just backing up your document files it's just the ticket. It is also good to store backups of your data off-site in case of a fire or hurricane. Storing data on the Internet provides this capability.
Another aspect of online storage is collaboration. If you are working with some other people on a document or proposal, you can store the document online and then all the people in your group can access it easily, even if they are continents apart. The online systems provide the capability to control access to your data to prevent unauthorized access.
To look at the available sites offering file storage, see the Yahoo category "Business and Economy > Shopping and Services > Communication and Information Management > Internet and World Wide Web > Personal Information Management > File Hosting".
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. He has no affiliation with any of the companies mentioned in this column. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at BSC@bobseidel.com).