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Home hosted cloud storage options?


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Hi!

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience setting up their own home connection hosted 'cloud' syncing setup like Dropbox. I have a 20mbps downstream and a 6mbps upstream connection that I would like to utilize. I've already setup a dyndns and am quite comfortable with forwarding ports. Currently I have an SSH/SFTP server setup. Are there any SFTP 'syncing' programs that are worth trying out? Something cross platform (Mac OS/Windows) perferably.

Thanks

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I would look to something like https://aerofs.com/ vs using sftp syncing programs

Or http://owncloud.org/ or even http://www.tonido.com/

What do you want to use your "cloud" for - access while your away, syncing to say your laptop, ipad, other tablets, smart phones. Your buddies machine, etc?

Those are just a few off the top of my head, there are plenty of products out there how to create your own cloud on your own network, be it something like http://www.gluster.org which is distributed filesystem or the examples above that are more geared towards home users and running their own clouds to sync storage between their devices without using something like dropbox or box or skydrive, googledrive, etc.

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Thanks BudMan!

 

Basically I want to be a cheap ****** and have something setup like Dropbox but with 100+GB of storage (and no monthly fee).  Essentially keep a folder on my Windows laptop at work synchronized with my home Windows desktop and my home MacBook Pro.  I'd also like to be able to get to the files via my iPhone and iPad.

 

But I like the Dropbox-esque "sync" approach as oppose to say the mapped network drive approach.

 

I don't really need the more advanced file sharing features dropbox has.  One thing I like about sftp is it is universal.  I can use GoodReader on my iPhone to access an sftp account for example.


One other note:

 

I'm currently using an old G4 Mac Mini as my server.  Its a PowerPC.  I'd like to find a solution that uses it because I'm a sucker for re-purposing old computers.  It runs just fine and I don't see it being an issue for what is essentially a single user system.  It also hosts my ventrillo server, timemachine backups, and a network printer.

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Well I would think areoFS should work out great for you.. It supports

OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard and later

What is your G4 Mac Mini running?

Such a system is going to be much easier to setup and maintain then a sftp based sync anything. Not a huge MAC hardware user, I have a VM running OSX, and an Ipad.. But thats about my limit of using apple - can your G4 run another OS if its not capable of 10.6? Can you run linux on it for example. Can you run a VM on it, and then run the aeroFS software in a VM, etc.

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AeroFS doesn't support PowerPC.  Latest OS X for PowerPC is Leopard which is what I have installed (10.5).  It looks like Gluster will probably work.  Still figuring it out though.

 

I think there are some Linux and BSD distros that support PowerPC.  Darwin is already BSD. Not sure if I want to go that route because the TimeMachine backups work best over AFP (Apple's SMB you could say).

 

Thanks!

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I'm not sure Gluster is the best option either :(.  Seems more geared towards pooling a bunch of drive space together into a mega drive than synchronizing files and being available while offline.

 

AeroFS seems like the best choice but doesn't support PPC.  Doesn't look like the other ones either.  Damn.

 

Meh, none of my other machines are dedicated 24 hour online machines.  The Mac Mini works well for that purpose.

 

Why do you not recommend going with an sftp solution?  File sync integrity or just more limited feature set when compared to these others?

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I have never seen a IPad app that works like dropbox via sftp.. If you have one then sure.. go for it.

Another option if you don't have hardware you can run linux/bsd/windows on - get a pogoplug, instant your own cloud - just plug in disks. I got mine for $25 ;) Or pickup a raspberry pi again about $35 bucks..

Your issues with support for your hardware/OS, is part of the reason I never got into apple.. There are just cheaper ways and more support hardware out there.. Don't get me wrong, if the price wouldn't have been so prohibitive I would of loved to play with some of their boxes.. But when I could pick up a box for half the price and run whatever I wanted to on it -- no thanks ;) Good luck though.

Cant you just run a VM on your mini, and run the cloud software in the VM??

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AeroFS is great. I switched to it from Dropbox a couple of months ago (I much prefer being in control of my own data :P). I have the server running on my "runs everything else" debian vm (uses about 15MB of ram when idle), and the syncing is great (even with my crappy 5mbps upload speed).

 

You can easily run AeroFS in a VM on your mini, it's a server, it's meant to be used!

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I'll give it a try, Brian.  I suppose you are right in that if I'm running a VM with just Debian in a console it really shouldn't be cutting into my system performance too much.  Still, its only a PowerPC G4 at 1.2GHz with only 1GB of ram....

 

Right now I have setup a freeware program called FullSync which is SFTP syncing.  It seems to be working OK and was easy enough to setup.  I would like there to be other features, however, such as file sharing.  I'll give it a shot!

 

I'm thinking I'll use VirtualBox since I don't want to spend any money! :D

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OwnCloud?

 

We use it to distribute software to customers over the web - works well, although we do have a 1GIG circuit :shiftyninja:

 

http://owncloud.org/

 

Desktop sync client has been greatly improved recently.

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Are there any iOS apps for AeroFS?  I'm not seeing any.

 

Seems like SFTP is a better option for me since SFTP is so universally supported.  GoodReader, probably the best PDF and Document reader for iOS, support SFTP syncing so that is a plus.  I'm thinking of setting up Mollify (http://www.mollify.org/screenshots.php) as a type of web browser file manager/file sharer.

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I run mollify myself on a box I have in the UK, nice product very happy with it.

 

How well does it handle sharing files?  Like if I want to share a PDF file via a link that I email someone.  It says it is supported but I was wondering how well it is supported and is it secure "enough".  It would be nice if URL shortening was an option.  Thanks for your input.

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I don't use it like that, so not sure - I create users for my son and couple of friends. They are very limited in computer skills, a web gui where they just click on the file and pick download was easiest option for them.

In this sense it works great!!

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Bleh.  FullSync using sftp isn't working out for me that well.  It destroyed a 450MB file.  The good news it told me it was destroyed.  Lol.  Good thing I haven't fully started trusting it yet.  Whats more is I'm trying to delete the file to start over, but my deletions are being transferred at all.  Instead FullSync just recopies half the file back to the folder.  X).  Oh well.  VirtualBox, Debian, AeroFS: Here I come!

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Yeah that hardware you got is great isn't it ;) Sorry but couldn't help myself, sell it in a garage sale and get something you can actually run stuff on...

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I have never seen a IPad app that works like dropbox via sftp.. If you have one then sure.. go for it.

Another option if you don't have hardware you can run linux/bsd/windows on - get a pogoplug, instant your own cloud - just plug in disks. I got mine for $25 ;) Or pickup a raspberry pi again about $35 bucks..

Your issues with support for your hardware/OS, is part of the reason I never got into apple.. There are just cheaper ways and more support hardware out there.. Don't get me wrong, if the price wouldn't have been so prohibitive I would of loved to play with some of their boxes.. But when I could pick up a box for half the price and run whatever I wanted to on it -- no thanks ;) Good luck though.

Cant you just run a VM on your mini, and run the cloud software in the VM??

 

Liking OwnCloud based on a small amount of playing today, besides there not being any clear install instructions and it being written in written in PHP - in this day and age people?

 

Are there any free Android apps for it - just whilst evaluating it? I would prefer not to pay for an app for software I am just evaluating.

 

Anyway, if I am to get serious about this, I best think about setting up a DMZ and getting a static IP address - going to be a cool project!

 

As for AeroFS, not sure why you have to register - isn't it free?

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aerofs for 1-3 users is free, but you register because they handle login, etc.

What do you mean by handle login? Do all logins go through their servers?

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yeah their servers manage the connections between your boxes.. Their services is what makes it simple for users to use.

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Yeah that hardware you got is great isn't it ;) Sorry but couldn't help myself, sell it in a garage sale and get something you can actually run stuff on...

 

This thing has run well for the past 8 years and supports a lot of open standards.  It works great as a Time Machine backup server for my wife and my laptops and a print server.  It also works well with ventrillo serving, which BTW is only PPC and must go through Rosetta emulation on Intel Macs.  PPC isn't popular anymore so newer software is harder to find.  I get it.  But this thing is lean and mean; it does plenty of stuff perfectly fine.  I wouldn't want to sell it just yet.  Probably give it away before I sold it. (It's so old, I doubt its worth much anyway). 

 

I hardly regret the original investment in the hardware.

 

I'll probably upgrade eventually but for now I'm just trying to see what all I can get out of it.

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