Online File Storage and Sharing

  • Buffer
  • Sharebar
  • Buffer
jethro's picture

MPj04223160000[1]We have been reviewing a number of online storage solutions for file sharing. So far we have looked at Eat Lime (see our review), Box.net and Windows Sky drive, and in recent days the Windows Live Office option. However We have found a varying degree of success for each of these.

Today I want to ask you to try and connect to each of my public areas and see which is the easiest to use from your perspective. I have the same file in each place. Let me know in the comments.

I have also added some commentary here on each of the main functions of the systems.

 

Uploading files

EatLime seems to work really well and enables you to keep right on working while uploading files.

Windows Live Skydrive  makes you wait while files upload - I gave up eventually on some of them.

Office Live Workspace is frustrating. I am able to upload via the net (sometimes), but the connection inside office 2007 just fails every time I try and use it and the troubleshooting doesn't help. You don't have to wait while uploading but it doesn't give a progress bar or statistic. Failures on upload are reported but not the reason why.

Box.net - makes you wait while files are uploading, gives you a progress bar so you can see how it is going.

Integration with Office

Eatlime doesn't integrate.

Windows Live Sydrive doesn't integrate.

Office live workspace is supposed to integrate right into office, and I certainly get the open from and save to office live options. however I cannot use them - it fails to connect to the shared workspace. Don't know why.

Box.net integrates via an addin. This allows you to save from Office to Box Net but not open a file.

Accessing Files

EatLime - easy to download, but not intuitive - requires a popup though which I didn't like.

Windows Live Skydrive - easy to download single click

Office Live Workspace - unable to download or open on the site, and the office connector refused to connect so I couldn't open there either. I could preview online.

Box.net - Easy to download - single click.

Public Accessibility

This is your opportunity to let me know how you find this. Download the file from the links below - it is a word document. Let me know how easy this was please.

EatLime

Windows Live Skydrive

Office Live Workspace - There is no public sharing available, but you can share workspaces or documents with other windows live users. I haven't tested this yet.

Box.net

 

Summary

I will reserve my conclusions at the moment and publish them after more trial and the results from the public accessibility feedback.

Comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Matt's picture

Hey Tim, Had a look at each

Hey Tim,

Had a look at each of them.

EatLime:
I could not get it to load. I couldn't get their home page to load either. I gather it is down at the moment.

Windows Live Skydrive:
Works, reasonably simple, reasonably quick.

Box.net:
A little slow to load, but download speed is reasonable. Simple and makes sense.

jethro's picture

thanks matt do you want to

thanks matt
do you want to try eatlime again - its up now... don't know what happened there?
cheers

amanda's picture

I downloaded the file from

I downloaded the file from all three links ( EatLime, Windows Live Skydrive and Box.net), didn't have any trouble from any of them. All downloaded really quickly and didn't give me any trouble.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.