BenBishop.me.uk

Box.net came onto the online storage scene in early 2005 but a few months back revamped their design and pretty much re-launched with justified fanfare.

For those that don’t know, Box.net offers 1GB of free online storage or for just $4.99 per month you can have up to 5GB. Seriously cheap storage so where’s they catch? Well there doesn’t seem to be one. I have used the service now for a fair few months both in professional capacity upgrading and troubleshooting systems (it’s much handier than a USB key when working remotely!) and from a personal point of view sharing files with friends and family. In this time I have only found the site to be unavailable once which was for pre-planned maintenance and both download and upload speeds have generally been good.

This isn’t the first online storage to become available but what they do, they do very well. Since the much needed re-design Box.net now has the interface and feel that compliments this reliable file storage service. What it lacks is the killer app to convince people of this valuable service which might not be immediately apparent….. fortunately this isn’t too far away!

I have been privileged to get my hands on a couple of early pre-releases of the ‘Box.net Desktop’, a small app that enables you to backup files to your account. Sitting fairly unobtrusively in the task bar the ‘Desktop’ can be scheduled to backup or ‘sync’ certain files or folders, acting as an automatic off site backup system.

The application also acts as an extension of the Box.net site in the form of a quick uploader that, as you can set it to load on start up, is always logged in and doesn’t require you open a browser to upload or share a file. Further the ability to check your capacity and access your account at the quick click of a button gives additional value to this little app.

Most importantly for this excellent service is how reliable the backup app seems even at this beta stage. This latest version is yet to crash through normal everyday use and the peace of mind with critical files stored offsite and accessible at any internet connection is invaluable.

While the ‘Desktop’ app is not finished yet, and no confirmed release date, it’s unlikely to be far off with this current feature set. With intuitive design, backing up turns into a 3 click process of adding a ‘sync’, selecting the folder and clicking ok to be safe in the knowledge it will be stored reliably offsite.

While well designed and easy to use, the system is still has the odd bug and UI issue though. For instance on booting, the app opens and requires you to close the window even when there is no other requirement for user intervention. Further there doesn’t seem to be a way to remove old ‘syncs’ that you have set up, only to alter what is being backed up. Perhaps most importantly is the upload speeds I am receiving, though passable as a backup running in the background, the speeds are significantly slower than when uploading through the website. These are relatively small issues though and hopefully will be simple to fix.

Essentially this ‘Desktop’ add-on for Box.net makes an already excellent and popular service quite simply priceless. Full credit should go to Aaron Levie and the team for the work they have done making this service as accessible as they have. If Box.net doesn’t already own the online file storage market upon release of this app they soon will.