DataShell: A New Backup & Storage System Accepting Bitcoin (Dropbox alternative)

[DataShell.co.uk]

..., a technical question: for large binary files, do you sync the complete file, or is there some smart partial differencing system (e.g. using hashes of 1MB blocks or whatever) to only upload the changed parts of a file?

Because I'd feel the urge to put a TrueCrypt container inside the DataShell folder, and backup that (to make sure I have the data security of client side encryption). But if I make a few small changes within a TrueCrypt volume of 1 GB, will it upload the entire volume, or just the changed parts?

So if you used a TrueCrypt volume it would upload the entire volume each time you made a change and our system keeps a log of up to 30 changes so you could then download which ever version of the TrueCrypt volume you wanted. Perfectly legitimate use of our service so far as we are concerned.

Hope that answers your question.

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[bigasic]

Ill give it a try...

[DataShell.co.uk]

Ill give it a try...

Done; please email your request including your username to: info@datashell.co.uk and our technical team will set you up an account.

Please can you post back a short review here so other members can get a feel for the service.

[knowitnothing]

Is it possible to do the backup without using your app ? Even if it is using some barely tested API or something equivalent. I would like to test this system, but mostly only if I don't need to rely on your app for it.

Can you tell what kind of storage you have right now ? These unlimited plans generally are not unlimited in practice, can you handle thousands of users submitting TBs of data every day (do you even have the bandwidth to support that?) ?

[DataShell.co.uk]

Is it possible to do the backup without using your app ? Even if it is using some barely tested API or something equivalent. I would like to test this system, but mostly only if I don't need to rely on your app for it.

Can you tell what kind of storage you have right now ? These unlimited plans generally are not unlimited in practice, can you handle thousands of users submitting TBs of data every day (do you even have the bandwidth to support that?) ?

You have to use our software; yes. This is to prevent people taking advantage of the way the storage works: the app will back up what you have in storage so if you have 10TB of HDD on one machine it will back that up, plus 30 lots of diffs. Changes can also be made offline then synchronised later.

We can handle very large data throughput no problem. We have some very reliable infrastructure behind the system: feel free to quiz the other trialist on the kinds of bandwidth they are getting.

[rampalija]

I need such a service now in fact! Count me in for the trial of avail.
...

I've forwarded your details to our technical support team who should email you your trial details shortly.

so it is possible to get trial?

[knowitnothing]

Is it possible to do the backup without using your app ? Even if it is using some barely tested API or something equivalent. I would like to test this system, but mostly only if I don't need to rely on your app for it.

Can you tell what kind of storage you have right now ? These unlimited plans generally are not unlimited in practice, can you handle thousands of users submitting TBs of data every day (do you even have the bandwidth to support that?) ?

You have to use our software; yes. This is to prevent people taking advantage of the way the storage works: the app will back up what you have in storage so if you have 10TB of HDD on one machine it will back that up, plus 30 lots of diffs. Changes can also be made offline then synchronised later.

What if I don't want to backup the entire disk ? Your answer gave me the impression that the app backup it entirely always. I also didn't understand what kind of advantage people could get by not using your app. It seems you are blindly trusting the client app, and that is clearly wrong.

Maybe you should include in your comparison table whether the service requires a closed source app to use it or not. Dropbox for instance has https://www.dropbox.com/developers/core and https://www.dropbox.com/developers/datastore. Why can't you provide such functionality ?

[DataShell.co.uk]

so it is possible to get trial?

All the free trials in this thread have now gone.

You can still take advantage of the introductory low price of 0.3BTC for the limited time that it lasts.

Or you are welcome to post to our thread on Reddit.com if you have more than 100 link kama as we have four free trials left there...

[Rluner]

If you still have a free trial space I would love to be included.

I'm a long term Dropbox user and Just Cloud user, so I may be hard to please.

Good luck with your venture.

Hi Rluner, we are limiting the five one month trials to Full Members or higher only. However you are welcome to post to our thread on Reddit.com if you have more than 100 link kama as we have four free trials left there. Or you can take advantage of our introductory offer price of 0.3BTC for the limited time that it lasts.

The services has been trialled with around fifty customers in the south of England who are all very happy with the service. You can also see posts from DiamondCardz who I believe is the first forum member to start using the service.

Yes I did notice your requirements tbh but I thought I`d ask in any case.

[bg002h]

Wow…Upload speeds are crazy fast (~2.8 MB/sec…likely limited on my end; see below). Program runs flawlessly in the background; no problems closing the laptop lid or rebooting.  It gracefully resumes where it got cut off. Functions similarly to Dropbox and allows the upload and download bandwidth to be limited independently.  So far very impressed.

[DataShell.co.uk]

We now have a shiny new website - DataShell.co.uk!

[knowitnothing]

We now have a shiny new website - DataShell.co.uk!

Have you re-considered the API yet ? Or at least open source the client app. This is not only better for me and others interested in knowing what your program is doing in our computers, it is better for you too. You are not improving your security or your service by hiding what the client does, and others might be interested in providing bug fixes for you.

I've looked into your new site and the pricing there doesn't specify the bill cycle. It says 0.3 and 0.8, but it doesn't mention whether it is one time payment, yearly, monthly, etc. You should update that and mention that it's a yearly payment. The pricing is still very good when compared to competitors, but not being able to have full control over the backups is a no go to me.

[DataShell.co.uk]

We now have a shiny new website - DataShell.co.uk!

Have you re-considered the API yet ? Or at least open source the client app. This is not only better for me and others interested in knowing what your program is doing in our computers, it is better for you too. You are not improving your security or your service by hiding what the client does, and others might be interested in providing bug fixes for you.

I've looked into your new site and the pricing there doesn't specify the bill cycle. It says 0.3 and 0.8, but it doesn't mention whether it is one time payment, yearly, monthly, etc. You should update that and mention that it's a yearly payment. The pricing is still very good when compared to competitors, but not being able to have full control over the backups is a no go to me.

Thanks for these comments; I have passed them back up to the design team as per your last post.

They are reviewing them and they will hopefully get considered for future releases, but I/they can't make any promises at this stage.

Thanks also for the comments about pricing cycle; I've passed your comments to our web dev, who will clarify it on the site.

[DataShell.co.uk]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. We have now compiled these into our FAQ.

[DataShell.co.uk]

Coindesk have just done this article about us.

[Mylon]

I would love to try this out, though for this to be of great use to me I would need a linux client. (preferably cli only)

Is there any kind of alpha linux client in the making?

[defxor]

All keys are held by DataShell

In a post-Snowden world that's just irresponsible. You have other competitors in Europe who do full client-side encryption which is the only form of encryption that satisfies the common sense of privacy.

[DataShell.co.uk]

Press released from our site:

Customers are actively leaving Dropbox to use our service, and reporting a better experience!

Relentless Software limited, a Brighton based games developer and one of our customers, have just moved away from Dropbox. They are not the first! But Relentless have said they are keen for us to blog about this as they are genuinely upset with the level of service they have received from Dropbox.

Yesterday Relentless shared a 1.4GB file with 400 of their customers using a Dropbox public link. Dropbox then suspended their account claiming they were using too much bandwidth.

We leapt to their aid, setting them up an account allowing them to share their files via DataShell. The whole service was up in minutes and with no limit on bandwidth Relentless can have as many customers as they want downloading at maximum speed.

"After sharing a file on Dropbox we found that within 24 hours our public sharing facility had been suspended. This could have caused a huge customer support problem as our customers began to complain about a broken link. However, Datashell was not only able to share the files instantly and with no limitation, but that we had no problems reported from our customers either." – Andy Eades, CEO, Relentless Software

Relentless have allowed us to share the file to readers of this article. It’s a windows version of their hit game Blue Toad Murder Files ‘The Mysteries of Little Riddle’. See here for a video trailer for the game or here to purchase a copy on iTunes. Or a full free windows version is available here hosted on our Datashell servers.

Users will be able to download this file an unlimited number of times because DataShell is a truly unlimited service.

Follow this link to access a free trial copy of this game and judge Datashell's download speeds for yourself.

Our intentional customers are consistently reporting excellent download and upload speeds. This is because our UK servers are peered with faster networks and have multiple entry points. DataShell is a truly unlimited service.

Join the revolution, join DataShell today.

[DataShell.co.uk]

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new service: DataShell Backup.

http://www.datashell.co.uk/products/

As promised, DataShell have been busy working on a number of new backup and storage solutions for our customers. Today we are proud to announce the launch of our new product DataShell Drive.

DataShell Drive is an extension to DataShell Backup; in addition to backing up all of the files on your computers DataShell Drive allows you to create a hard disk drive image that can be replicated across an unlimited number of computers.

The files are kept locally so access times are as fast as working normally on your computer. However, should you save a file onto your computer’s DataShell Drive it is immediately transferred to all other copies of your DataShell Drive on all other computers; meaning you’ll have identical copies of all your files at work, home, on your tablet etc.

There is no limit to how many DataShell Drives you can install – you are only limited by the number of computers and devices you have.

DataShell Drive also allows you to work on files whilst you are off-line and synchronise when you’re next online.

You can share anything stored on your DataShell Drive with other people. To share publically you can give anyone a URL to allow unlimited downfalls of file you want to share. To share privately you can create a private URL with a username and password.

The standard DataShell Drive comes with 500GB storage per year and can be upgraded with additional segments of 500GB up to 2TB in total.