And all my files are out there...

Well, virtually speaking. I've been bumping up against a number of "remote storage" solutions lately, and would like to round them up.

To start with, a friend of mine introduced me to iBackup, a service which exposes a shared folder via WebDAV, FTP, Web Browser, or installed client application. It works pretty darn well. So well in fact, that I had to investigate further into WebDAV. I found out that it is a form of network shared folders that works on most systems, but in windows, depends on IE6. I had to put up my own WebDAV server to share files between my home, work, and my girlfriend's school computer lab. (It paid off the next day when she asked me to drive her project files down to the school for her. LOL) But if you don't have a server of your own, iBackup is a cheap, useful system. Another feature of Windows Server 2003 caught my eye while I was working on my new server: Shadow file copies. A great feature which basically makes automatic backup copies of your files every few hours, but leaves the files on your hard drive. You access the files via a built-in "Previous Versions" function in Windows XP. (in the right click menu) This too saved her a few hours of work only a few days after I set it up. But I said remote access. So here's a few other juicy tidbits.

Probably the one that's been on the market longest is the Buffalo TerraStation. Non-Upgradable, non-expandible. It comes in only 2 configurations (BIG and BIGGER), and offers the best price per gig. It uses 4 drives configurable up to RAID5. It dosn't integrate with Active Directory, but it does with NT Domains....gee. can we say ... um... Old Skool! Where'd they get the firmware? Any administration at all has to be done via their web interface (users, access rights, etc). But the good news is that the storage is easy to access via almost any system.

Stepping on down the line, NetGear has their new little SC101 storage enclosure. It comes with no drives, and can Span or mirror up to 2 drives. Unfortunately, it's really picky about the IDE drives that it is compatible with. (Works with drives from any vendor....but only ATA6 IDE drives ... which not many are) It's cheap, and you can get it on Amazon for only $130. nice. But only 2 drives is very limiting. It's also Windows-Only, and requires client software to be able to access it. After the software is installed, it's just another mapped drive.

Now for the jewl. The Infrant ReadyNAS X6. OMG I want one. There's NOTHING wrong with it. Compatible with Windows, Linux, Mac, even Web Browsers and FTP. It works with Active Directory (optional) and supports a number of different standard network security systems. It comes in a number of different configurations, and is fully expandable and upgradable. It even has expandable X-RAID. It can also pull files off your digital camera, or host network printers. VERY NICE. Oh, did I mention it can do snapshot file backups and one-button backup to a USB drive, etc? Oh.. hehehe.. one more thing... It's the only acceptable solution I've found that uses SATA drives. ;)

And the best is saved for last. Microsoft just announced that they purchased a company known as FolderShare. This is really interesting stuff. I'm still trying to wrap my head arround it. Basically it's a mapped network drive that you can search from your desktop. Other users can map it too. Files can get syncronized between systems automatically, and if your machine dosn't have the file yet, then it can get the file P2P-style from other users. It's a huge distributed file system. Gee.. if Microsoft combines that with WinFS, they'll have something to rival even ... I can't even find a rival...