A Free and Easy Way to Share Files Between Multiple Computers and Users

Have you ever gone home from work and needed to work on a file that is only available on your work computer? Or maybe you needed to share a file with someone, but every time you email it to them it gets bounced back because it is too big? If so, then DropBox may be a good (and FREE) solution for you.

I have one computer that I use at work, one at home, a laptop that I travel with, and even a smart phone which can send and receive emails and can be used to view and edit documents in a pinch. The problem is that documents I create on one system aren’t readily available on the others. Past solutions to this problem included emailing the files to myself, copying them to a USB thumb drive, or connecting to a VPN at my office and copying the files to my server, but none of those are really convenient.

A better solution is to sign up for a free account with DropBox.com. Simply visit www.dropbox.com and sign up for an account with up to 2GB of free storage. Additional storage is available for a fee ($9.99 per month for 50GB, and $19.99 per month for 100GB).

The DropBox service works on Mac, PC, and Linux based computers. It even works on the iPhone, iPad, and Google Android devices. You simply download and install the free software on your computer or mobile device, enter in your username and password, and you are all set. It creates a DropBox folder and any files that you place in that folder will automatically be synced to all of your computers and devices that have DropBox installed.

Not only does this allow you to access your DropBox files from all of your devices, but it also allows you to setup folders that you can share with other users. Sharing is easy and can be done with a few clicks. Any changes are immediately updated so that all users can see them. It is a great way to collaborate and share files that are either too numerous or too large for email.
 
If you need yet another reason, DropBox is also a great way to backup your files. Any files that you save to your DropBox folder are automatically uploaded to the secure DropBox servers on the Internet. They even offer revision control, so if you save a change to a document and then later think better of it, you can use their tools to recover the original version. I backup my Quickbooks and Quicken files to my DropBox folder and VOILA – free online backup!

DropBox really is a great way to backup and share files, and the free version includes 2GB of storage. You have nothing to lose, so what are you waiting for? www.dropbox.com. Contact us today to speak with a computer support specialist in our Ann Arbor office today!