I would like to throw this out to the community for a little guidance.
In the last year my wife and I jumped on the tablet bandwagon and are very happy with our respective Android tablets for regular email and web surfing from the couch. In our house we also have a Linux laptop where I do a lot of work and such as well as a Windows Vista box I have basically made a file and media machine (hay it's been good to me).
So now it has become time to do some easy sharing and syncing across all these machines and installing a personal cloud server on the Vista box seems like what I need to do. I have looked at ownCloud and Tonido so far which both look similar but require the enterprise or paid versions for mobile sync apps although they do both have free regular access clients. So before I start spending money, as the sync is important to me, I would like to ask my fellow Soylerantes..um Soylas..uhh.. Soylanistas.. have you had any luck with personal cloud servers and specifically have you got one syncing with Android?
(Score: 2, Informative) by tftp on Tuesday January 20 2015, @02:34AM
No, exactly for the reasons that you outlined. I have an ownCloud server, and it has an API that, theoretically, people can use to write clients. However the few clients that I saw on Play Store were either commercial, or adware. As I dislike adware and don't use it, that was the end of it. Maybe one day I will find time to write a F/OSS client. But I'm very busy.
Currently I'm using Dropbox + Boxcryptor (a free version for 2 computers.) Boxcryptor can use other cloud storage as well. The free version does not encrypt file names, but I let "them" know (or think that they know) what e-books I read. They can't say what's inside those files anyway. Dropbox and Boxcryptor have free (as beer) clients, and no ads. They are also nicely integrated into the Linux filesystem on the Android tablet.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TheRaven on Tuesday January 20 2015, @11:38AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 1) by GeminiDomino on Tuesday January 20 2015, @02:21PM
I came to say just this. It looks confusing because you have the "official" (pay) OwnCload mobile client in the Play Store, then the free one in F-Droid. I've been using it for about 9 months on my TF700 and it works fine.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
(Score: 1) by tftp on Wednesday January 21 2015, @12:34AM
Thank you (and the other poster) for the link. ownCloud.{com,org} do not advertise F-Droid and do not say anything about a F/OSS client. The only subtle hint I found was here [owncloud.org], and it says:
I would say this is intentionally phrased, as they are selling the commercial client on Play Store for the princely sum of $0.99. It certainly fooled me, as I was not looking for sources, so my mind skipped this vague phrase.
I have the F/OSS client installed from F-Droid now, and it works. So after this post on SN I have not one, but suddenly three personal clouds.
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Tuesday January 20 2015, @06:26PM
I also run owncloud, and use the f-droid owncloud client on Android... Works great for me (as well as having web access and desktop access on linux, bsd, and windows workstations)...
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @03:10AM
You can get the Android client for Owncloud from f-droid.org . As far as I know it's free if you look further than the play store.
(Score: 2) by sigma on Tuesday January 20 2015, @05:18AM
I second the use of f-droid for FOSS Android apps.
For personal cloud-style file sharing, you can also try Bittorrent Sync, Seafile, AeroFS and/or SparkleShare. They all have varying degrees of utility across OP's platforms.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @03:17AM
http://www.tweaktown.com/guides/5966/build-your-own-cloud-with-qnap-network-attached-storage/index4.html [tweaktown.com]
But it seems you need an account on www.myqnapcloud.com
Perfect for NSA snooping...
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday January 20 2015, @03:39AM
Quinn Abercromby: What do we do when we are awake?
The Children: Keep both eyes on the sky.
Quinn Abercromby: What do we do when we sleep?
The Children: Keep one eye on the sky.
Quinn Abercromby: What do we do when we see them?
The Children: Dig hard, dig deep, go for shelter, and never look back.
Reign of Fire http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0253556/quotes [imdb.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by gnuman on Tuesday January 20 2015, @03:50AM
That's just a server, not a cloud. If you install some application for syncing, that's just a service running on your server. Some would also call such a service a "syncing server".
(Score: 2) by SuperCharlie on Tuesday January 20 2015, @03:59AM
Actually I do want "Cloud" and as such there are a few more bits to the puzzle. One is an http server on the Vista machine, then Dynamic DNS. I had wrongly assumed that ownCloud had an inherent webserver. It does not, it is more of a web application than a server. I am finding out that Tonido appears to come with the webserver built in. The end game is to have my own dropbox, available anywhere I have internet..like.. the coffee shop across town or my friends house, or on my local network, from all my devices and for my wife as well. I understand my original post may sound like I just need a syncing file server.. but what I am really after is cloud storage and syncing on my machine under my control.
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Tuesday January 20 2015, @04:12AM
but what I am really after is cloud storage and syncing on my machine under my control.
Try WebDAV and rsync.
(Score: 2) by SuperCharlie on Tuesday January 20 2015, @04:25AM
This is interesting.. can my Vista machine run as a webdav server and be accessible over the internet? I would guess by ip or dynamic dns? I see there are many different clients for my various devices.. this looks promising...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @05:42AM
Call it what you want, but it will not be a Cloud until there is a user transparent array of redundant servers. You know, those cloud things on network diagrams that gave "The Cloud" its name. Without that, then it is just a simple server. Really not even as advanced as a mainframe.
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Tuesday January 20 2015, @06:29AM
I call it the elastic grid, and invite you to do the same. This "Butt" I keep reading about... I don't understand why half of the web is resorting to obscenities for the last couple of years.
(Score: 2) by pe1rxq on Tuesday January 20 2015, @03:28PM
Thanks for the invitation, but I will continue to call it 'marketing bullshit' for now.
There are a few things where 'cloud' can actually mean something, but most of the time it just means that stuff which was labeled 'web 2.0' for no good reason is relabeled yet again.
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Tuesday January 20 2015, @04:00PM
Well actually it's just like the definition of grid computing with the added "benefit" of transparent resource provisioning. I.e. you don't know what your stuff runs on, at least in the case of public Butts.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by GeminiDomino on Tuesday January 20 2015, @02:28PM
Call it what you want, but it will not be a Cloud until there is a user transparent array of redundant servers. You know, those cloud things on network diagrams that gave "The Cloud" its name
Actually, that cloud icon on network diagram never had anything to do with a "user transparent array of redundant servers." What gave the cloud its name was some marketing whore looking at a network diagram, where the cloud icon basically means "outside our network", and thinking that was a great name to sell insecure, bug-laden crap to the mundanes.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday January 20 2015, @06:08AM
Why not just look into a WDMyCloud or WDMyCloudMirror and forget all the heartache of setting something up?
When you get done with your software struggles you will have to make compromises, and will invariably end up with a lashup, a just so story, where everything is just one update away from falling apart.
So buy a compromise, since you will end up with one anyway?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday January 20 2015, @09:17AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by doublerot13 on Tuesday January 20 2015, @04:04AM
owncloud and seafile have sync apps on android. try both and see which one you like.
(Score: 2) by SuperCharlie on Tuesday January 20 2015, @04:11AM
Hadnt run across seafile yet.. thanks for the headsup.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Tuesday January 20 2015, @06:12AM
Just tried seafile. I installed it on Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS. It seems to work through the browser. The Android client contains a nasty bug: it does not accept spaces in the password. Once that was changed, I was able to connect. Not a top notch software, judging by this and by the server installation process, but I guess it matches the price.
(Score: 1) by radu on Tuesday January 20 2015, @08:07AM
Maybe I misunderstood but seafile seems to be yet another dropbox or whatever "x GB free" you get anywhere nowadays. Why is this relevant?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @09:04AM
At first glance it looks like an open source server and client letting you set up your own server and sync with that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @04:27AM
I always thought the term was 'soylentils'?
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Tuesday January 20 2015, @06:31AM
It's just "lentils." Stop fooling yourself.
(Score: 2) by threedigits on Tuesday January 20 2015, @09:04AM
Not "just lentils", there's also the "soy" part :-P
You can even call it "lentils with tofu".
(Score: 1) by Soybean on Wednesday January 21 2015, @12:52AM
> tofu
Soybeans.
(Score: 1) by Shimitar on Tuesday January 20 2015, @06:11AM
Long time user if ownCloud here.
Free as in beer and as in speech....
On android I use the free davdroid from fdroid to synch calendar and contacts, and I use any Webdav client to copy files. My favourite is not FOSS but this is just my personal like.
Never had an issue in years...specially with the smooth auto update.
Coding is an art. No, java is not coding. Yes, i am biased, i know, sorry if this bothers you.
(Score: 2) by toygeek on Tuesday January 20 2015, @08:17AM
I disagree. I had nothing but problems with OC and lost data due to it. I encrypted everything, and it randomly refused to decrypt files. I lost those files.
There is no Sig. Okay, maybe a short one. http://miscdotgeek.com
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Tuesday January 20 2015, @08:37AM
I use ownCloud at home. I use it to sync my calendar and contacts between my wifes iPhone and my Android. I also wanted to move away from Google Calendar and other third party hosted apps. My wife has since moved to an Android. I use CardDav-Sync [google.com] and CalDav-Sync [google.com] on my phone.
As for syncing files, I use a Synology DiskStation NAS that is accessible from the outside world, and that is used to store all my files.
The Synology has it's own apps for accessing files.
My very short blog post about Synology is here http://myrandomthoughts.co.uk/2014/12/synology-diskstation/, [myrandomthoughts.co.uk] I'll write one about installing ownCloud at some point, I have a long list of home-lab topics I want to write about. :)
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday January 20 2015, @11:42AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @08:38AM
Their offerings are terrible. I speak from experience with GoFlex.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @08:56AM
I have been using ownCloud for about two years now. I've got myself, my roomies, and my girlfriend all set up with accounts running off a server in our living room. My girlfriend uses it sync files across her Macbook Pro, her iMac, and her Android phone. I use it to sync files across my Firefox phone, my Chromebook running Bodhi Linux, and my Desktop which dual-boots a Debian derivative and Windows 7. I have used it to share files and collaborate on projects with others (collaboratively laying out a publication in Scribus). My roommate uses it to store, edit, and share his podcast. I can create and save an ODF file on my Bodhibook, it will sync to all of my devices, and from the Web interface I can share it with others by their ownCloud username or just by sending them an email. When the person I have shared the ODF file makes an edit, it will sync with all of my devices as well, I can even set it up to notify me when there is "activity" from a file. l As others have pointed out, the Android client is available for free from f-droid. ownCloud 7, the latest version, also features a nice responsive redesign that looks (and works) great from a mobile web browser.
Just the fact that ownCloud gives a person no-fuss versioning on all types of files is a tiny miracle itself. My girlfriend, for instance, has been familiar with versioning and aware of tools like Git but doesn't have the technical know-how to set it up for herself so that she has automatic n-to-n backups of files. ownCloud does this and many more things right out of the box. If you're coming from Dropbox or Google Drive, you can easily synchronize existing accounts with ownCloud.
(Score: 1) by Yenya on Tuesday January 20 2015, @09:08AM
I have been using Baikal http://baikal-server.com/ [baikal-server.com] for some time now. It is pretty minimalistic (compared to Owncloud), and works with CalDAV-sync/CardDAV-sync from f-droid, and also with Evolution. It can use a local storage in sqlite, so it does not require a separate MySQL instance.
It does not do file sharing, though (which I don't need, I use rsync-over-ssh for that). It also does not support shared calendars with read-only or busy-only access for some users.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @10:21PM
ownCloud default install runs sqlite out-of-the-box.
(Score: 1) by hlosnian on Tuesday January 20 2015, @10:35AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @11:09AM
i just recommended a samsung tablet to a friend after they got a credit-card virus on their vista computer.
i'm in the process of "fixing" the vista computer (not a easy feat if the bios doesn't have usb-cdrom boot option and the internal DVD-drive is shot).
anyways i would recommend to say on the tablet route but get a real life server.
for server software i recommend vmware esxi which is free for home use.
once you got your head wrapped around how that works you can install any operating and application on it and access it from the tablet.
instead of dedicating a whole CPU/computer to one operating system, the esxi barebone hypervisor will allow you to run multiple x86 operating system at the same time and the snapshotting feature is a real life saver.
obviously SAMBA on a solid linux distro would be the first choice for a file server and for remote access -aka- VPN openVPN springs to mind.
both SAMBA and openVPN have client software for android: ES file explorer can do samba shares and theirs openVPN from google play store.
also bit-torrent can run on the esxi and you can play with tor and other "stuff".
a laptop w/ a VT enabled CPU and 2 (or more) USB3.0 (for external HDD) ports can be a good "home esxi" solution (UPS/battery built-in).
USB 3.0 enabled external harddisks that get power thru USB go up to 2 TB today.
good luck!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Geezer on Tuesday January 20 2015, @12:16PM
This. I say cloud, schmoud. Set up your own bare-bones synch server, administer it securely, and tell the adware peddlers and TLA's to kiss it.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday January 20 2015, @03:22PM
I'm not a fan of the overuse of the term "cloud" to simply describe a remote server backup/sync service...however, the reality is that very few people are going to be able to admin one with the same degree of security the really good sync/backup companies do. It's no different from the situation with personal websites: a hell of a lot of them, particularly self-installed blogs like WordPress, aren't properly hardened and eventually end up falling victim to attacks.
So *if* somebody truly has the skills to administer a server and keep the whole mess properly hardened against the latest attacks, then sure, go for it... For most people like me, it's a hell of a lot wiser to go with a pro service that has an excellent security reputation. (I use a free SpiderOak account, and I'm certain I'll never come even *near* their skills.)
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday January 21 2015, @12:34PM
So your solution will fall victim to systemd-linux and be dependent on the blessing of VmWare. If your discs happens to work the USB cable will glitch or it's complex protocol stack will mess up.
I suggest BSD, KVM and S-ATA..
(Score: 2) by cmn32480 on Tuesday January 20 2015, @12:55PM
I know you want to do this off the Vista box, but Snyology has some reasonably priced NAS hardware with some great capabilities, including syncing from outside. http://www.synology.com/ [synology.com]
I have had one up and running for several years with almost no maintenance time (other than logging in to update the OS). There are plugins for things like syncing to the device, anti-virus, Directory services, and a host of others.
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20 2015, @05:24PM
Why have a pc cloud when your router might do it all for you.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday January 21 2015, @12:31PM
Most router software lack the security...............
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Tuesday January 20 2015, @06:14PM
Sometimes it just isn't worth it to roll your own. Actually managing another server, keeping up with security updates, doing backups. Man, I do enough of that already, that's what commercial services are for.
I migrated to Dropbox with EncFS a couple of years ago, and am very happy with the combination. EncFS is OSS, and there are clients both for Android and for Linux. The basic idea is:
- Use Dropbox as normal, for unencrypted content.
- Create a subdirectory in Dropbox called ".encrypted" (or whatever you like, it doesn't matter)
- EncFS is tied to the subdirectory, and mounted at a specific mountpoint (I used ~/DropboxData).
- Use your files normally
The encryption/decryption is entirely transparent, you never need to even think about it. The only catch is: when I log in under Linux I have to enter two passwords: one for the login and one to decrypt the encrypted subdirectory. You could store your password to eliminate this, but I find that too insecure.
For Android it's not quite as easy:
- Use the Dropbox client, as normal
- Open the "Cryptonite" app whenever you need access to something in the encrypted directory.
- Export files (unencrypted) to some temporary spot, in order to work on them
- Re-import the files to Cryptonite, if they have changed
- Delete the unencrypted files from wherever you put them
It sounds painful, but it's really not - how often do you edit files on your phone? For stuff like photos, I leave them in the unencrypted part of Dropbox anyway, because automatic uploads aren't going to work through Cryptonite.
To be fair, I want to mention one disadvantage of this whole arrangement: Restoring previous versions is a PITA. I accidentally overwrote a file a few weeks ago, and only noticed this after it had synced to all of my computers. Because EndFS not only encrypts the contents, but also the directory and file names, finding and restoring that file from a previous version in Dropbox was non-trivial. If I had accidentally screwed up a bunch of files, it would have been really painful.
Yes, of course you shouldn't rely on Dropbox as a backup solution. However, it does offer a nice versioning system - it's convenient, except for encrypted files...
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.