Ta. Can you also get what you need from the web UI, if you tried that?

I do not believe there is a web UI. Files are simply shared with 2 or more computers using the hard disk space. So, if one of them runs out well, bye bye goes the syncing for that computer!

I personally am a big fan of sendspace. with the pro account you get 1.2  tb of space and absolutely perminant hosting with no file size limits, as opposed to I believe 10 gb space, 300 mb size limits and auto deletion after 30 days of no downloads on a free account.

the wizard program is extremely accessible and indeed the devs have added things like text labels. In addition to being a very good file browser in it's own right the wizard also is good for both downlods and uploads, and even holds the history if your net connection breaks or you turn off the computer. The wizard is available for windows and mac, though not Ios, though I don't know how the mac one works. The disadvantage with ss is that if your sharing files with people who aren't members, either they will get slower downloads, or you can use pro links of which you have 100 gb bandwidth a month to share.

As to shared folders, you can setup what is disconcertingly called a sendspace dropbox, whereby other people can upload to a folder you own, yu just give people the upload link.

That is the other thing I like about sendspace as opposed to dropbox, no need to go through complicated invite purposes or mess around with sharing folders, you just send the link to people you want to share stuff with and visa versa.

@Sebby

If you host anything in the cloud, always always encrypt locally and never depend on bogus privacy promises by online cloud providers.

By the way, BTSync is closed source and relies on Bittorrent's servers.

I don't think that Dropbox is more privacy unfriendly than any other online service.

There are several good reasons to ditch Dropbox -- not least its price, but privacy concerns is not one of them.

Have you tried Box.net or GoogleDrive?

These alternatives are not self-hosted, but they are cheaper and accessible. and integrate with ISO and Android devices.

@gellman: the primary objective is sync, followed closely by availability, and then sharing.

Regardless of the perils, sometimes storing unencrypted is necessary for convenience. My backups are already encrypted in Amazon S3 using Arq. That's really not an issue. iOS already has an ArqView client by which backups can be accessed remotely, but sharing is completely hobbled.

AFAICT BTSync is peer-to-peer; the BT servers are only required to mediate the connections. Of course, that's no excuse for it to be closed source. Naturally, if this were enough of a concern for me, well there's always an inotify watcher and rsync.

As to Dropbox not being any less privacy-sensitive than anyone else, see the link in the OP. Dunno about you, but having a war criminal with a fancy for surveillance is not my idea of a good candidate for a privacy advisor. Maybe she is a good choice, maybe she isn't, but I don't want to be on Dropbox when she sells us out.

My home Internet connection can theoretically support my needs and I have a Mac Mini that'll make a fine server, so in theory I should be set for BTSync. Plus, my data is my own. Naturally, there's always the risk of fire or flood, and sharing will be a bit slower …

Bitcasa is very slow, unfortunately. I don't know why this is, but without LAN sync of any kind it's not an option.

I have not tried box.net. Google Drive was unsatisfactory--no sync, only storage. There are CLI tools, but they only work on the subset of files that are not pulled in my Google Docs. And frankly I'm not so sure that Google is the right place anyway.

Edit: box.net has an accessible site, with less features (it's the mobile version).

Edit2: FiloSync looks wonderful, made by the same people that made Arq. It's also fucking expensive! Not a likely choice, then.

Edit3: Discard AeroFS for being costly. Arq and BTSync looks like where I'm going. This assumes the availability of my always-on Mac Mini. There is also a local copy, and all deleted files are saved by the headless client. Sharing has been significantly hampered, but on the plus side there is no unencrypted data in the cloud anymore. I think this is it.

Well Sebby it is true that sendspace is a file sharing rather than storage system, but there is no reason you can't use it for storage either, indeed I've done this myself on occasions, and abilities to create folders whererever and organize your files easily help with storage.

The only primary difference I could see between using sendspace and something like google drive is that I don't know what the download speeds are on those cloud systems, indeed Icloud at least lets you directly access online files so you can do things like stream media files from your cloud. Sendspace won't et you do that, if say i banged a folder of documents on sendspace I'd need to physically download it at the other end if I want to read them, but for me at least this hasn't been an issue, especially given the convenience of the ss wizard program.

@Socheat

2shared  has imposed several limitations, and is no longer any good.

You can now only download one file per day from an IP address, and this is bad even for free file hosts.

@Gellman
I haven't check 2shared for awhile, sorry.

Sendspace has a very privacy unfriendly policy.

There are previous threads about SS on Audiogames.net, and the policy is neither good for privacy nor the end user.

References:

site:audiogames.net"Very Angry with SendSpace!"

site:audiogames.net "cloud storage services"

site:audiogames.net "Accessible file sharing"

Please read these threads before paying for a Sendspace subscription.

Now that we have BTSync, Zippyshare, and GoogleDrive all for free I frankly don't understand why anyone would pay for a file sharing service.

@Sebby

Zippyshare is a great alternative for file sharing.

They offer a Windows only upload tool and captcha free downloads.

And best of all, you can automate transfers with Jdownloader, Myphony or another copypaste link download manager.

The only drawback is that there is no syncing and that all files must be split into 200 MB segments, but all this can be automated.

@Socheat

Mediafire is not very accessible.

you can download but the uploader is inaccessible.

There is a desktop application, but it's completely inaccessible.