OneDrive delivers unlimited cloud storage to Office 365 Office

lparsons21 said:

I have great down for the home at 50Mbps, but the 5Mbps up speed is a tad slow for really big files.

Fortunately for me most of my files tend to be not so big. And if I have some really big one to upload, I just start that when I head to bed.

Your 5 Mbps is totally OK to set up cloud service for your most important data. The idea is to let the computers upload and sync when bandwidth is available. Move or copy the files to cloud folder and let it take as long as it takes. They will be all the time available on local computer and on cloud whenever the upload / sync is finished.

The situation changes if you with your 5 Mbps upload speed were using a NAS and you would need a larger file when away from home. At that point your home broadband upload limit becomes the download speed limit, the fastest you can get data from your NAS. Whereas 5 Mbps upload is totally enough to maintain a cloud service and keep copies of important files, documents and pictures alike, on cloud, it will be slow to get files from NAS when on the road and the need arises.

A cloud when used as it is intended to be used (talking now about private users) works in the background without you even noticing it. My Windows Phone is set to upload all the photos and videos I take and make automatically to OneDrive; of course I know that if I record a half an hour high resolution video, it will not be on cloud a second after I have pressed the stop and save buttons. But it will be there, tomorrow or next week.

Talking about speed, mine is only 60down/10up. I just recently shared the 3.70GB Build 9860 ISO to a forum friend in North Carolina (I am in Toronto) direct from my NAS. The recipient in N. Carolina said it only took him less than an hour to download the ISO. Not bad I guess.

The main issue I see with NAS and other servers being run out of your own house, is those things depend on having a static IP address for easy remote access. Most Americans do not have that. Where I am, Verizon and Comcast are the only choices for internet (not counting mobile internet) and both of those charge a significantly higher amount to get a static IP. I have been told that Time Warner and AT&T are the same way. For most people, they are fine with a non-static IP, but that means every time their modem resets/reboots for any reason, their WAN IP address has changed. That, combined with previously mentioned issues with slow connections (personally, I only have 3 Mbps down, and 700Kbps up at home), makes online storage a much more viable option for the vast majority of people in the US.

Petey7 said:

The main issue I see with NAS and other servers being run out of your own house, is those things depend on having a static IP address for easy remote access. Most Americans do not have that. Where I am, Verizon and Comcast are the only choices for internet (not counting mobile internet) and both of those charge a significantly higher amount to get a static IP. I have been told that Time Warner and AT&T are the same way. For most people, they are fine with a non-static IP, but that means every time their modem resets/reboots for any reason, their WAN IP address has changed. That, combined with previously mentioned issues with slow connections (personally, I only have 3 Mbps down, and 700Kbps up at home), makes online storage a much more viable option for the vast majority of people in the US.

I agree with everything you said. But for changing WAN IP issue, that's easy. I use a DDNS service. For now I am only using a free DDNS service ( www. no-ip. com) which requires monthly re-activation (just a matter of clicking a URL sent with a reminder to my email.. very easy). Later on I will get a premium service. I am just waiting for a good deal. There is a $30 for 2 years. In the meantime, the free service serves me well.

DDNS works by creating a hostname that you will use in place of WAN IP. It doesn't matter if your WAN IP changes all the time. Your hostname will remain the same but it will automatically pick up your new WAN IP and update itself.

I did not know DDNS services even existed. That does eliminate that issue.

Petey7 said:

I did not know DDNS services even existed. That does eliminate that issue.

The good thing about DDNS is that you don't have to expose your WAN IP. It is completely masked by a hostname (any name you want). And you can create multiple hostnames with 1 WAN IP. I created a different hostname for my surveillance cam and router.

pparks1 said:

Petey7 said:

For most people, they are fine with a non-static IP, but that means every time their modem resets/reboots for any reason, their WAN IP address has changed.

That is not exactly how DHCP works.

When your computer requests an IP address, the DHCP server records in a table the MAC address of your network card and the IP address you were given. You are then given that lease for a period of time. Let's say 4 days or 96 hours. That IP is now yours, for the 96 hours and it won't be used elsewhere.

Once 50% of your lease time expires (48 hours in my example), your PC will attempt to renew that lease. The request goes back to the DHCP server, and it makes sure it hasn't given it to anyone else (and it will not have, because you are only 48 hours into a 96 hour lease), and it will renew that lease to you for another 96 hours. And this process repeats.

So, it's only in the event that the following things happened which would cause you to get a new IP address.

• Your lease time expired
• Your IP address was already given out by DHCP to another host
• You got a new cable modem or network card with a different MAC address.

If you go past the 96 hours and your computer has been off the entire time and hasn't renewed, it will attempt to renew that same address that it had in the past. So, as long as the DHCP server didn't give it to anybody else, you would get the same address again.

You're talking about LAN IP.

Petey is talking about WAN IP. The one you use to access your computer from outside your network.