Dropbox-like service on personal web space

[Lamont]

I am looking for a way to have a Dropbox-like service with where my website is hosted. Went looking around for apps and such, but didn't find anything that was simple for my clients to use (some think AOL is the internet still). Sometimes FTP is too much for them.

My first thought was Perforce, but it's too complicated for them. Need to be able to have control over users and directories and locking files for download only.

 

[PTNL]

WebDAV and Google Docs come to mind for this. Though I'm also interested in seeing other suggestions.

 

[ameoba]

If you want Dropbox, why not just use Dropbox?

 

[Lamont]

WebDAV and Google Docs come to mind for this. Though I'm also interested in seeing other suggestions.

I'm gonna take a look at WebDAV now...

If you want Dropbox, why not just use Dropbox?

Dropbox is fine for a couple of people since their projects rarely go over 400MB, but I'm looking to have 800gigs of data going in and out for a couple of projects.

 

[PTNL]

I'm gonna take a look at WebDAV now...

Dropbox is fine for a couple of people since their projects rarely go over 400MB, but I'm looking to have 800gigs of data going in and out for a couple of projects.

What's the average file size, and range of file sizes? While WebDAV may be possible, I'm really wondering about reliably doing that much data over HTTP. Plus, WebDAV doesn't really offer feedback on how far along the transfer is -- this might confuse non savvy users. With those kinds of numbers, you're really going to want a mature system to help persist/recover connections and likely provide feedback for transfer progress and troubleshooting.

 

[Lamont]

Average size is about 400MB a file. I'd rather have everyone on Perforce... but all the clients I've installed "Involve too many clicks to get a file". I don't see what's so hard with "Right click>Get Latest/Sync with Repository/Put File".

Last night I got so pissed off at one of them on the phone I almost told them I taught my 6 year old how to use it. Sometimes I feel like my head is gonna pop when I get so frustrated with some of these people, I feel sorry for IT guys at large companies.

 

[Grentz]

400mb a file?!?!

If its over the internet that is some serious upload time for many connections (not to mention download time even) and constant syncing would be extremely annoying.

 

[PTNL]

I haven't personally used Perforce... But if there is this much distance between the comfort level of the users and the application's requirements, then it would be beneficial for you to arrange a short training session to go over how they need to use the system (keep it limited to just their needs, and not necessarily understanding the whole system). A supplemental "how to" Word document with bullet points and screenshots would also go a long ways to reducing your support efforts.