SpiderOak. Any feedback or advice on this free 'Cloud-Sync' service?

I'm trying to sync a < 1GB folder, on the UnRAID array, between a few PCs with one being remote (internet access).  I've been going over the various options and SpiderOak seems to have the features I want.  Here are reasons for not choosing the alternatives:

DropBox - security(?)

CrashPlan - slow sync (once a day max for the free plan)

Google Drive - sync issues using a mapped drive, no Linux client

Tahoe-LAFS - no free option (also confusing)

SugarSync - not sure yet, still reading ...

So, is anyone doing anything like this?

Have you tried, or do you use SugarOak?

Any suggestions?

Here are some links for reference:

Cloud Storage Discussion

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12759.30

http://lifehacker.com/5905702/dropbox-google-drive-skydrive-and-others-pricing-per-gb-and-more-compared-in-convenient-charts

http://blog.fixya.com/pr/nov2012/cloud-storage-report.html

http://thegeekpanel.com/data-and-backup/best-dropbox-alternatives/

http://www.officeandbusiness.be/2012/07/03/dropbox-vs-spideroak-vs-box-vs-sugarsync-vs-skydrive-vs-google-drive/

http://web.appstorm.net/roundups/data-management-roundups/dropbox-vs-spideroak-file-sync-battle/

Many many 'thanks' in advance.

I've used SpiderOak in the past and was extremely disappointed with their service.  The theory behind the design and everything are great, but as of about a year ago the client was still garbage.  It "seemed" nice, but would often choke on various things.  For example, you accidentally copy a huge file into a watched directory.  There's no way to cancel the upload, even if you remove it from the backup set.  The damage is done.  You have to go to the command line and cross your fingers that a series of commands customer support gives you does the job, with the knowledge the mucking it up destroys the entire backup set (even what's on the server).  Then the initial syncing process would randomly flake out when you add a new computer.  This would completely block you from adding the new machine.  Sometimes it would sit there using 100% CPU, but you'd eventually learn not to force quit the application because it could damage your existing backups.  If I went back through my email, I could find a dozen more issues.

To their credit, I probably only paid for 2 of the 3 years I was with them because they kept offering free months for account issues.  The downside being probably half of those free months were because I was actually unable to use the service at all.

I switched to CrashPlan and used them for a year.  Absolutely error free client.  Signed up for a 4 year plan when my first year expired.  Couldn't be happier.

As a side note: SpiderOak was a huge RAM hog (Sometimes as much as 750MB-1GB when de-duplicating/packaging/encrypting).  Keep an eye on your RAM totals if you run it on your UnRaid box.

Edit: I went to SpiderOak's site to make sure I wasn't being unusually harsh, and the client still looks identical.  I'm not sure much has changed.  I did remember another issue: The amount of server storage used is calculated on your machine (!!).  Twice my client screwed this up, causing it to claim I was over my storage quota.  The "fix" was to completely uninstall SpiderOak, wiping out all of your local cache, and to download it again from the server.  This is what caused me to lose access to my account.  It would not allow my machine to reconnect to the account, and it took SpiderOak months to correct it.

Thanks very much for the info and feedback.  How long has it been since you've used the service?

CrashPlan won't work for my application due to the low sync-rate (once a day).

Found a few nice experience writeups:

http://notepad.patheticcockroach.com/3501/wuala-vs-spideroak-vs-dropbox-a-somewhat-long-time-user-comparison/

"So, which one should you pick? If you value your privacy or have sensitive data (or both), Dropbox is definitely a no-go, unless you’re willing to first encrypt locally before sending to Dropbox (like, say, putting a TrueCrypt volume in your Dropbox folder? ^^). That leaves you with just Wuala and SpiderOak, and at this point I see no reason not to choose the latter, except if you want more space without either referring a couple of friends or participating in their next contest/game."

http://www.cerebralmastication.com/2011/04/fast-two-way-sync-in-ubuntu/

http://www.cerebralmastication.com/2011/04/details-of-two-way-sync-between-two-ubuntu-machines/

"So looking at Dropbox and Spideroak I realized that I liked everything about Spideroak except its sync. It’s a great cloud backup tool that seems to properly do encryption, it’s multiplatform (win, linux, mac), has an iPad/iPhone app for viewing/sending files, it’s smart about backups and won’t upload the same file twice (even if the file is on two different computers). For my business use, I just can’t use Dropbox. The lack of “trust no one” encryption is a deal killer. So what I really need is a sync solution to use along side Spideroak."

Thanks very much for the info and feedback.  How long has it been since you've used the service?

 

CrashPlan won't work for my application due to the low sync-rate (once a day).

Approximately 13 months.  I checked out out the SpiderOak forums and saw a couple of the problems I was having still aren't fixed, but I can't say I'm surprised.  That said, I was using it for both offsite-backup and syncing.  With only 1GB at stake, if it gets completely hosed and you have to re-upload (which I had to do 3 times) it might not be as big a deal as if you have 200-300GB.

With only 1GB of stuff you're trying to work with, it couldn't hurt to give SpiderOak a try, but even the "nice experience" you posted said he was going to look for a sync service to use side-by-side backups with SpiderOak.  Given you're only interested in the sync and not backup, that's probably a red flag.  You might want to look at Tonido as well, which wasn't on your list.

It has been a while since I studied all of the 'cloud' backup choices, so I'm very rusty, and know nothing about SpiderOak.  I thought I'd add another for consideration though, since I don't see it mentioned above, JungleDisk.  It uses Amazon S3 and/or Rackspace for cloud storage.  In the past, I had hoped to set up a JungleDisk to UnRAID connection, the same way others have set up CrashPlan, but I never got around to it.

I noticed recently that Steve Gibson has a SecurityNow podcast about JungleDisk and SpiderOak.  It's 'Episode #349 (19 Apr 2012) Cloud Solutions' on the SecurityNow website.  The 2 or 3 podcasts that follow that one are also relevant.  I haven't actually myself gotten around to listening to any of them yet!

You might want to look at Tonido as well, which wasn't on your list.

Thanks for the tip, I hadn't come across Tonido but it looks like a hardware-required solution.  Is that correct?  I will look into it as well as this list I found:

http://alternativeto.net/software/spideroak/

http://alternativeto.net/software/tonido/

It has been a while since I studied all of the 'cloud' backup choices, so I'm very rusty, and know nothing about SpiderOak.  I thought I'd add another for consideration though, since I don't see it mentioned above, JungleDisk.  It uses Amazon S3 and/or Rackspace for cloud storage.  In the past, I had hoped to set up a JungleDisk to UnRAID connection, the same way others have set up CrashPlan, but I never got around to it.

I forgot about JungleDisk, which I also recall was pretty good.  The problem in this case, though, is that MartinQ specifically looks to be searching for a free solution.  I don't believe Amazon provides any free storage, though it would be pretty cheap for the amount of data he's talking about.

You might want to look at Tonido as well, which wasn't on your list.

Thanks for the tip, I hadn't come across Tonido but it looks like a hardware-required solution.  Is that correct?  I will look into it as well as this list I found:

They have a hardware solution like PogoPlug, but there's a free cross-platform software-only solution as well.