There are many different online file storage and sharing services available online today, some free and some you have to pay for, but we recently stumbled upon a free service called Box.Net. We recently did a review of Microsoft's beta version of Windows Live Skydrive, but we thought we would take a look at a competitor, Box.Net.
With a free account, you get 1GB of free online storage, which is more than Microsoft's 500MB. The user interface of Box.Net is very sleek and clean...perhaps one of the best user interfaces we have seen. When you log in, you are taken to a dashboard sort of screen with links to all the features of Box.Net. Right from there you have one-click access to every feature that you need.
A dashboard-like interface when you log in puts all of Box.Net's features at your fingertips.
If you click on the "My Files" tab, you are taken to a screen where it will display all of your uploaded files. Here you can make new folders as a way to keep your files neat and organized, a key to online storage. To upload files, just click on the "upload files" button and an upload window will appear. You can choose to upload via the conventional browse function, but you can also click to open a drag-and-drop window to simply drag files from a Windows Explorer window directly to the Box.Net upload window. This feature is powered by a Java applet and in our tests using Mozilla Firefox and Windows Vista Home Premium, it did have to go into compatibility mode with Aero disabled. That may or may not be the fault of Box.Net but rather with Java so we won't count it against them, but it is a minor bug either way. The free plan does have an upload file size cap of 10MB, which is a little small, but you can purchase upgrade plans to change that...more on that later.
The "My Files" tab that shows your online files, we didn't have any uploaded here, so it showed us how to upload files.
The handy drag-and-drop upload feature allows you to drag a file directly from a Windows Explorer window directly to your Box.Net online storage.
There is a minor bug with the drag-and-drop Java applet, but that may be the fault of Java, not Box.Net.
Once you have files uploaded to your online account, you can hover over them and click on a little blue arrow that appears which presents you with a bunch of options. From there you can download that files to your computer, you can send it to someone, you can get a Web URL to access it from, add it to your public shared folders, and delete it and such. You can also add tags to each files, which allows you to organize them even further and provides search capabilities to make finding your files even easier. You also have the ability to edit documents using a Web applet called Zoho document editor. We tried it with a Microsoft Word .doc file created in Word 2007 and it worked fairly well, but the formatting of a table was a little off from the real thing. It's a decent tool for editing simple documents quickly and easily.
From the file options menu, you have a wealth of features that allow you to organize, share, and modify your uploaded files.
You can share files with friends and family by sending them a Web URL access link via e-mail right from the Box.Net interface. The person you are sending the link to doesn't have to have a Box.Net account, which is really nice. You can add multiple e-mail addresses to send the links to. This is a great if you want to share vacation photos with friends and family without having to e-mail them via attachments to everybody.
Box.Net allows you to send a Web URL access link via e-mail to anyone you want and it will allow them to be able to download the file you want them to see.
You can share files other ways too. Box.Net lets you publish files to your personal blog. They currently support Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, and Wordpress blog accounts. You can also add files to your "Public Box" which is a publicly available shared folder that is accessible via a preset URL by anyone, even without a Box.Net user account. If you have another blog system or say want to post your files for people to view and download on a social networking site, such as MySpace, you can make a Flash-based widget which you can post on any Web site and people can interactively view and download your files.
Box.Net offers many different ways to share your files with anyone as well as publish your files to a Web site or blog.
Box.Net does offer paid subscription-based plans for more features if you want them. They have things like multiple user account for one Box.Net account, more file storage space, and bigger upload file size limits. The prices for the upgraded plans aren't too bad and would work nicely for small business users. You can see more on Box.Net's upgraded plans at their Web site.
In conclusion, Box.Net offers some really good competition to the other "big name" online file storage sites out there. They have worked to come up with a very functional user interface and lots of features that make the whole thing come together. Its features work perfectly for the home user and the upgrade plans are well suited for a small business. We strongly recommend Box.Net for your online file storage and sharing needs.
You can read more about Box.Net and sign up for your free account by visiting their Web site.
