The “nofolder” is a universal fileshareing and backup concept a bit like other cloud based ideas. You can save your files on any device and they will be available and synchronized in real time to all the other devices that are attached to your nofolder account. To be truly universal, nofolder works on Windows, Mac and Linux Desktops as well as Android, iPad, iPhone and Windows mobile devices.
The nofolder, like other similar solutions, has a client and server software. The major difference is that it is private! You own and control the server that the all clients synchronize with.
So what else is so special about nofolder? There are already solutions available like DropBox and Google Drive, why do I need a nofolder?
It’s all about control.
With nofolder you are in complete control:
- Cost: The nofolder server and desktop clients are free for use at your home or business. To support development the mobile clients are available for a modest fee.
- Open: The source code is freely available for you to view and contribute to. This “transparency” brings with it greater security, quicker development, better features and faster bug fixes.
- Scalability: With nofolder, you can have as little as one user, the upper limits are unknown as it is simply a matter of how many resources you have to devote to the server or cluster.
- Social: Simply right click on any file that belongs to your nofolder and pick “Send Link” for a secure one time use link you can send your friends to download the file.
- Storage: Since you are in control, you can add as much storage space as you like. Just upgrade your drive or add a new one.
- Versioning: The nofolder system keeps track of the changes you make to your files so you restore them to an earlier time if needed. If you accidentally delete a file, it can also be restored.
So whats the catch? Well other than the modest fee for a mobile client, you just need to have some hardware or a virtual machine for the server portion of the system to run on. The server will need more storage space than you currently wish to sync because of the file versioning component. We are looking into developing a device that can sit in your closet or on a shelf and will replace your wireless router and provide you an easy to use transparent backup, file syncing and sharing solution. More on that to come.
The benefits of nofolder over other options:
- Speed: Because the files are being synchronized over your local network the time it takes to sync your files is greatly reduced. If you have a computer in another location outside of the server’s local network, like your work computer, then your file transfer rate will be that of your internet’s speed.
- Sharing: With nofolder there is no more waiting for a file to upload to an offsite server before thy are available to share. Since your files are synchronized in real time you can share a file instantly using a simple but secure link in an email. Even very large files can be shared without bloating your email.
- Security: All data is encrypted during transfer and on the server using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). All of your data is secured using your passphrase.
- Groups: For businesses the ability to have read and write access to files by multiple persons is nothing new. With nofolder this access can be granted to groups of people in different locations at the same time, even the road warriors on their laptops.
- Convenience: You dont have to be connected to the network to access your files. If you are traveling and need your files, you have access to them. When you regain network access, nofolder will sync all of your changes, detecting any conflicts and asking you to resolve them. If another user in a group modifies a file at the same time you do, nofolder will notify you and you can choose how to address them.
- LDAP/AD integration: A must have for businesses and organizations. Your nofolder server will easily connect to your existing directory server for user authentication. If this is not needed then nofolder will use it’s own database to store users and their login info.
- Proven technology:
- Our standard server install is on top of CentOS, an enterprise grade server operating system, however you can run it on any server that can support a MAP stack even IIS.
So what is nofolder waiting for?
In short, funding. The nofolder team is a group of very knowledgeable and talented individuals, all of whom are developing the nofolder project during their free time or when sponsored by donations. We all have full time jobs, families, bills, and normal lives. While most of the development is by nofolder volunteers for free there are some expenses that are no negotiable. Free software is never without some cost. There are plenty of hidden and behind the scenes requirements. There is legal advice, servers, hiring independent security experts to audit the code. Most important of all is the people who already give their time to nofolder because they are forbidden to give money. We can do this but we can do it faster and make it prettier with more features when properly funded. If you are interested you should donate to the Pledgie campaign. If you are interested in beta testing please contact us and send your developers vita. If you are a PHP, SQL and or C# developer and would like to contribute please contact us.