Newie Q: Can I use BH as backup / storage for non-web related files?

[michael p]

So can or should I use BH as a backup for non-web related files, such as documents, calendar or address books? What would be the pros and cons? Would this violate some terms of the service agreement? Wouldn't be a lot of stuff.

And if so how would you recommend one sets this up so that the files cannot be randomly accessed by the web at large?

Newbie and a mac user, if that matters.

TIA

Mike

[PaulC.]

I haven't read the TOS, but I can't imagine that it would violate it as long as you didn't store pornography or illegal/copyrighted materials. You could even use a program like Web Drive or Novell's similar program:
http://digg.com/software/Map_a_windo..._FTP_or_WebDav
Paul C.

[areidmtm]

You could even use a program like Net Drive or Novell's similar program

I used both of those and since that Windows is case-insensitive and Linux is case-sensitive, it really messed things up with files and directorates.

Try it at your own risk.

[Early Out]

Besides my web stuff, I also use my BH space to store backups of all my financial records. I zip them, encrypted, into files that have names that won't louse up the Linux file system (I just stick to short names, all lower case, no spaces or other special characters, like "taxes2006.zip" ).

Then I stash them (with a simple FTP client program) in a subdirectory, like www.mydomain.com/archives, and password-protect the archives subdirectory. I've turned off indexing at the top level of my domain, so no one can even find the files, to say nothing of accessing them.

[PaulC.]

Good point. hadn't thought of that. Very good to know since I have considered using it on our webdav/sftp server for off-site employees.

[michael p]

Besides my web stuff, I also use my BH space to store backups of all my financial records. I zip them, encrypted, into files that have names that won't louse up the Linux file system (I just stick to short names, all lower case, no spaces or other special characters, like "taxes2006.zip" ).

Then I stash them (with a simple FTP client program) in a subdirectory, like www.mydomain.com/archives, and password-protect the archives subdirectory. I've turned off indexing at the top level of my domain, so no one can even find the files, to say nothing of accessing them.

This is good stuff, thanks. I've fiddled with the cpanel and all its options for a bit and this is what I gather from your comments. I like step-by-step help so please bear with me...

I can create a new folder(s) in my BH account using the cpanel, and I can also turn off "indexing" using the cpanel. This will prevent the more ambitious web users from somehow finding it. I assume people surf websites and add random folder names just for fun.

-> this will still allow public access to my website?

I call the folder something like "backup" or whatever floats my boat. I can probably do subfolders like /backup/email or /backup/documents if I felt like it. Probably don't feel like it though.

Put a password on it, just to be safe, using cpanel again. Good idea since I might be putting privileged materials there such as memos or client correspondence.

-> password just the top level folder?

Take the files I want to archive, compress them (the purpose of which is to reduce the storage used and I assume speed up transfer) and I can also password protect them just as another layer of security using something like Stuffit.

Using an FTP client (I just installed FireFTP on Firefox, but was using Fetch before - those are FTP clients, right?) I can transfer the files from my laptop up the pipeline to my BH account and into those special folders, for a job well done.

Good stuff, good stuff.

I appreciate all the help.

Mike

[Early Out]

You've got it, completely.

In my case, it's even tougher for folks to poke around, since I have no index.html at the top level of my domain. Unless I tell people where my web pages are, they can't be found (it would take a spectacular amount of guessing). Anyone going to www.mydomain.com just gets a "welcome to BH" default message.

Of course, if you're running a website where you actually want to attract viewers, that's a bad idea! In my case, my pages are only for friends, neighbors, and family, anyway.

[michael p]

Thank you my friend.

Mike

[michael p]

Follow up:

Did all the above, but I created the archive folder not under public_html but on a level with public (bear with me please), that is, on the level that automatically comes up first under file manager. Again, on the same level so that my archive folder and the public folder are both shown on the screen.

It does not show up under mydomain/[name of folder] when I type that path into the browser. Also, when I use password protect directories it does not appear - only my folders in "public" appear.

Anyway, did a test run using FireFTP for firefox and it went well, all the xferred files show up in the cpanel file manager.

Am I missing something? I'd feel better if I could password protect that folder too.

thanks

[Early Out]

I had never fiddled with it before, but it does appear that the Password Protect Directories routine in the Control Panel lets you apply passwords only to directories that are within public_html. I put my "arch" directory in there, and password-protected it.