GENERAL QUESTIONS
1. What's Wuala?
Wuala is a new way of storing, sharing, and publishing files on the internet. It's a free desktop application for Windows, Mac, and Linux that brings you a convenient and secure online storage. You can use it to access your files from anywhere, to share files with friends and groups, or to publish files for the whole world to see. Free, simple, and secure.
2. How can I try it?
Currently Wuala is in a closed alpha phase in which we are quietly testing it with a few alpha users. Try to get an invite from a friend who's already in Wuala, or sign up to get invited as soon as we're ready to open it up to more people.
3. How do I invite friends?
If you already have Wuala, you can invite your friends! Start Wuala, click on the 'My Friends' tab and then on 'Add / Invite Friends'.
4. How is Wuala pronounced?
"Wuala" is pronounced like the French "Voilà(vwälä which means "see there", and it rhymes with "koala".
5. “Wuala” vs. “wua.la”?
“Wuala” is the product name, “wua.la” is just the domain name (as close to the product name as possible). Btw: .la is the top-level domain of Laos, but we have no affiliation to Laos whatsoever (all servers that we maintain are either located in Switzerland or Germany).
6. How much storage do I get?
You start with 1 GB provided by us. If you need more, you can simply trade some space on your hard disk for additional online storage. The idea behind Wuala is not to give you more storage in total (apart from the first GB provided by us), but to change the quality of your storage: It is able to transform local storage into online storage that can be accessed from anywhere and at any time, even when your computer is offline.
Can I also access my files from the web?
Not yet, but it's on our agenda. Wuala is a decentralized system and most of its power comes from the fact that the users are running a peer-to-peer client software on their computer (similar to Skype). In most cases, you can install the client software so that you can conveniently download and upload files. However, you might run into a situation where you can't install the software but you would still like to access your files (such as in an Internet cafér at a university). Besides asking the admin to allow software installation, we don't have a solution yet. In the future, we would also like to integrate Wuala more tightly into existing web applications. Please let us know what functionality you would need.
7. Can I edit files directly?
No, because files in Wuala are currently read-only. You can add files, but you can’t edit them directly in Wuala. So if you work on a text file, you have to export it and save it back into Wuala. Fortunately, media files such as photos, music, or videos are rarely edited. But yes, we’re going to change that of course, and implement proper write-access. It’s a priority issue on our feature to-do list.
8. What is Kangoo?
Kangoo has been our project name for Wuala, which we have mainly used at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich). We don't use the name any longer, so say goodbye to Kangoo and hello to Wuala.
9. What is the Caleido Address-Book?
Caleido Address-Book is an address and contact management software, developed and sold by Caleido, a sole proprietorship founded in 1998 by Dominik Grolimund. In 2007, Dominik Grolimund and Luzius Meisser founded their company Caleido AG, which develops and runs Wuala. Revenues from Caleido Address-Book help us bootstrap Caleido AG, but the two companies are completely independent of one another.
10. Is there a developer API?
Not yet, but we might provide one as soon as our priorities allow to do so. Such an API would most likeley come in the form of a Java library that allows to access data and metadata stored in Wuala. The more developers ask for an API and the more great ideas we are aware of that could be realized, the earlier we will focus our efforts on it.
11. Do you plan to open the source code?
We are considering to open the source code in future. However, this is a decision that has to be thought out well as it cannot be undone. It also takes some effort to successfully implement a good open-source strategy.
INTERNET CONNECTION
1. How much bandwidth does Wuala consume?
You can configure the maximum amount of bandwidth Wuala will use in the options under "Connection". For best performance, we recommend to set the upload and download bandwidth to about 10% below the bandwidth of your internet connection. This allows for high throughput without causing high latency.
2. When can I start trading storage?
In order to trade storage, you need a suitable internet connection and your computer must be online for at least 4 hours per day at average (about 17%). It may take a few days until you reach the required average uptime.
3. Why is my uptime so low?
When you start, your average uptime is estimated to be 10% and then adjusted daily. When permanently online, you should see a daily increase of about 3%. However, as your uptime climbs up, it gets harder to further increase it. Please note that uptime online counts if your internet connection allows for trading storage, see also "Why does my connection not allow to trade storage?".
4. Why does my connection not allow to trade storage?
You can test your internet connection in the options under "Connection". To qualify for trading storage, you should configure your internet connection such that it allows incoming connections to the "local port" shown in the options. If you are lucky, this just works and you don’t need to do anything. However, if Wuala says that your connection is not suitable to trade storage, you might need to configure your firewall to accept incoming connections on the listed port and your router to forward incoming traffic on the listed port to your computer.
LOCAL DATA
1. What are the little green boxes for?
The green little box that shown next to a some selected files indicates that it has been completely downloaded. An empty box at the top indicates that the file has not yet been completely uploaded to Wuala.
2. Where are the files I downloaded? (in Wuala)
Files in Wuala can always be found with their URL (e.g. wua.la/Luzius/Images). However, it is recommended to add files you like to your favorites, copy/link them to one of your folders or add them to one of your groups. That way, you can easily find it again without having to know the URL. Alternatively, you can find a list of files you have recently downloaded on this computer in the downloads window (View > Downloads on PC; Windows > Downloads on Mac).
3. Where are the files I downloaded? (on disk)
Wuala stores all downloaded files in an encrypted cache (see next question) that can be found in the data directory specified in the 'Local Data' options.
4. Why do I need to download some files again?
All files you download and/or open are stored in a local cache. If there is not enough space for new downloads, old downloads will be automatically removed from the cache. In that case, the file needs to be downloaded again if you access it again. You can prevent this from happening by increasing the size of the local cache in the options under "Local Data". By default, it is set to 1 GB.
5. What is the "Local Backup" good for?
It is strongly recommended to have at least one computer keep a backup of all your files. By default, this is the computer you used to create your account. The local backup ensures that you can always access your files when using your backup computer, even if you are offline. Furthermore, your backup computer takes care of your files and automatically reuploads them if they are in danger of getting lost (maybe some of the computers they have been stored on do not exist any more).
DIRECT FILE ACCESS
1. What is direct file access?
With direct file access allows application to directly access files stored in Wuala. If this is enabled and working, music and video files can be watched before they have been completely downloaded. If it is disabled, Wuala will download and copy the files to a temporary directory first when you double-click on them and then open them from there. You can manually enable or disable this feature in the options under general.
2. How does direct file access work?
To enable direct file access, Wuala creates a network drive to which your operating system can connect. On Mac OS X, this is done using the NFS protocol, on Windows we are using the SMB protocol. Unfortunately, this does not always work and on windows, it might take a while until it is ready. You can check if it works in the options under general.
3. What is portmap and why does Wuala need admin rights to set it up? (Mac only)
In order to enable direct file access on Mac OS X, portmap (a service of Mac OS X) needs to be running. Wuala can automatically start portmap und configure it to start automatically on startup. However, admin privileges are required to do so. So When enabling direct file access, you will be asked for your admin password. If you prefer to do this manually, just copy the file com.caleido.portmap.plist that can be found in the Wuala application bundle to /Library/LaunchDaemons/ and restart your system.
4. Can other computers access my files with NFS/SMB?
No, direct file access is configured to only serve files to your computer. It does not accept external connections. Allowing them would pose a security risk.
5. How can I setup direct access on Linux?
Wuala has a built-in NFS server and tries to mount a NFS share in the folder named 'direct'. For this to succeed, portmap and nfs-common must be installed (e.g. 'sudo apt-get install portmap nfs-common' to install them). Furthermore, you need to create an entry in /etc/fstab that looks like this: localhost:/wuala /home/yourname/wuala/direct nfs defaults,users,noauto,rsize=8192,wsize=8192,timeo=14,intr,nolock,soft If there is already another NFS server running on your computer, you can avoid conflicts by starting Wuala with the option -noportmapregistration that lets Wuala skip registering its server with the portmapper. In that case, you need to add additional mount parameters in the /etc/fstab entry: nfsvers=3,mountvers=3,port=26184,mountport=26183. Unfortunately, bypassing the portmapper does not seem to work with Ubuntu (we don't know why, if you know more, please let us know).
ONLINE STORAGE
1. Where is my data actually stored?
Your data is stored in three places: 1. On your backup computer (see also "What is the "Local Backup" good for?" under "local data") 2. Spread across the Wuala network 3. On our servers Our servers provide additional availability and storage which is of particular importance in the beginning, to bootstrap the whole network.
2. Can my data get lost?
If you login to Wuala regurarily, data losses are highly unlikely and can only happn if: - A majority of the data fragments spread in the Wuala network gets lost - Our servers crash irrecoverably - Your backup computer crashes irrecoverably However, as Wuala is currently in a test phase, we do not recommend to rely entirely on Wuala.
3. How can I get more online storage?
If you are well connected and online regurarily enough (see also "Internet Connection"), you can earn additional online storage. Currently, however, this happens quite slowly as is depends on how fast new data is stored into Wuala and only a fraction of the stored data is allowed to be stored on a single computer.
USER ACCOUNTS & COMPUTERS
1. Can I install Wuala on multiple Computers?
Yes, you can install Wuala on as many computers as you like. If you enable trading storage on multiple computers, the storage you earn will add up. So you can get for example 2.3 GB by earning 300 MB from one computer and 2 GB from another computer.
2. What happens when multiple users trade storage on the same computer?
If multiple users activate the "trade storage" option on the same computer, the storage earned by this computer will be divided evenly among these users.
3. Can I login at multiple computers at the same time?
Yes, you can. All changes you perform on one computer will also be visible instantaneously on the other computer, as long as the online status of both of them is green. However, there are a few minor inconsistencies left that we need to address for the beta version. For example, when you insert a file, your displayed storage usage is not immediately refreshed on the other computer.
INSTALLATION & STARTUP
1. I've just installed Wuala, but can't start it, why?
This could have various causes. Maybe you are behind a restrictive firewall that blocks all non-web (http) traffic which is often the case in corporate networks. Under Windows XP, you must be logged in as administrator to run the Wuala Alpha. Older Windows versions are not supported. On apple computers, you need OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later.
2. How can I limit the amount of memory Wuala uses?
Under Linux, you can set a memory limit by adapting the startup script. For example java -Xmx128M -jar ... limits Wuala's memory usage to 128 MB. The more memory Wuala gets, the less likely it is that it crashes when downloading large files or scaling large images. Under Windows, you can set the memory limit by editing the Wuala.vmoptions file, which can be found in the installation directory.
SECURITY & PRIVACY
1.How are files encrypted in Wuala?
Every file you store in Wuala gets encrypted before it leaves your computer. This includes file metadata (e.g. name, description, tags). Every file is encrypted with a different key and the list of these keys is encrypted with your password and stored on our server. The password itself never leaves your computer such that not even we can access your data.
2. What happens when I share or publish a file?
When publishing a file, the encryption key of that file is revealed to the public. Similarily, when sharing files, the keys of these files is securely revealed to the friends and groups you share the files with.
3. How does the password recovery work if you don't know my password?
Your master-key can not only be derived from your password, but also from the combination of your secret code (that is stored on our server and that we can send to you upon request) and the answer to your secret question. We do not know your secret answer, so if you forget both, your secret answer and your password, your data is irrevokably lost.
4. What technologies do you use for encryption?
We employ AES-128 and RSA-2048. Encryption keys are managed using a data structure called Cryptree which is described in this paper:
http://www.dcg.ethz.ch/publications/s... We have plans to open up at least those parts of our source code that deal with encryption such that it can be reviewed by any third party.
5. What if I enable 'trading storage' and a fragment of an illegal file is stored on my computer?
Individual fragment are just meaningless bits and bytes as long as one does not know the encryption key, reassembly plan, and the other fragments. Much more important than on which computers individual fragments of a legally questionable file happen to be stored are the questions about who has stored the file into Wuala, who has this file been shared with and who has accessed it.
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