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EMPLOYEE
How does it work?
COMPUTER SCIENCE DREAM
The idea behind Wuala is not new. In fact, organizing idle resources of unreliable computers into a large, reliable and secure distributed online storage has been an old dream of computer science. When we started back in fall 2004 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), it was our vision to realize this dream - today, we think we've taken the first step. Because idle resources are used whenever possible, we can offer you a better service for free.
IDLE RESOURCES
Instead of centralized servers, Wuala uses the idle resources (storage and bandwidth) of computers of its users who can opt to trade their local storage for online storage. Note that not everybody has to offer local storage and in fact, not everyone can. Local storage is only useful to the system if the computer is online more than 17% of the time on average (about 4 hours a day). Only when you meet this requirement, you are allowed to trade your local storage for more online storage. But even if you do not contribute, we give you 1 GB of free online storage which is already enough for most purposes.
INCENTIVES
The more local storage you provide, the more online storage you get, depending on your online time (e.g., if you provide 10 GB of your local storage and you are online 70% of the time, you get 7 GB of additional online storage). Please note that Wuala doesn't give you more storage in total, but that it changes 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. The incentive for providing upload bandwidth is similar: The more upload bandwidth you provide, the faster your download speed will be.
SECURITY
Security is a key design issue in Wuala: All files stored in Wuala are encrypted and all cryptographic operations are performed locally. Your password never leaves your computer - so no one, including us, can access your files unless you publish them. Wuala employs the 128 bit AES algorithm for encryption and the 2048 bit RSA algorithm for authentication.
RELIABILITY
In order to achieve high reliability, all files are stored redundantly, using so-called erasure codes. This also allows for fast downloads since your computer can download many pieces of the same file in parallel from different sources. In case that a file cannot be found in the network at a certain time, we store an encrypted backup of every file on our servers. Furthermore, your computer keeps a copy (also encrypted) of all your files in its local cache. This not only allows fast local access to your files, but it also allows your computer to take care of your stored files and automatically re-upload them if necessary. You can decide, of course, which of your computers should keep the backup (e.g. your desktop PC, not your laptop).
The idea behind Wuala is not new. In fact, organizing idle resources of unreliable computers into a large, reliable and secure distributed online storage has been an old dream of computer science. When we started back in fall 2004 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), it was our vision to realize this dream - today, we think we've taken the first step. Because idle resources are used whenever possible, we can offer you a better service for free.
IDLE RESOURCES
Instead of centralized servers, Wuala uses the idle resources (storage and bandwidth) of computers of its users who can opt to trade their local storage for online storage. Note that not everybody has to offer local storage and in fact, not everyone can. Local storage is only useful to the system if the computer is online more than 17% of the time on average (about 4 hours a day). Only when you meet this requirement, you are allowed to trade your local storage for more online storage. But even if you do not contribute, we give you 1 GB of free online storage which is already enough for most purposes.
INCENTIVES
The more local storage you provide, the more online storage you get, depending on your online time (e.g., if you provide 10 GB of your local storage and you are online 70% of the time, you get 7 GB of additional online storage). Please note that Wuala doesn't give you more storage in total, but that it changes 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. The incentive for providing upload bandwidth is similar: The more upload bandwidth you provide, the faster your download speed will be.
SECURITY
Security is a key design issue in Wuala: All files stored in Wuala are encrypted and all cryptographic operations are performed locally. Your password never leaves your computer - so no one, including us, can access your files unless you publish them. Wuala employs the 128 bit AES algorithm for encryption and the 2048 bit RSA algorithm for authentication.
RELIABILITY
In order to achieve high reliability, all files are stored redundantly, using so-called erasure codes. This also allows for fast downloads since your computer can download many pieces of the same file in parallel from different sources. In case that a file cannot be found in the network at a certain time, we store an encrypted backup of every file on our servers. Furthermore, your computer keeps a copy (also encrypted) of all your files in its local cache. This not only allows fast local access to your files, but it also allows your computer to take care of your stored files and automatically re-upload them if necessary. You can decide, of course, which of your computers should keep the backup (e.g. your desktop PC, not your laptop).
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Plans starting at $19/month
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Inappropriate?I love your concept. In exchange of storing securely our data into your servers and network, you use our bandwith right ? -
Inappropriate?Yes, bandwidth and storage space that you can "donate" via the trading option. If you don't like that, you can also just buy storage.1 Comment
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Humm... I'm still trying to figure out how I can help you to make more money.... since you have to spend lots of it with Bandwith, hard drives, people... seems that I earn more than you with it... or does the telecom companies also pay part of the bill since now I'm sending 30-40gb trafic a month where before only 5-10gb.... ? -
Inappropriate?Looks good, but:
Q1 Are the all my files stored all the time on my computer?
Q2 If answer for Q1 is "not": Is there possibility that somehow file will get lost in space because some users decided to stop trading?
Q3 If I will buy storage what will I gain apart of usage of my broadband? -
Inappropriate?A1: No, if you upload them on Computer A and then switch to Laptop B Wuala won't start to download all files, only the ones you request.
A2: Yes and no, There's _always_ a copy (encrypted...) on the backup servers in switzerland, the P2P-Storage cloud is there to get better speeds and reliability but is not the only "security line" for your files.
A3: You can then store more than 1 GB in Wuala but don't have to use space on your computer and your bandwidth to get this additional storage. This is for people concerned about saving encrypted fragments of 3rd party files, companies or users who just want an easy and secure online storage platform without any hassle. Of course you can trade AND buy as well.
I’m happy
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Inappropriate?I am a bit confused with your answer. Is there or is not possibility of loosing file in wua.la network? Let's say I will start using wua.la as and backup storage or place to keep my works documents. What guarantee are you giving that the file is downloadable?1 Comment Add a comment
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Quoting the FAQ:
"What about availability and guarantees?
We can’t give any guarantees or service level agreements at the moment. Instead, we offer you our promise that we will do our best to make sure your data is always available. Your encrypted files are stored redundantly on our servers so that even if a server crashes, they can be resurrected. Encrypted fragments of your files are also stored in the grid storage which provides an additional backup.
Please note that the main reason for temporary unavailability are bugs in the client software, which improves every day." -
Inappropriate?I would trust wuala as much as I would trust a local harddrive (not counting internet availability) So no, I wouldn't trust wuala with the *only* copy of the file. And neither as a *single* place for backups, for that matter.1 Comment Add a comment
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Oh my... I ́m trusting it... stored lots of info there already.... no local copy... the concept seems really nice as long as some guys with money and time (and don ́t die) are behind the idea... if this idea is profitable I don ́t see why it shouldn ́t work on the long run and be a safer place than my HD ́s...
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