There are so many files and programs that people store on personal computers these days that it is a challenge to keep enough storage space on a hard drive. Portable hard drives are very useful but they are not cheap. Web storage through sites such as Rapidshare and Megaupload offer an alternative which doesn’t limit access to documents whilst at the same time keeping computer storage space free for other things.
As with many other internet based services, the basic offerings are free to use and sites will offer between 100 and 200GB of storage with no cost for various periods. Megaupload will give this space to users for 2 years where as Rapidshare offers limitless use as long as the files are being regularly accessed. Unused files stay available for free storage for 90 days.
Free accounts will also have a cap on the amount of files which can be uploaded per day, between 500MB and 2GB. Download limits tend to be much higher with the likes of Megaupload allowing up to 20GB a day. The download speed limits for each site will vary between 10 and 20MB per second.
All these web storage sites will allow much freer use of storage space for those who sign up for a paid membership. This tends to be particularly popular as there are no limits on total storage space, daily uploads, daily downloads and even download speed.
Web storage security is often very strong however there are not currently industry standards for the levels of security which websites need to implement. This should not dissuade the use of web storage sites though as they is no evidence to suggest that they are targets for internet crime and fraud.
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