With the market for cloud storage services starting to get crowded, we take a look at how to get as much storage from the different providers as possible.
Jason Cipriani/CNET
Editors' Note: This article was originally published April 24, 2012, and has been updated to reflect current offerings.
If 2014 isn't known as the year of wearables, it could be known as the year of cloud storage. Between updates to Google Drive and Dropbox, and revamped offerings from Apple's iCloud Drive, Amazon's Cloud Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive, access to cloud storage is now easier and cheaper than ever before.
Even with the cost of storage continuing to decline, free storage is something that's hard to pass up. Let's take a look at how to get free space from your favorite storage providers. If you want to upgrade to more than just the allotted free space, check out Sarah Mitroff's in-depth comparison of the big four cloud storage services.
iCloud Drive
First, let's get the service that doesn't offer any additional storage sans payment outside of the initial allotment: iCloud Drive. Apple gives iCloud users 5GB of free data, but anything beyond that you're going to have to pay for. You can view the monthly storage plans, which range for $0.99 to $19.99 per month here.
OneDrive
Microsoft's OneDrive service is free for the first 15GB of storage space, with opportunities to earn an extra 8GB by backing up your photos using the mobile app (worth 3GB), and inviting friends to sign up for the service. For each friend that signs up, you'll get 500MB of storage (with a max of 10 friends for a total of 5GB).
While the total allotment of free OneDrive storage caps out at 23GB, paid Office 365 subscribers can take advantage of unlimited storage once the new allotment is completely rolled out.
Amazon Cloud Drive promotion for Prime members.Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
Amazon Cloud Drive
Amazon's Cloud Drive service remains free for basic users, with a base of 5GB free storage space. However, Amazon Prime members are able take advantage of one important upgrade - unlimited, free photo storage. Technically it's not free since it requires a Prime membership, but as yet another perk added to the service, one can get away with considering it a freebie.
Regular files, including music and videos, are still restricted to the 5GB of space.
Box
Box offers 10GB of free storage with for its basic personal accounts. You can, however, earn free storage by installing its app on specific devices. As of May 2014, the list of eligible devices can be foundhere.
Some more notable devices found on the list include Sony Xperia, LG phones and tablets, HP Windows PCs, Dell and Samsung ATIV tabs.
The amount of free storage unlocked varies based on the device and you use to sign into your Box account.
Google Drive
Google Drive users are treated to 15GB of free storage space. The space is used in combination with the attached Gmail account, which can be problematic for those with a large email database.
In lieu of paying for additional storage, you can unlock an extra 100GB of free space by signing into your Google account on a Chrome OS device and visiting this link. The added storage, unfortunately, has an expiration date of two years.
Google also has offers granting users of select Motorola, HTC and Kensington devices more storage. You'll need to visit this page and select your device type to learn more about added storage and the redemption process.
Dropbox
Dropbox storage options, both paid and free.Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
Lastly is Dropbox, arguably the leader in promotions for free storage. By now you likely already know about the free 2GB of storage included with each account. And you likely already know you'll need to complete the getting started guide to unlock more space. Referrals are also an easy way to earn more space, along with connecting your Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Another method is to use Dropbox's Carousel app to backup your photos. By installing the app and setting up the app, Dropbox will grant you 3GB of extra space. You don't actually have to use the app, unless, of course, you want to.
Mailbox is another Dropbox app that offers free storage in exchange for using it. Link your Dropbox account to the Mailbox app and bam, 1GB of data is automatically added.
It looks like HTC Android users using a device running Sense 5.0 can sign into the Dropbox app and earn 23GB of free storage through the end of 2014.
Samsung device owners have the ability to earn 48GB of extra storage, depending on your device type and when you logged into the Dropbox app. Be sure to read the fine print, which outlines how long the data is good for (one or two years)
Home networking explained, part 2: Optimizing your Wi-Fi network
CNET editor Dong Ngo answers questions about how to optimize a home Wi-Fi network.
The top of the fireplace in the living room is a good spot to leave your Wi-Fi router for best coverage.Dong Ngo/CNET
Editors' note:This post is part of an ongoing series. For the other parts, check out the related stories.
Wrote my last post on the basics of home networking, in hope that I will receive less user email asking about the matter. Alas, since then I've received even more! The good news is that nobody is asking about what a router is anymore.
Let's start with the ways that probably won't cost you anything, other than a little bit of time.Instead most of the emails this time asked about how to have the best Wi-Fi coverage at home and avoid "dead zones." With that in mind, here are a few thing you can do to make sure you get the best out of your Wi-Fi network.
1. Placement Location
A wireless router (from here on in this post, it will be addressed as "router" for short) broadcasts Wi-Fi signals away from it in all directions. Think of the signal coverage as a globe with the router being right in the center. Outside of this globe, clients won't get a signal. This globe, however, is not exactly spherical; one of the reasons is because the signals are generally turned to go out more horizontally than vertically, and like all radio signals, they tend to spread laterally and downward the farther they are from the broadcaster. That said, the best place to place your wireless router or access point is in the center of your home and elevated.
To take advantage of this, use the telephone jack (or coax cable outlet) at or near the center of the house, preferably on the upper floor when applicable, to connect to your modem and then your router. If need be, hire an electrician to create a new outlet in the right place. If it's not possible to move the phone jack or run coax cable to where you want, use a long network cable to connect the router to the modem, leaving the modem where the jack is and the router/access point at the center of the house. (In my experience, it's actually quite easy to run cables above the ceiling, or under the house).
Surroundings: A wireless signal works best outdoors in an open environment. Since it's not possible to have that indoors, you can improve the signal a great deal by making sure the immediate surroundings of the router/modem are clear, especially in the directions you want the signals to reach. This means you don't want to leave the router in a closet, or put it between a big TV and a wall. The best place to leave the router is in midair, but since that's quite hard to do, the second best thing is to put it on the surface of a desk, or mount it on the wall when applicable. Generally, all physical objects, such as walls, glass doors, and so on, weaken Wi-Fi signals, some more than others.
Though this might be common, stashing your router/access point in a close corner and in th emiddle of other electronics like this reduces its range a great deal.Dong Ngo/CNET
Antenna positioning: With a router that comes with external antennas, you can slightly tweak the above-mentioned globe of coverage. Generally you want the antennas to stay vertical if you want the signal to go wide (which is the most popular usage). If want the signal to go deep into the basement and up to the top floor, set the antennas to stay horizontal. Note that this only works relatively, and with some routers, you might not experience any difference at all whichever way you set its antennas. If the antennas are detachable, it's likely that you can replace them with high-gain antennas (most of the time this means bigger ones), which noticeably helps increase coverage. (You might also be able to increase the power of the antennas, hence the range, by attaching to it a piece of aluminum foil curled up into a parabolic shape.)
For routers with an internal antenna design, there's nothing you can do. Modern routers, especially N750, N900, and 802.11ac routers, however, generally come with very powerful and smart antennas that essentially increase their power toward the direction of connected clients automatically, using a technology called beamforming.
2. Equipment
Now that you have placed your router properly and still don't find enough improvement, it's time to check the equipment. Get ready to spend some money.
Router: Ideally you just want to have one wireless broadcaster at home and for most homes, a single router is good enough. That said, if you have a small house and the router (put in the middle) can't cover every corner, it's time to consider replacing it. I'd recommend one on these lists.
Many wireless router can also work as an access point. In this case its WAN port is used like a LAN port.Dong Ngo/CNET
Access point: A separate access point is an ideal solution for a large and sprawling home, one that you can't put the router in the center, or one with a deep basement, with an existing router. Basically, you want to put the second access point at the location where the signal of the existing router can't reach or gets really weak. A typical example of this setup is where you have the main router in the living room and the second access point in the basement.
Now the trick is to connect the access point to the router. Ideally, you want to run a network cable from the router to the access point (you want to connect the access point's LAN port to one of the router's LAN ports). If this is too much of a job, you can resort to power-line networking.
Note: Many routers can also work as an access point and will indicate this in its list of features. In this case the router's WAN port will work as a LAN port. In fact, for the secondary access point scenario, it's best to use two identical routers, one as the main, and the second as an access point for the far side of the house. This way you don't have to learn about two different devices.
Power line: A power-line adapter basically turns your home's electrical wiring into network cables; this is more clearly explained in Part 1. In the case of the separate access point scenario above, you can use a pair of power-line adapters, such as the D-Link DHP-510AV. Connect one of the adapters to the router and the other to the access point, using network cables. After that, if you want to make your home network seamless, name the Wi-Fi network (or SSID) of the access point the same as that of the existing router. In this case, make sure you use the same security settings (encryption key, method, and so on). Or you can also keep them as two separate Wi-Fi networks for easy management.
There are also power-line adapter kits with a built-in access point, called power-line range extenders, such as the Netgear XAVNB2001. In this case, you don't need to get the second access point/router.
In addition to power line, you can also opt for a pair of MoCA adapters. MoCA stands for Multimedia over Coax Alliance, and similar to power line, turns coax cables (those used by cable TV) into network cables. MoCA adapters are great solutions for homes with multiple cable outlets in different rooms. I don't have a lot of experience with MoCA, however, since it's not possible to test those at my office.
Range extender/repeater: These are wireless devices that can connect to an existing Wi-Fi network and then rebroadcast that same network's signal farther. Most of these devices support Wi-Fi Protected Setup and can connect to the existing router with the push of a button; after that, you can just put one at the edge of the existing network's Wi-Fi range and have that range increased.
I am not a fan of this type of device because of a few reasons:
First, it's hard to gauge their effectiveness; you need to put a range extender/repeater relatively close to the existing router for it to have a good connection with the main network, but at the same time far enough for it to really extend the range. It's very hard to find the sweet spot for it to be effective both in terms of range and connection quality.
Second, the repeater basically duplicates the existing Wi-Fi network with one of its own, and as mentioned above, Wi-Fi signals are broadcast in all directions. This means devices in the area where the two networks overlap have to deal with interference and signal saturation. This is especially bad for the 2.4Ghz band.
That said, a range extender/repeater is still the fastest way to relatively extend a Wi-Fi network's coverage.
You can easily find out a home network router's IP address by running the ipconfig command from any connected computer.Dong Ngo/CNET
3. Settings One of the problems with Wi-Fi networks is the risk of losing your bandwidth to unauthorized users. This part helps you secure your network and optimize it for speed. Note that it's slightly more advanced and might seem intimidating to novice users. But you will be a novice no more if you go through with it. This part is only recommended for those interested in learning more about networking.
Rule of thumb:Make sure you back up the router's configuration settings before making changes. This allows you to restore it to previous settings in case something goes wrong.
With the exception of networking products from Apple, most, if not all, other routers and access points on the market comes with a Web interface. This means that from a connected computer, you can open up the router's management Web page by going to its IP address. Unless you have changed it, the default IP address is generally printed on the bottom of the router, or on its user guide, and tends to be in this format: 192.168.x.1.
It's easy to find out your router's IP address; here are the common steps to get to any home network's router's Web interface:
Step 1: From a connected computer (running Windows Vista or 7), click on Start button, type "cmd" in the search area, then press Enter. (If you use Windows XP, you can navigate the Start Menu and run the Command Prompt item.)
Step 2: Now in the black command prompt window, type in "ipconfig," then press Enter. You will see lots of information displayed in the window. Find the string of number after Default Gateway, that's the router's IP address.
Step 3: Type that IP address in the address bar of a browser, such as Firefox, and press Enter; now you are at the router's Web interface. You will have to log in with an account. The username is almost always admin; for the password, check the router's manual or ask the person who first set up the network for you.
The Web interface offers a convenient and extensive way to manage a router's or access point's settings.Dong Ngo/CNET
On the Web interface, the following wireless settings will help your network stay safe:
Network name and password: Most if not all routers come with a default Wi-Fi network name (or SSID) and password; you won't want to use those. This is mostly because that reveals to advanced users which router you have and that, well, you don't know much about networking. Changing the SSID and password to your liking also helps you remember them better.
Hide your SSID: By default all routers broadcast the Wi-Fi network name. This makes it convenient since clients can "see" them. Hiding the SSID makes your Wi-Fi network invisible to others. The only drawback is that you have to manually type it in when you want to connect a new client to it. There's a trick for it: turn the SSID on briefly when you want to connect a new client, once that's done, hide it again. Note that hiding your network's name doesn't help much against advanced hackers, however, since there are tools that help you easily circumvent this.
Use WPA 2: Using the WPA 2 encryption method helps both increase the security and the speed of the Wi-Fi signal. The only catch is that WPA 2 might not be compatible with older clients. Most new clients released in the past few years support WPA 2, however. You can try using WPA 2 first and if some of your clients are unable to connect, switch it back to WPA.
In addition, once you have accessed the router's Web interface, there are many other settings that you can try. For safety, there are also MAC address filters, Internet filtering, and so on. Note that a router generally takes about a minute to restart to apply new settings.
AirDroid 3 brings one of iOS's best new features to Android
This nifty system connects your Android phone to your computer's desktop so you can answer phone calls and reply to text messages remotely.
AirDroid's Android app.Josh Miller/CNET
This year, iPhones gained the ability wirelessly communicate with Macs, thanks to Continuity, a feature in iOS 8 and Mac OS X Yosemite. Now Androids can do the same thing with the help of third-party appAirDroid, which recently got a major update to version 3.0.
The update brings really neat new features that let you answer phone calls, send files, respond to texts and more all right from your PC or Mac desktop. I'll explore some of the most interesting features in AirDroid 3, and help you get the most from them.
Getting started with AirDroid
Before I dive into the cool new features, let's talk about how to get started using AirDroid. You'll need to download the free app on your Android phone or tablet and the free desktop client for Windows orMac. You can use AirDroid from the company's Web portal, but for the features I'm discussing here, you'll need the desktop program.
Either create a new AirDroid account, or log into your existing one on both the desktop and mobile apps and follow the set-up processes in both. The mobile app will ask permission to access your notifications, which is crucial for the system's new features.
You can view all of your phone's notifications in AirDroid. New notifications also pop up on your screen as well.Screenshot by Sarah Mitroff/CNET
Notifications
One of AirDroid's best features is that it can display notifications from your phone on your desktop. That way you can see messages, Instagram likes, calendar alerts, emails, Facebook notifications and more without picking up your phone.
Once you install the AirDroid app, it will ask for permission to read your notifications. It's as simple as flipping a switch and your notifications will appear on your computer's desktop, right alongside your other windows.
You can choose which app's notifications appear on your desktop, turning off those that you don't want to bother you. Most notifications show up for a few seconds before disappearing. There's an alert tone turned on by default, but if you find it annoying, you can shut it off.
Text message notifications let you reply to the message.Screenshot by Sarah Mitroff/CNET
Phone calls and texts
Notifications for calls and texts have a few extra features. Along with seeing who's calling or texting, you can also interact with those alerts.
For phone calls, you can accept the call, which answers it on your phone. Unlike using an iPhone and Mac running Yosemite, you can't actually talk through your computer on the call. You'll need to pick up your handset to chat. Remotely answering a phone call worked most of the time in my testing, but I noticed I needed to click the answer button during the first two to three rings, otherwise it wouldn't pick up in time before it went to voicemail.
You can reject calls from the pop-up alert too and even send an automatic text message response explaining why you can't answer. Also, you can simply mute your phone, which is helpful for when your loud ringer goes off at the office and you need to silence it.
With incoming phone calls, you can accept or reject it.Screenshot by Sarah Mitroff/CNET
Screen mirroring, but for rooted phones only
Another cool feature of AirDroid is the ability to view and interact with your Android's screen from a window on your computer. This feature, called AirMirror, is still in beta and it only works on rooted phones running Android 4.0 and up (but not 5.0 Lollipop yet).
Using AirMirror, you can see all of the parts of your phone, from settings, games and apps, from your computer screen. I wasn't able to test it out fully, since I didn't have a rooted phone to test, but the tool's promise is quite neat especially for Android power users.
Extra features on the Web
AirDroid's Web portal is the original place to interact with your Android device on a computer, and it still has more features than AirDroid's new desktop programs. Using the website you can access your phone or tablet's file system, ringtones and photos. You can also take remote screenshots and use the camera to take and record photos.
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