2011-07-30 // SpiderOak: Cloud 9
Lots of people have adopted Dropbox for convenient online storage. But with the security and privacy issues raised recently you may be looking for a different service. SpiderOak does backups, sharing, and sync; what follows is a walkthrough on getting it set up on your Linux box.
I find SpiderOak to be much more convenient than its cloud competition and from what I can tell (I'm no security expert) it is much more secure too. Interested readers may want to check this Why SpiderOak page. Also, SpiderOak is much more liberal with additional free storage for referral, giving you and additional 1GB for each referral (as opposed to 250M from Dropbox) up to a limit of 50GB.
For this illustration I installed SpiderOak onto a fresh install of Bodhi Linux 1.1.0 in Virtual Box 4.0, but these directions should be applicable to any .deb based Linux system. Other variants are supported by SpiderOak but are not discussed here.
You'll need a SpiderOak account to use their services. One way to go about setting up SpiderOak is to first visit their site and go through the very easy registration. Since the installation of the software quickly walks you through registration that is the method I'll describe here.
First thing: Go download SpiderOak. Even though there are separate listings for Ubuntu and Debian (current), the files are the same for both 32 and 64 bit. At the time of this writing the current version for 32 bit is SpiderOak_9830_i386.deb and for 64 bit is SpiderOak_9830_amd64.deb
Once you have it (it's a small download), open a terminal, navigate to the directory where you downloaded the file, and run:
sudo dpkg -i SpiderOak_9830_i386.deb
Again, from the command line run:
SpiderOak
You'll be greeted by this screen:
Assuming you haven't already created a SpiderOak account select the Create 1st Device button. (If you have an account select Existing User and it will guide you through adding the machine your installing on to your SpiderOak account.)
The next screen is a basic info screen that tell you a little bit about SpiderOak. After clicking next you'll be greeted with a screen asking for a Username and Activation Code.
There is also a link on this screen for a signup page. Clicking that will launch your browser and take you to this page:
That's it, just 6 fields to fill out. Couldn't be easier!
Once you have that filled in and assuming you got the captcha right (don't you just hate those things? A necessary evil.) you'll go to a page that gives you the Activation Code. Highlight and copy that (unless you have a really good memory 
).
Close or minimize your browser and you're back to the SpiderOak installer screen we just left. Enter your Username and Activation Code.
The next screen is where you set your password and (optionally) a password hint.
The next screen is where you name the device (computer) name for the system you just installed SpiderOak on. Once this is done and the encryption keys are generated the SpiderOak application will launch.
Under the Backup tab you will see a tree view of your filesystem. Simply go through and check the boxes for the files/directories you wish to backup. Click the button shown under the mouse in the screenshot to show hidden files. That's it! How much simpler could it be?
You can always access your files from any another computer with a net connection by going to the SpiderOak home page and using the MY LOGIN button.
As I mentioned earlier SpiderOak also does Syncs and Shares, but I'll cover setting those up in another post. The last thing I want to mention is the SpiderOak support and just how fantastic they've been, even to me, a user with a free account. I found a small bug (turns out they already knew about it and fixed it and I had been running a slightly out of date version) and sent an email to their support. I was shocked by the speed and thoroughness of their replies. Way to go SpiderOak!
cheers
mark
Comments
Good luck recovering your password if you lose it. I tried for almost two weeks to get mine reset but support kept dragging things out and sometimes didn't respond for several days. The support was so horrible I quit using SpiderOak.
@Jonquil: The simple solution to that is don't forget your password :P
@Jonquil - Instead of spending two weeks and then blaming SpiderOak for something that is clearly YOUR mistake, you should have spent two MINUTES googling to find that SpiderOak CAN'T reset your password, part of their zero-knowledge security policy.
Sheesh.
cheers
mark
Instead of having to Google for it, it would have been nice if the person I spoke with would have told me that instead of asking me the same questions over and over again.
And I'm being nice by calling it a forgotten password. In all honesty I have no idea how I could have forgotten it… maybe there was a typo during registration.
Either way the fact remains that I will not be using their service again as I require a means to recovering or resetting my password. That is my personal choice and I am entitled to it.
@jonquil
That is strange that they just didn't come out and tell you that right from the start. Too bad that you've had such a bad experience with their support; my experience has been exactly the opposite.
Of course you're entitled to your choice/opinion, didn't mean to imply otherwise.
cheers
mark
Get an additional 1GB of storage at SpiderOak when you register through this link: http://bit.ly/urDKXP
Additional free space.
1. Sign up under a referral link: https://spideroak.com/download/referral/48d0f6684c5fa8cb2b6a460bd6a2429f + 1GB free space (total free space 3GB).
2. Use COUPON CODE: worldbackupday( https://spideroak.com/blog/20110330182326-eric-brian-and-world-backup-day-for-everyone ) + 3 GB space (total free space = 6 GB!)
Leave a comment…
- E-Mail address will not be published.
- Formatting:
//italic// __underlined__
**bold**''preformatted'' - Links:
[[http://example.com]]
[[http://example.com|Link Text]] - Quotation:
> This is a quote. Don't forget the space in front of the text: "> "
- Code:
<code>This is unspecific source code</code>
<code php><?php echo 'PHP'; ?></code>
<code html><strong>(X)HTML</strong></code>
<code css>font-family: Arial,Helvetica;</code>
<code javascript>alert('JS');</code>
<code c>printf('C');</code>
<code cpp>std::cout << 'CPP';</code>
<code java>System.out.println('Java');</code>
SpiderOak has a good proo offer for new accounts: free 6GB on signing up, and then if you choose to upgrade to a paying plan, you get 30% off.
To activate the deal, go to this link http://bit.ly/pCl1ap and use promo code reddit