Upline - unlimited online backup service from HP

[Defcon]

HP has launched a new backup service called Upline (www.upline.com) with unlimited storage for $5/month. It looks very attractive for me as a home user because of following reasons :-

- its from HP, not some startup, not likely to go down
- its not free, so I know they have a business plan. Most free services become paid once they hook the users
- unlimited storage sounds good

Things I'm not sure about -

- do they really mean unlimited? What happens when I upload 500gb of data (not that my crappy Comcast upload speeds will allow it)
- whats to prevent someone from stealing my data once its online. This is a concern I have with all online backups - the only way to be sure is to encrypt before uploading, but then I can't just upload existing files.
- will they have some limit on bandwidth for the home accounts?

Anyway it looks quite interesting and I will be watching it closely.

[Peter2150]

I agree - looks very interesting indeed.

[Coolio10]

Looks like a good deal. The client looks nice.

Here is a review i dug up

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...up-client.html

Sounds good from that review.

Can even host video/images publicly so you could use it to replace imageshack.

[ccsito]

Sounds interesting. And I will be getting a new HP laptop soon. However, corporate is too cheap to allow any additional options to the system.

[Defcon]

I signed up for Limited (1GB). The Upline client refuses to run under Vista SP1 with an error "Upline.exe is not a valid Win32 application" !!

I was able to upload thru the web interface at quite low speeds (~60KBps) even at my fast work connection.

I am going to try at home but if I can't even run their application thats not a good sign!

[Peter2150]

I saw the need for the software and that was a turnoff. I currently use Iomega's Istorage, and it works great, with no software.

[lucas1985]

Originally Posted by Defcon

- its from HP, not some startup, not likely to go down

HP Upline hosted storage has been suspended for five days (and counting) allegedly due to some potentially disastrous bugs. Already, competing services are attempting to cash in.

HP has not officially cited the reason for the service's suspension, but in a comment to TechCrunch last Friday, member Ridz may have proven to have experienced Upline's fatal flaw: His application was connecting him to another member's account.

Today, in an obvious attempt to capitalize on the disgust from Upline's early adopters, a Sponsored Link on a Google search of "HP Upline" yields a site with the tag line "Is Upline jerking you around?" linking to a company called Mozy (a subsidiary of storage giant EMC) offering a similar service.

Article

[Huupi]

you never know who get the hands on this uploaded stuff.