ASUS WebStorage. Seriously?

[countrystrong]

When I bought my new ASUS notebook, I was happy to find out that ASUS gives 32GB of free web storage for 3 years to its customers. Good!, I said to myself.
Before actually starting to use it, though, I wanted to know more about it, so I googled "ASUS WebStorage". Most pages I found were by users having problems with the service and sometimes having lost all their data BOTH online AND in the synced folder on their PC.
Well, I said to myself, maybe ASUS has fixed those issues by now. Maybe there are many satisfied users but only the few who have had issues write about their bad user experience.

So, let me try it myself.
For starters, there was a notification on Windows taskbar recommending that I updated the Webstorage app to the latest version, and I readily complied.
Then I run the WS app and logged in using the WebStorage ID I had received when I signed up to an ASUS VIP account to register my product.
To my surprise, my WebStorage was a basic account with 5GB only, not the promised 32GB.
How do I claim the bonus space now? It is not explained anywhere.
The WebStorage help just says to activate using the bundled preinstaled software. But I updated the app to the latest version before running it, because the app told me to do so. Maybe that was my "mistake".

Ok, I said to myself, there must be some other way to claim the 32GB anyway. So I went to the Asus WebStorage FORUM- http/forum.asuswebstorage.com/ and I was going to read some threads from users havng similar problems.
Then, all of a sudden, the forum page was unavailable: all I got was an internal error message from the web server

Server Error in '/' Application.

Index was outside the bounds of the array.

etc. etc.

Well, there is a less than helpful Asus WeStorage BLOG too, with a nice Happy Chinese New Year card on it, and a "Happy Halloween!!! ASUS WebStorage Celebrates the Holiday with You!"

Great!

http/blog.asuswebstorage.com/


After an hour the forum page was still unavailable. Then it happened again the following day: I could read it for a short time, then it vanished into thin air.

I asked myself: are these people going to provide a RELIABLE cloud storage for my precious data, if they can't even run a web forum?
Hmm.

Anyway, even if I only have a 5GB account for now, I gave it a quick try.

The least I can say is that it is, well, confusing. For instance, in the settings in the WS app, the Collaboration folder is set to a folder of its own, but when I created a collaboration subfolder in the WS web page, it was created under the MySync WebStorage folder.

Finally, on the WS website I noticed a button in Chinese! They did not bother to translate it to English! That was the final straw.

 

[iceblitzed]

might as well get a gmail/microsoft account. they give you 15gb

 

[countrystrong]

@iceblitzed Yes, I subscribed to MS SkyDrive/OneDrive too. It works just fine. The only downside is that it requires that I login to Windows with my Hotmail/Outlook email password.

But, you know, cloud storage space is never enough, so I was eager to use the 32GB free storage offered by ASUS with my new ASUS notebook.

After the complications I experienced, though, and after reading some more "horror stories" from unsatisfied customers on the ASUS Webstorage forums, I think I'll stay away from it and uninstall their app for good.

 

[Guest]

it's better to buy an external HDD, 2TB are valued between 70$ and 120$, it's faster, doesn't require an internet connection, never fails, you only pay once for it and it's in a safe place.

 

[countrystrong]

@buenopure4 An external HDD is a good thing, but cloud storage allows you to access your data from anywhere, even when you are on the move, for instance from your smartphone, tablet, from your friends' computer, and so on.
Also, cloud storage saves your data in case of catastrophic events in your house, like water flooding, a fire, thieves, etc., which might destroy or take away BOTH your PC and the external HDD.

 

[Guest]

@buenopure4 An external HDD is a good thing, but cloud storage allows you to access your data from anywhere, even when you are on the move, for instance from your smartphone, tablet, from your friends' computer, and so on.
Also, cloud storage saves your data in case of catastrophic events in your house, like water flooding, a fire, thieves, etc., which might destroy or take away BOTH your PC and the external HDD.

if you're on the move you probably don't have an active internet connection. Anyway, you made a good point by pointing out that your data is safe in case of catastrophic events. Although a catastrophic event could happen to the Cloud Storage Manager's Facility they may have backups, and even backups of their backups , That's an advantage from Cloud Storage Over HDDs

 

[countrystrong]

Besides, THREE copies (PC + ext HDD + cloud storage) is usually safer than just two

provided the sync software does not fail and erase everything!