Check it out.

www.xdrive.com

If you have an AOL email address or screen name, you get a free 5 GB of online storage. If you don't have an AOL screen name or account, you can signup for one free.

They say free 5 GB. But when I logged in, I have 50 GB FREE!

Good place to upload pictures from your trip. The only problem is probably upload speed in third world countries, but it is worth a shot.

How secure is it? Will their employees be going over my photos?

I, personally, would encrypt my files before uploading them to any public storage service.

I'm dabbling with the idea of using a program like pcanywhere to transfer photos and possibly some videos directly to my home computer via the internet. Before I spend the time, anyone have any info on how easy/effective this approach would be?

How effective is encryption? I have Encyption Magic Folders.

Whiterhino:

Depends on a lot of different factors. Never heard of Encryption Magic Folders. Further reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encryption

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard

LAGuy:

Would recommend you just install an FTP server on your machine instead or use Remote Desktop which is built into Windows XP. Then you could map network drives back to your machine using Remote Desktop (built in functionality), but this will be pig slow over a third world internet connection and the protocol is very noisy. FTP would be much better. Think PCAnywhere has a built in file transfer mode, but it is a PIG for controlling your home computer remotely. At least it was the last time I ever used it. (Think like 2000) Remote Desktop is MUCH better.

RDP is also free. And there are also free FTP servers out there for Windows.

Assuming you have broadband at home? Also assume you have some sort of broadband router/wireless router sitting between your cable modem/dsl modem and computer(s)? If not, you should. If you have a broadband router you may need to open your main computer to a DMZ or do some port forwarding for the FTP or RDP clients.

Port forwarding would be better than just having your home computer on a public IP or DMZ. You should probably be behind a broadband router and firewall. A broadband router will NAT your public IP to a private, non publicly routable IP. But then port forwarding will allow ONLY the specified ports to your private, non publicly routable IP behind your broadband router.

It is too much detail to go into here. A lot depends on your environment and how much knowledge you have about broadband, broadband/wireless routers, and how comfortable you are configuring it. Most of it is pretty simple and configurable through a web interface. But some fundamental concepts of home networking and ports are needed to set this up.

Of course, you could also just throw your computer behind a cable modem with a public IP and leave it wide open. This would work for functionality and connectivity, but your computer would probably be hacked within minutes. Especially if you don’t keep your computer patched.

My personal favorite for broadband/wireless routers is the Linksys WRT54G. Forget the speedboost crap. It is a gimmick.

Thanks Xenono. I sort of know what you are talking about but with a little bit of exploring around will hopefully figure it all out. I do have broadband at home and am using a linksys router. I never got around to setting up an effective wireless network at my home but that is my next project. Hopefully, in the process of figuring that out I will become more familiar with some of the other concepts you have referred to.

Thanks as well.Wikipedia is amazing!

Having now used Xdrive and laplink set up to go to my computer, I am wondering whether there are other storage options like Xdrive that aren't as expensive. The first 5 gb on Xdrive are free, but the next 45 gb cost around $100 a year. And I'm not even sure you can buy more than that even if you pay double.

Laplink works okay, but the last time I tried using it for file transfers my home computer went down and I was shit out of luck for the rest of the trip (with the caveat that it was at that point I started using Xdrive).

Thanks for any help.

Another way to get free storage is just using google...I got 3GB from them and they keep on increasing my allocation (plus I have 2 accounts)

A new option on the scene is Mozy.com. Intended for online backup. And it's only about $5/month.