Yes, I am converting over my ISP, and this includes no longer needing Telstra as a basic phone line system. So I am calling them today to confirm my account has been cancelled.

Ring ring…

So I may be able to help you, please say what this is about…

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So far so good, the upgrade/churn of my internet connection from my old ISP to iiNet is going well. Last Friday, as planned, the technician transferred my connection at the exchange over. My phone went dead and my old services were off-line, it was all happening.

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For two years I have been waiting on my (and other) service providers to get ADSL2+ into my local, suburban, near city exchange. It’s not going to happen, for some reason this is a little box on a reasonable block of land that can’t accommodate new equipment. Of course the behemoth of Telstra has done it, and they have a few resellers, but my provider, TPG which has provided good service, has not even listed my Maidstone exchange for an upgrade any more, no plans, no mention and no light at the end of the tunnel.

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I have mentioned this program before, and as in the article I am about to link to, this simple program can do so much more than the basic service of ‘synching files’ that it was originally intended.

So what could ‘synching files’ mean to you?

I have a computer at home, in fact a few computers at home and also one at work. I have some files that I like to have on-hand at any of these locations. Even if these files are just some simple backups, chances are you will be in the wrong place at the wrong time to find them, and then when you do drag that old backup cd out of a drawer its scratched and out of date anyway.

This is where dropbox comes in handy. It stores your files in a secure account in the cloud. You can get them from anywhere at anytime and if you use it right, they are always up to date.

Case in point, I like the add-ons and options I have setup in Firefox. Various development and other bookmark plug-ins that come in handy. I got a new pc at work, and I could have gone to the trouble of then doing backups and transfer all these bits over to a backup drive and then re-installed them, but I saved myself a lot of work by having dropbox always running on my pc.

I then use a Firefox add-in called FEBE which every week will backup all my add-ons and settings from Firefox to a location on my drive, I point this to my synchronised Dropbox folder. Seconds after doing a regular backup, these files are also in my cloud-dropbox. I got my new pc, I installed dropbox and I re-installed all my latest add-ins and options there and then, no mess no fuss.

OK, You must get Dropbox and also setup an account which is free and easy. Up to 2Gb can be stored there (more if you want to pay a bit) and that’s it.

Next, to do my wonderful Firefox backup trick, get the add-on for FEBE

OK, the final thing that prompted me to write this article, here is 15 hacks, tricks, tips and other things you can use it for… Read on future dropbox fans.