Anyone here in CA familiar with Dropbox and how it works?

I understand that whatever I put in my Dropbox folder on my computer is backed up to the Dropbox website. What I want to better understand is how files/folders are shared.

If I want to share a folder and its contents, where does the person (email address) obtain the files from? My computer? The dropbox website?

I figure once I begin sharing stuff it may become evident. But I don't want to do this until I understand how it works.

Thanks for all the pertinent replies. :-)
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I've been using it with my sister putting our parents' Health care papers and other documents. When you share documents, it will be from the dropbox website.
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I use it myself and my investment club also uses it. The club has a privately shared folder that contains both read and read/write folders.

The files are stored centrally "in the cloud" (I hate that phrase) and are backed up regularly. Your devices sync folders and files everytime you open up the dropbox folder (when you are connected to the Internet).

Conflict detection is surprisingly good...
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I use it with many of my customers at work. It saves tons of time getting the drawings I need to do my bids at work.

My customer sends me an invite, I accept it and depending on the size of the folder, I have access to the drawings in a matter of minutes and can pick and choose which ones i download to my desktop.

I also use the phone app which allows me to send a tiny url to my email addy so I can download and work at home.

I personally love it!!! :-) Easier than yousendit!

Just be careful when you delete files. If the folder is shared, once you delete from the folder, then it is gone and no one else can see it.
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I find the sync process to be very slow and it really degrades response time surfing the net if syncing is in progress.
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I use it to send my team their workouts, videos, pictures...... I use the App also( don't really care for the app). I feel it syncs almost instantly. Ill help kids set it up on their phone then send them the folder and it is there.
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I dont want to take over this fiurm but i have a questions about file share. I am really nervis with placing my files on the web. As someone who has has there computer hacked before I am that it will happen again. How safe is it?
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Peter. From what I know from my limited use of dropbox, the public folder is the only info people other than you can access. I know you can email/post a link to the specific file and i think the whole public folder.
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I have not noticed this; out of curiosity how much data are you sync'ing?
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Just under 2GB.
I did find the settings that limited upload speed. Changed it to use maximum but it still will take hours.
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Just started using Dropbox this evening. It appears to me you can share any folder in the Dropbox. But I could be mistaken.
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You may be right. I've only used the public folder for a folder and just left anything else outside of a folder.
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I don't plan on using Dropbox as a "cloud". Just as a temporary spot to pass along some files.
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People can view the public folder, you can make a new folder send the link and share it with anyone you invite to it, there is a setting that lets those people have the ability to share. You can also share just a document. Right now I have 31 kids sharing a folder that I put their workouts in each week.

You start with 2G of memory free. You can get another 1G by doing the tour stuff. And more free memory by inviting people.
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The folder is virtual and kept on dropbox servers. Easiest way to see what it is really doing is to go to the Dropbox folder from 2 different pc's. Dropbox is a good product and with 2 GB free it's a no brainer for simple sharing. I use it personally.
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Right now I have about .5GB. I did not notice how long the initial sync took, but I no longer notice the sync time any more.

I recently tried to upload a 1.28 GB video to the Internet and I do recall that it took a couple of hours and I can see how this could be even slower on Dropbox.

Good luck, Peter!
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I have it as well Peter and it works great for what what I need it for. Like you, I only use it to pass larger files I wish to share with certain folks.
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I love dropbox, I've been backing up and uploading some music and photos of which I can share with anyone. I can share certain folders and people can stream or even download whatever I have uploaded. I would turn off auto sync and just sync things manually if you don't like the speed of which your ISP is uploading. I would upload the smaller files first and then save the bigger ones for when you are going to bed.

Two things if you are worried about encryption with dropbox...
http://lifehacker.com/5794486/how-to...ion-to-dropbox

and then

http://gizmodo.com/5937961/dropbox-j...-go-turn-it-on
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Here you go Peter
https://www.dropbox.com/help/category/Sharing

BTW, hope to meet you at a herf someday :-)
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Just a thought but if you are not looking for a place to store the files but rather a way to send large files other than email, there is a free site WeSendIt that can send up to 2GB at a time and has worked well in my limited experience with it.
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