I have started my own journey into Backblaze storage

One thing to note, if anyone is considering this, that I did not before uploading to Backblaze is that Xfinity/Comcast has a data limit on my internet that I am not allowed to go over without incurring charges. I have never come close to that number until August while uploading to Backblaze.

12 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

One thing to note, if anyone is considering this, that I did not before uploading to Backblaze is that Xfinity/Comcast has a data limit on my internet that I am not allowed to go over without incurring charges. I have never come close to that number until August while uploading to Backblaze.

 

 

See if you can get CenturyLink. Unlimited 1Gbps up/down for $65 per month on this side of town :~)

5 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

See if you can get CenturyLink. Unlimited 1Gbps up/down for $65 per month on this side of town :~)

I tried. Century Link was happy to take my money and set up an install date. Tech showed up at my house on time and said that he didn't understand why they scheduled the install, Century Link doesn't have fiber here on my street yet...

My Brother has unlimited, so we finished the upload from his end after I received the email from Comcast telling me I was about to exceed my bandwidth limit. If I could switch to either Century Link or USI, I would in a heartbeat. I have friends who live in Linden Hills and they adore USI Fiber.

1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I tried. Century Link was happy to take my money and set up an install date. Tech showed up at my house on time and said that he didn't understand why they scheduled the install, Century Link doesn't have fiber here on my street yet...

 

My Brother has unlimited, so we finished the upload from his end after I received the email from Comcast telling me I was about to exceed my bandwidth limit. If I could switch to either Century Link or USI, I would in a heartbeat. I have friends who live in Linden Hills and they adore USI Fiber.

 

Anyone stuck on Comcast as I am: Upload at the end of one month and beginning of the next so you effectively double the limit.

Edit: Also, Comcast offers unlimited for an extra $30/month. They gave me a free one-month trial of the unlimited service (that is, no additional cost beyond the regular service). So that's another way around the monthly cap.

1 hour ago, Jud said:

 

Anyone stuck on Comcast as I am: Upload at the end of one month and beginning of the next so you effectively double the limit.

 

Edit: Also, Comcast offers unlimited for an extra $30/month. They gave me a free one-month trial of the unlimited service (that is, no additional cost beyond the regular service). So that's another way around the monthly cap.

I am just morally opposed to giving them more money.

7 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I am just morally opposed to giving them more money.

I'm not eager to either, which is why I gave two strategies for avoiding that.

This post is titled storage but, Backblaze is back up, not storage. The two should not be confused.

I only use it for off site back up and only of files and documents. So music and documents.

But I “store” my files on an external SSD which I mirror (back up 1) and also run TimeMachine for back up number 2 to an external HD. I keep some things in iCloud like PDFs of manuals for equipment, notes, etc. and I used to use Google Drive when it was free for some things but, no more.

Backblaze is the final back up and, if I ever have to use it, I have bigger problems!

I had it for three years for some crazy low number like $40. But then it was $110 for two years. Which I think is too high. Then I got another year for $65. I just looked and it will be $189 for the next renewal for two years! Their billing is also very confusing and I am not even sure if those numbers are correct. It almost seems deliberately confusing or the VP in charge is totally incompetent.

I am going to have to look for a different back up company. :-(

If there was a back up that was cheap — say $35 a year — but then charged you $100 per 2.5 TB to get all the files in a big disaster, I would do that for sure. If insurance paid for it, all the better.

16 minutes ago, actuel audio said:

Backblaze is the final back up and, if I ever have to use it, I have bigger problems!

Ha! I agree. 
 

Take a look at iDrive. Cheap pricing, for now. The MO of all these companies is to get you in with low prices, the increase down the road. Such is life. 

7 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Ha! I agree. 
 

Take a look at iDrive. Cheap pricing, for now. The MO of all these companies is to get you in with low prices, the increase down the road. Such is life. 

I just looked at iDrive. $69.65 a year. A little cheaper but, still to high IMO. Plus the hassle of doing it. Will have to pay for both for a month or two to be sure it is all good, etc. :-(

I am just one user and one computer but, usually there is nothing for that kind of user that makes sense. I bet it costs them $10 a year to back up my stuff. Tops. So it has to be a high profit margin operation. Ripe for the picking by a low cost service entrepreneur. Especially if they make a “deductible” style back up plan that is cheap, say 25-50 a year until you need your stuff, then you pay $100 to get it. But under 2.5 TB. Businesses, of course, would pay more for more.

1 hour ago, actuel audio said:

This post is titled storage but, Backblaze is back up, not storage. The two should not be confused.

I suppose that's a point... It was never my intent to claim someone should store their music files for playback on Backblaze and I think most people here are intelligent enough to figure that out.

For most people it's absolutely fine for storing music to playback from. I appreciate readers here may have different priorities to others, but music streaming seems to work for many people.

1 minute ago, Dan Gravell said:

For most people it's absolutely fine for storing music to playback from. I appreciate readers here may have different priorities to others, but music streaming seems to work for many people.

Direct from Backblaze? 

B2, yes.

3 minutes ago, Dan Gravell said:

B2, yes.

Via which app?

Via any app that either connects directly (e.g. https://www.blisshq.com/music-library-management-blog/2021/02/10/comparison-best-cloud-music-players/  ) or plays the files via an S3 compatible sync or virtual filesystem.

On 12/28/2023 at 5:00 PM, Jud said:

I used Astiga for a while, worked fine, but Backblaze charges for that usage. And there’s also a decision to make regarding whether to use B2 or Backblaze’s unlimited personal storage. For large collections the latter is less expensive, but in terms of capabilities is essentially limited purely to offsite backup (no cloud player, etc.).

Thanks for the feedback 🙂 . Understand about the fees - egress is coming down across the board, so I think things are going in the right direction.

Comcast finally got me...  $120 bucks in overage charges...  Time to get Century Link on the phone and start talking to them about getting Fiber to my neighborhood...

I am sure that my messing around with backblaze and testing various methods of backing up are what caused this.

3 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

Comcast finally got me...  $120 bucks in overage charges...  Time to get Century Link on the phone and start talking to them about getting Fiber to my neighborhood...

 

I am sure that my messing around with backblaze and testing various methods of backing up are what caused this.

Yeah, that's my biggest complaint about Comcast, the data cap. They let you blow through it one month, then start charging. $30 extra per month lifts the cap.

1 hour ago, Jud said:

 

Yeah, that's my biggest complaint about Comcast, the data cap. They let you blow through it one month, then start charging. $30 extra per month lifts the cap.

yep, this is also the month my promotion ended so my bill is MASSIVE at the moment... I am just fed up with Comcast to the point I am almost willing to pay to get Century Link to run fiber to my house.

1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

yep, this is also the month my promotion ended so my bill is MASSIVE at the moment... I am just fed up with Comcast to the point I am almost willing to pay to get Century Link to run fiber to my house.

Presume you've already talked to the customer retention people? Got my bill lowered by $20/month, though still have the cap....

32 minutes ago, Jud said:

 

Presume you've already talked to the customer retention people? Got my bill lowered by $20/month, though still have the cap....

Actually, not yet. I did talk to Century Link today to see if they managed to run fiber down my street yet. I will though. It used to be as easy as posting on the Comcast subreddit, but I think they did away with that.

So, I have figured out how to get my Backblaze B2 buckets mounted locally on my Ubuntu desktop and can drag and drop, or use rsync, etc... to upload files, at the expense of the use of a whole lot of bandwidth. If you have a cap on your bandwidth usage, this is probably not the route you would want to take.

edit: To get the Backblaze B2 buckets mounted requires rclone be set up and functioning first.