Advice Request Cloud Storage rant following changes to Google Photos

[Ink]

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own / rant.

If you're an existing free or paid user of Google, or Microsoft for Photo and File backups, it might be worth waiting for Google One with VPN to arrive in your region. Currently it is limited to the US. It looks to be relevantly cheap, for $99 a year for 2TB and other discounts and benefits. Link: VPN - Google One

Amazon Prime is also a contender, but I'm not familiar with using their cloud storage. For most it would be an extra app to download and install.
Whereas, as an example, OneDrive is integrated into Windows 10, whether you're an 365 subscriber or not. It's there and available.

iOS users are better off with iCloud Storage plans. I have a 200GB Shared Family plan for £2.50 per month and it works without breaking my wallet.

 

[motox781]

Be forewarned about Google VPN currently, here is what I found about its platform limitations:

"For starters, we will provide the service on Android. Over time, we plan to scale it across more platforms like iOS, ChromeOS, Windows, and Mac. "

 

[codswollip]

If it makes you feel better... Pixel devices will not be impacted by this change. High-quality uploads from Pixel devices will continue to be free and unlimited.

 

[Ink]

If it makes you feel better... Pixel devices will not be impacted by this change. High-quality uploads from Pixel devices will continue to be free and unlimited.

According to some comments on reddit, Pixel 1 has Original for life. Whereas Pixel 2 and 3 have an expiration date for Original quality in 2021/22, thereafter reverting to High Quality.

 

[codswollip]

According to some comments on reddit, Pixel 1 has Original for life. Whereas Pixel 2 and 3 have an expiration date for Original quality in 2021/22, thereafter reverting to High Quality.

Pixel 3a-5 have only unlimited High Quality. Original Quality counts against storage.

 

[LDogg]

Google & VPN in the same sentence is a scary sentence.

~LDogg

 

[Ink]

Google & VPN in the same sentence is a scary sentence.

~LDogg

You use the Internet, you use Windows, you allow your AV to scan all your files. Get over your privacy rights, instead of picking on small things.

 

[LDogg]

You use the Internet, you use Windows, you allow your AV to scan all your files. Get over your privacy rights, instead of picking on small things.

I'm not even worried over privacy rights, all company's, software and apps collate data. It's just Google having a VPN, is like North Korea having a democracy.

~LDogg

 

[SpiderWeb]

Today I tested Google One VPN btw. Here are my findings on a 1 Gbps Internet connection:
-The highest ping ever. Usual ping: 2-7ms. Google One: 70 ms
-Okay bandwidth: Slower than the competition and by design throttled heavily. It is nice to see "Google LLC" but that's it. My connection is usually 800 Mbps, 400 Mbps WiFi. With Google One it drops to around 30-60 Mbps download, 150 Mbps upload. So someone is intentionally throttling the max download speed at the moment.
-Does not connect to the nearest server as advertised. It connected to Mountain View, CA (Northern California). I like in Southern California so no, it does not take advantage of the nearest infrastructure.
-No WireGuard or OpenVPN. Google uses their own propietary VPN protocol
-No always-on/Killswitch support in Android, it does not auto connect at boot/login
-Only available for Android/Chromebook
-But there is more!
+Fast streaming
+Supports Google cast
+Supports QUIC which most VPN protocols don't





Either Google One is slow or it is intentionally throttled for Speedtest sites. I tested this theory by watching 4K 60fps YouTube content and downloading some files and it appears to be true because I am getting FULL speed when I am actually downloading real content with no buffering/stutters. So that is interesting.

 

[SpiderWeb]

Btw as you can see Speedtest recognizes the Google One VPN IP as "Google Fi" which strongly suggests their VPN is just riding off Google Fi's backbone.

 

[LDogg]

Today I tested Google One VPN btw. Here are my findings on a 1 Gbps Internet connection:
-The highest ping ever. Usual ping: 2-7ms. Google One: 70 ms
-Okay bandwidth: Slower than the competition and by design throttled heavily. It is nice to see "Google LLC" but that's it. My connection is usually 800 Mbps, 400 Mbps WiFi. With Google One it drops to around 30-60 Mbps download, 150 Mbps upload. So someone is intentionally throttling the max download speed at the moment.
-Does not connect to the nearest server as advertised. It connected to Mountain View, CA (Northern California). I like in Southern California so no, it does not take advantage of the nearest infrastructure.
-No WireGuard or OpenVPN. Google uses their own propietary VPN protocol
-No always-on/Killswitch support in Android, it does not auto connect at boot/login
-Only available for Android/Chromebook
-But there is more!
+Fast streaming
+Supports Google cast
+Supports QUIC which most VPN protocols don't

View attachment 248933

View attachment 248934

Either Google One is slow or it is intentionally throttled for Speedtest sites. I tested this theory by watching 4K 60fps YouTube content and downloading some files and it appears to be true because I am getting FULL speed when I am actually downloading real content with no buffering/stutters. So that is interesting.

You entered the dark side, your new name shall be known as Darth Web.

~LDogg

 

[SpiderWeb]

You entered the dark side, your new name shall be known as Darth Web.

~LDogg

LOL I had to uninstall. Not having Always-On VPN/Killswitch is making me paranoid. Sometimes it will just silently disconnect after you wake your computer up from sleep and you won't know until you check. It also doesn't work with Windscribe extension so I can't multihop from Windscribe to Google :/

 

[jetman]

I'm surprised that Google have made this move, although that's the danger of relying too much on free services.

I switched to pCloud for storage and I've found them to be really good.