You should always backup your important files and documents so that you don't lose them in case your hard drive crashes or you lose your laptop or in the event that you accidentally delete your data. Backup Nexus is a new online backup software that acts just like any other online backup software but it is very different from conventional backup software. Instead of uploading your files for backup to a remote server, you upload them to the computers of other users using the Backup Nexus service. In return, some of your own hard disk space is used to save files by other users. If you are paranoid about your files being saved on other computers, you don't need to worry - the files are protected with multiple layers of encryption.
It is still a preview release, the final version of the software should come soon. If you participate in the preview release, you can use their premium service for 6 months. Also, the free 20 GB service will remain available for ever. You can download it here - Backup Nexus Download.
Once you install it, just run it and it will guide you through the setup process. Create an account and sign up for the service. Click Next, and you should see the Backup Nexus Dashboard.
To backup any folder, just click on Backup a Folder and select the folder you want to back up. It will be uploaded to the Backup network. If you want to restore a folder you previously uploaded to the backup service, just click on Restore a Folder, select the folders you want to restore and click on the Restore button. The uploading / downloading speeds are generally good but can fluctuate a lot.
If at any time during backup, you want to check the backup status, just click on the folder name. You can also recover deleted or previous version of files in the folders you selected for backup. Just click on Restore a Deleted or Previous version, browse to the file you want and click on it to display a list of the various versions of that file. Select the vesrion you want and click on Save File as to download it.
All in all, it is a very nice free service which allows you to backup your important files. It is fast and has very low hardware requirements. The uploading / downloading speeds can be very low at times and can take hours to backup / restore even small files. The user interface is very simple and uncomplicated and runs on your browser. It is definitely worth a try.