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Online backup access while traveling?

Online backup access while traveling?

Old Jul 23, 2011, 6:16 pm
  #1  
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Online backup access while traveling?

Is anyone out there using online backup to store their data remotely and access it while away from home or office? How does it work? Is it safe? Any service recommendations? Thanks!
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Old Jul 24, 2011, 4:39 am
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Depends on how much data...
Few gigs (couple files/folder maybe a few pics, some music)
M$ Live <insert flavour of the month>
Drop Box
Sugar Sync
ZumoDrive
Amazon
mozy*
carbonite*
To name a few, DIY is also an option. Most 'give' you 2-5 gigs, after that you will need to pay an fee.
* = 50 to unlimited gb of storage available, with a monthly subscription or annual plan.

All the above pretty much work 'automagically' you install a client and they work. Use common sense with any cloud/remote storage service. Read and understand the EULA/ToS/AUP and ALWAYS encrypt anything you don't want someone to have access too.

How does it work? Best to read each products 'How does it work' description.

Is it safe? Yes & NO, Read the ToS/AUP/EULA, You may be giving away the rights to anything saved on their servers. Again, encrypt anything you don't want anyone else but you to have access to. With out saying work files should always be encrypted no matter what! Industrial espionage happens anywhere & everywhere. Understand your companies policies regarding travel with company data.

Any service recommendations?
Sugar Sync for most every day use.
Others will chime in shortly I bet.

Last edited by Flahusky; Jul 24, 2011 at 4:48 am Reason: idk
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Old Jul 24, 2011, 10:38 am
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I purchased a 20GB subscription to DropBox when MobileMe iDisk stopped working and I never looked back since.


Originally Posted by Flahusky
ALWAYS encrypt anything you don't want someone to have access too.
x2

TrueCrypt is a reliable open source encryption software for Mac, PC and Linux. If you are using a Mac, Disk Utility allows you a make a encrypted disk image to store files on. I personally dont store important info on DropBox, I keep it on a encrypted thumb drive.
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Old Jul 24, 2011, 1:52 pm
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Originally Posted by UAL1200
I purchased a 20GB subscription to DropBox when MobileMe iDisk stopped working and I never looked back since.




x2

TrueCrypt is a reliable open source encryption software for Mac, PC and Linux. If you are using a Mac, Disk Utility allows you a make a encrypted disk image to store files on. I personally dont store important info on DropBox, I keep it on a encrypted thumb drive.
I also highly suggest DropBox. It's great for keeping my several computers in sync AND backs up to the cloud very efficiently.

You might want to look into the "pack rat" archiving options which will cost a little extra but they'll keep files you've deleted after uploading them forever, I believe.
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Old Jul 24, 2011, 2:50 pm
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Welcome to Flyertalk

A bit more information.

What type of data, personal or business?
How much data, a few Gigs or hundreds?
How recent, is it a backup you want once a month or once a week, or live so that every time you change a file it gets copied over?
Is backup what you are looking for or just having files accessible while you are on the road? There are products for either.
What type of connection are you talking about when on the road, the speed of the connection will greatly impact the performance.

Personally I use dropbox, I was a huge fan of the microsoft solution but they no longer support XP so I moved over to dropbox. It took a while for the first upload of a couple gigs of data, but after that it's been flawless.

I used it both on machines that would auto sync, and at work where I would manually pull and place files to the "cloud"
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Old Jul 24, 2011, 11:04 pm
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I use Dropbox for replicating basically-public stuff between my two main computers, and it works great.

For backups, I use CrashPlan with an unlimited family plan that was cheap after Mozy raised their prices. My backups are encrypted locally (with a key they don't have access to), they work whether I'm at home or on the road (unlike Time Machine), and I was able to seed an initial backup (1tb from three machines) over FedEx instead of my residential connection. It's already saved me once: I had a hard drive die while I was a long way from Miami, ordered a replacement drive, and was back up and running with the photos I took on the trip waiting in CrashPlan hours after I got home.

It works fine on my three Macs, not sure how the Windows or Linux clients are.
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Old Jul 24, 2011, 11:56 pm
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I use the Microsoft solution as I have found that it very nicely keeps my documents in sync between two Windows PCs and a Mac. It has a relatively easy online interface that lets you view what is in your cloud and download from. It is currently called Windows Live Mesh. As far as safety, I figure it is as safe as any other information I have up in remote servers somewhere (email with Gmail/Google, contacts with MobileMe/Apple, etc.). You install an app on your computer and it runs in the background and keeps files/folders you select in sync between your machines and the cloud.
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Old Jul 25, 2011, 8:28 am
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Originally Posted by SC8254
Is anyone out there using online backup to store their data remotely and access it while away from home or office? How does it work? Is it safe? Any service recommendations? Thanks!
Currently I am using Timeline Cloud really great software, the backup is to Amazon S3 which is safer than private storage. I only needed 5 minutes to set up for everything. Now I am accessing my data through iPhone anytime anywhere which is really handy, and it is very safe as they use high level of military encryption. Definitely recommend checking them out. You can check them here: http://www.timelinecloud.com/
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Old Jul 26, 2011, 12:59 am
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If you are relying on Internet access to get at the stuff, why not leave it at home (presumably a desktop) and access it remotely on your travelling device etc?

I now mainly travel with an iPad, and access my desktop using LogMeIn, there is a good free option and paid options too (ignition for iPhone and iPad I have).

I can get control of all my information securely when I have Internet or wifi access, and it does not leave my control (if you have security issues with offsite storage)

I use Dropbox to hold and sync some files.

After note: see post #11, - something like LogMeIn let's you access this remotely, rather than trust it to "the cloud" only.

Last edited by antichef; Jul 26, 2011 at 4:53 pm Reason: Comment on later post giving other option
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Old Jul 26, 2011, 1:36 am
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Currently I am using Timeline Cloud really great software, the backup is to Amazon S3 which is safer than private storage. I only needed 5 minutes to set up for everything. Now I am accessing my data through iPhone anytime anywhere which is really handy, and it is very safe as they use high level of military encryption. Definitely recommend checking them out. You can check them here: http://www.timelinecloud.com/
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Old Jul 26, 2011, 2:14 am
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I've tried out many of these -- SugarSync ended up being my preferred choice.
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Old Jul 26, 2011, 7:27 am
  #12  
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Sugarsync created duplicate files on both computers. A huge hassle to subsequently delete every other file.

Syncplicity has been dead-simple to use and has a nice iPhone app too.
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Old Jul 26, 2011, 8:27 am
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I don't trust everything to the cloud -- personal files are stored at home on a Windows Home Server (with 10TB) and duplication. I make a weekly backup of most of that onto a 3TB external drive which goes in a safe. Music is all backed up through Amazon, cloud services are backed up with Backupify. I do have a Dropbox account which stores TrueCrypt files containing my most important documents.
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Old Jul 26, 2011, 9:51 am
  #14  
 
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Online backup

Online backup services are a good way to have an offsite backup, but you
must have a local backup too especially with large files because it
might take several hours to recover your data in case of a hard drive
crash. I use Backup Freedom online backup , the service is reliable and not expensive.
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Old Jul 27, 2011, 8:51 am
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I'm only using DropBox for all my storage and I'm loving it. Clean and simple and does exactly what it's suppose to do. There are probably tons of good arguments why you shouldn't rely on these "cloud storage" services but personally I consider it just as safe as if I had to keep a backup myself.
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