Check out www.mozy.com

They make a really easy to use remote backup program. For typical users, it is free and the speed is very good. You get 2GB of storage for free without any strings. If you need more you pay $4.95 per month for unlimited. I think they will frown on you if you upload 200GB if storage. At that rate, they would move you over to a business account where you are charged a fee for each gigabyte.

Hope it helps anyone. Just wanting to give back to fellow FT's out there.

It has good reviews from reputable sources, WSJ, NYT and Business Week. But I'd avoid about putting my sensitive or personal data on someone's server, even if it says "Encrypted files on the server", etc.

And obviously you'd not want to make this your first nor only backup destination. I'd keep the media. What happens if that organization one day decides to stop offering the service, and they just shut off their backup service or their servers.

I've never quite understood the point of using online backup services:

1. The data is transferred to a 3rd party with unknown/unverified privacy controls
2. It is relatively slow to backup data via the internet
3. Who has only 2gb of valuable files?
4. How do you know the backup company is going to exist in X years?

I use my own website for temporary file storage and even for files that I need to access multiple times from multiple computers. But I would never consider putting my secure data out on the net for who knows who to access. Even encrypted I would still be concerned.

Does anyone find online backup services useful? If so, what purpose do you use it for and why do you like it verses the alternatives?

#1. No, not at all. #2) never plan to use it.

USB External hard drives are at or below 50� per Gb these days. So these guys are offering you $1 worth of storage, with questionable security, and unknown long term reliability. Not worth it in my opinion.

DVD RW's

something like 6 gigs.

One time fee for the software, and that's not all that much.

Instantly retrievable if I need it.

Every night at 2 am the machine just makes an incremental, when that disk is full I make a bull backup and start over (that's months between)

I don't get the entire online backup thing either.

I like to use an external LaCie hard drive. I have a Firewire 400 that I used to use with my iBook before it passed away. I currently have a LaCie 250GB external that I use for my Dell laptop back-ups via Retrospect software. IF you had to use a third party online back-up, Digital Forest in WA is good for Mac. Not sure for PC. But definitely use software compression and good encryption of your data before transmitting over the open on the Internet, as it is all in clear text if the sessions are not protected by SSL.

Last comment: Western Digital has some cool 1TB external drives too. Ideally, I'd suggest a combination of 2-3 means and regular rotation of the media being used. Of course, that can get expensive, but if the data is mission critical, I'd spend the extra $$$.

Eric

The same argument can be said for those of use who have free email accounts from Google, Microsoft, etc. There is always a certain amount of risk associated with keeping a medium that is valuable. You always run a risk of putting your valuable info. data onto a third party computer. Encryption nullifies the issue of it being broken into because the encryption key and token makes it secure. Again there is no system that is bulletproof but the algorithm use in the encryption engine needs to be strong.

The first backup is slow and takes a lot of time, but when the file(s) are updated and changed at a smaller level, the updates are fast and pretty much set it and forget it as far as I am concerned. This is true of any medium you use.

I agree that 2GB is pretty small but for $4.95 per month for unlimited it is pretty good.

The only time I see remote being critical is if there is a flood, fire, earthquake, etc. that physically wipes out your data where you reside. Ask those companies that had disaster strike from 9/11 or Katrina. That's why companies pay thousands of dollars just to take their data off-site. Remote backup and companies like Iron Mountain saved their day. By being remote you add another factor.

Just my two cents.

Good point and this is one of the why I pay the ~$15-20/yr to host my own domain and email addresses. It looks more professional and I eliminate the possibility of someone taking the email address away from me (or changing it). Of course no one should send anything over email that they wouldn't put on a postcard so message "security" is not really an issue when it comes to email.

Backing up 200gb worth of data using a 1mbps upload speed at maximum theoretical speeds under ideal conditions, it would take 19 days to complete the transfer. In reality it would take even longer, if it was even possible for the two computers to complete the transfer without timing out.

I disagree that encryption nullifies the issue. It reduces it, sure, but there are thousands of types of encryption techniques; some being far superior than others.

Try Rebit. It backs up automatically.

http://www.rebit.com/

Presuming you are on a fixed IP and then running your own box to host the web site, you are in fact putting yourself at the same level of risk of not staying up to date with patches, holes, etc.

If you are having a company host your site for you then you are back to square one. You are putting your data on a 3rd party computer.

As far as traffic goes, to transfer 200GB of data w/no compression is crazy. Most files can be compressed down to 80%. Excel, Docs, XML streams get compressed into the 90% range. This makes transfer much smaller. If two computers fail because of comm. issue or packet loss, they simply transfer from the point of last packet that was good. Similar to the days of Zmodem instead of XModem for protocol. Those days were horrific compared to what we have today. Finally, with compression like RAR files, you can literally miss a whole file and rebuild it.

Regarding encryption, that is my point. With so many out there, you can choose to do a two level encryption. The first level is your encryption method and the second the encryption method the company selects to use. If you do it correctly it would take experts a lot of time and energy to break it. I don't think they would be interested in Joe Blow's personal files.... I myself use PGP. It is one of the strongest IMO.

I just remember this saying, if you are running from a bear, it doesn't matter how fast you run. The only thing that matters is if you can outrun the guy next to you. If your data is protected and the next guy isn't, he is not going to try to break into yours.

Good response/rebuttal although I'm still not convinced that online backup is a good solution for many. I welcome your future input on tech related topics here on FT. A lot of us here have similar tech needs and I find it interesting to see how others meet their wants & needs.

I have learned a lot from other fellow FT posters here about travel and have appreciated it a great deal! If one idea can help someone with one problem than the idea or suggestion was worth it.

Thanks for the encouragement and the feeling is mutual. See you soon on FT. ^