Online Backup

[Roady]

Anyone use online backup? My internet provider offers that service and I was considering taking advantage of their free months trial. I've had the same IP since day one and though they've grown they haven't forgotten those of us who were there in the beginning.

Anyone given this a try? Pros? Cons?

To be honest I suck at backing up files on cds. Eiither it doesn't get done or I can't find it.

Roady

[Amy in Vermont]

I have unlimited storage at the college, plus an external hard drive and several thumb drives, so I don't need to use "on line" back up.

The pro's... one would assume that they back up your back ups, so in theory, your back ups are safe from loss. One would assume also that they have good security in place so your data is safe, and that they have some sort of disaster recovery plan.

The con's.... how good is their security? How safe is your personal information. How much do they charge for how much space?

Personally, I would want a clearly worded, carefully read contract if I was paying for data storage that lives off premise.

I am a great beleiver in multiple back up schemes. CD's are good, if not very convenient. Thumb drives and other external volatile storage are also good, and somewhat more convenient. The best scenario is a rotating combination of off premise back up ( such as on line ) and CD's and flash/hard drive back ups. Set a schedule and follow it!

[DaveM]

I back up all of my documents to an external hard drive once a week and to a pair of DVD-RWs once a month. So far, so good. Not to mention that I got the drive free after a rebate and the DVDs from Goodwill.

[Dee]

The con's.... how good is their security? How safe is your personal information.

That would be my biggest concern.

[janisian]

We live in an age where redundancy is a Very Good Thing...

[paularoid]

I have a client that runs several businesses and she uses a professional online backup business. She is happy with the EXCEPT that she had to have ALL of her computers upgraded to the latest and greatest (so to speak) in order for the backup company to be able to render their services. The backup company was NOT adaptable. She had to adapt to them rather than them adapting to her and her systems. She had to undergo a major expenditure just in order for them to be able to work. She was not happy - at first. Now she had no complaints as long as she's very meticulous about having everything ready and operating in just the right way when the backup company does their work late at night during off hours.

There are programs that can do it for you automatically without having to depend on the abilities of other companies to do it for you. My old external Iomega CD burner has an app to do just that. It's called "QuikSync" so you might keep an eye out for something like that.

Also, see the other thread here in this section (Geek-O-Rama) for more info on backing up.

[Bat]

I use AOL to save mail that is important to me. I have the choice to keep it on my computer or on AOL, and I choose the latter. If everything crashes, all I have to do is get my AOL back and everything I saved is there, as is my mail list and my faves. I really do like AOL...they've come a long way, and glitches, drop outs, and failures are practically unheard of there anymore!

[hoops]

we live in an age where redundancy is a Very Good Thing.
Janis, forgive me for being a smart a**, it just had to be done
peace
hoops