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Backing Up (Part 3) - Backup Strategies: Offsite & Online
By Larry Spinak

In earlier articles, we’ve talked about how to back up. This month, we’ll focus on different backup strategies.

How frequently should you back up your data? Ask yourself how important your data is. How much work can you afford to lose? Some people couldn’t bare to lose a week’s worth of work. For most people, losing a day’s worth of work is an inconvenience, but not a disaster.

Whatever your comfort level, that’s how often you should back up. Daily, weekly, monthly - depending on how much you can afford to lose. Some folks can’t afford to lose a single bit of data. In those cases, there are programs and services that will allow you to backup everything as it occurs. This is called mirroring.

The advantage to mirroring is that everything is backed up all the time. The disadvantage is if something happens to your system, like a fire or flood, it could damage the backup at the same time that it damages the original.

This brings up the importance of having an offsite backup. Most of us don’t experience fires or floods or burglaries, and so we can be relatively secure with one backup source.

If, for whatever reason, your data is absolutely vital and irreplaceable, then you should be backing up to multiple sources on a regular schedule, and regularly taking at least one copy of the back up to a different physical location from your computer.

Here’s an example: Fred Smith has a bookkeeping service. He owns three external hard drives which we will call A, B &amp C. He backs up his data every Friday. On the first Friday, he backs up to Drive A. He takes Drive A home with him and puts it in the closet. The next Friday, he backs up to Drive B. The week after that, he backs up to Drive C.

At this point he has a choice for the next week. He could either take Drive C home and back up to Drive A, or he could leave Drive A at home and continue to alternate between Drive B &amp C for a month or so, before bringing A back to the office and taking one of the other drives home.

The important points are that there is always one drive offsite, and to be backing up to more than one drive, so that if one drive fails, you’re still protected.

A variation on this scheme is to use the internet for your offsite backup. There are many companies that let you back up your data to their storage space over the net. This can be very slow, depending on the speed of your internet connection and how much data you need to back up, and is still, in my opinion, prohibitively expensive, but is a reasonable option for some businesses. Companies that offer this service include evault.com, ibackup.com, and usdatatrust.com.

This ends the three-part series on backing up. If you have any questions, please contact us and we’ll be happy to explain further!

Larry Spinak is a professional computer consultant and tutor in the Los Angeles area. He started his business, CompuNerds, in 1999.

© 2006 - All rights reserved

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Offsite Backup Software
By Eddie Tobey

With increasing risks that the data on the computers face, backing up data is not just an option, but also a necessity which should be given utmost priority. Earlier it was considered adequate if data was backed up and stored at a safe place at the same location close to the original data. This was known as onsite backup. Though this took care of most issues relating to loss of data, there were still a few things to contend with. In an increasingly volatile world, what if the data that is kept on site, gets damaged somehow? It was from these thoughts that offsite backing up of data emerged.

There are mainly two ways of offsite backing up of data. First is the conventional means, where the data is written either every day or every week, and physically carried to the offsite storage location, and preserved there. The software used for such backup depends on the method of backup. CD or DVD drives come with their own backup software that is installed on the computer to allow it to burn CDs and DVDs. The setup for tape drives includes the software as well.

However of late, there is a new type of offsite backup system that is gaining prominence, because it does away with a lot of the discrepancy of the traditional backup system. For example, by keeping a tape or a CD/DVD offsite, the data stored is not current. It s either a week old or a day old, depending upon the data storage cycle. Thus in case of loss of data, the data that is retrieved, is a week or a day old.

There are many companies today who will keep data backed up and securely stored in a data center away from the office. The backup offsite software programs are installed into the computer network of the company. Thus whenever a user saves any file, these programs make a file which is then sent to a secure, and predetermined, offsite backup location. Being fully automatic, such software causes minimum interference to the work.

Backup Software provides detailed information on Backup Software, CD ROM Backup Software, Free Backup Software, Computer Backup Software and more. Backup Software is affiliated with Network Status Monitoring Software.

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Free Online File Storage and Backup Secrets
By Levi Bloom

Prices for data storage and recovery can be outrageous!

If you have ever lost any important data and paid an expert to try to recover it, you know what I mean. The thing is, the online data storage solutions can get pretty pricey. And backing up to CDs all the time is a pain in the neck.

What to do?

Well, earlier today, I made a discovery. It seems that quite a few free backup services have come about in the past year or so. I found one and thought it was cool, but then I looked around and found about 50 more!

I must admit I was getting pretty excited. None of these services were even offered a few years ago. It must be the decline in file storage hardware prices and the site owners’ hopes of high advertising revenues.

But as I browsed the numerous sites, my excitement began to wane. Most sites offered up to 100 MB of storage, which is really not that much space. There were also limits on how much you could download during a given month.

Instead of providing a list of all these providers, I am going to mention the ones that stood out from the rest. After a quick glance at each site, it was a simple process to narrow down the results.

Here are the ones that caught my attention:

FlipDrive (http://www.flipdrive.com)

This website looked nice, but after a quick look, it turned out that there was just a free trial offer. I quickly moved on!

Box.net (http://www.box.net)

This site does provide free storage, but it only goes up to 1 GB. More than that and you will need to signup for a paid option. Still, it could work for you just fine.

StreamLoad (http://www.streamload.com)

Offering up to 25 GB of free storage, this is the obvious winner. The interface looks pretty good and their terms seem reasonable. If you need more storage, the rest of their pricing plans look somewhat reasonable too.

So in the end, the dream of free file storage is not as bright as it seemed at first. If you only have a few important files, these services are great. But if you are a serious computer user, you might want to shell out the cash for a better solution.

One thing that worries me is that these sites will not make money by giving away free storage. That turns into a problem when they shut down and take your data with them!

Not to worry though, because there are reputable backup services available for as little as $5 per month.

Levi Bloom has been backing up his data for years and created the website PCBackupReview.com to help you get started doing the same. Visit his website today to learn more about computer backup services and subscribe to a free e-course. You can also find out where to get unlimited, automatic computer backup for just $5 per month.

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http://EzineArticles.com/?Free-Online-File-Storage-and-Backup-Secrets&id=211711

Finding Free Help Desk Software
By Kent Pinkerton

Many companies recognize the benefits of help desk software. From streamlining technical inquiries to responding quickly to customer issues, help desk software has become a basic part of most company’s business strategies. Pricing can vary and some businesses, especially small businesses or start-ups, may be interested in free help desk software.

For small companies, downloading free help desk software may be ideal. Many companies do not offer free software for more than 100 computers, so if you have a larger business, it is like that you will need to purchase a larger version.

Many online companies offer free help desk software. Most of these programs are downloadable, easy to install and relatively easy to use. One company, HelpDeskReloaded.com, offers an excellent free help desk program with almost daily updates.

As a business owner, you may have questions regarding the use of free help desk software. For instance, how can companies turn a profit while offering a free product like this? Many help desk software providers offer limitations on the number of computers that can access the software, some have limitations on the number of tickets supported and some programs are supported by advertising frames. For a small start up business, these limitations may not hinder the purposeful use of the program. For others, it may be necessary to upgrade the account in order to obtain full access to the particular program.

Free help desk software programs usually offer the same features and functions as purchased programs. Some of the features may include the ability to share trouble tickets with the entire support team, tracking the status of the trouble tickets to ensure their resolution and the ability to manage tickets to ensure they are directed to the appropriate personnel. Most free help desk software programs are fully functional and offer businesses a comprehensive solution for their needs.

Help Desk Software Info provides detailed information on help desk software solutions, including IT help desk software, web-based help desk software, free help desk software, help desk tracking, help desk support software, and reviews of help desk software programs. Help Desk Software Info is the sister site of Recruiting Software Web.

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http://EzineArticles.com/?Finding-Free-Help-Desk-Software&id=62684

Breaking Your Backup: Seven Ways to a Useless Backup
By Johan Beyers

A backup of your data is something you don t need often, but when you need it, it is critical. Many people break their backup data without realizing it. Here are some of the ways you can accidentally break your backup:

1. Don t test it — Most backup programs are complicated, with lots of options that affect not only what is backed up, but how easy it is to restore. Add to that the possibility of the backup media being broken, and you have a disaster waiting to happen. Always test your backups by restoring at least parts of it regularly and checking that the restored files are identical to your live files.
2. Keep it close — If the telephone pole outside your house is struck by lightning, your USB backup drive takes the same beating as your computer. If someone steals your laptop out of your car, they ll take the nice shiny backup drive too. A backup is useless if it is subject to the same risks as the original data. Try to keep your backup away from your live data.
3. Just a live copy — Not all data loss is immediately noticed. You might find that you made thumbnails of all your photos last week and deleted the originals by mistake. A virus might have been changing your files silently over the past month. If you have only one copy of your files, and that was updated yesterday, there s no way to get the originals back. If you are evaluating a backup method, make sure that you choose one that allows you to restore previous versions of files.
4. Only changed files — When you backup to CD, DVD or tapes, it usually takes too much time to do a full backup using multiple disks. It is much faster to just do a backup of the new and changed files. However, if you do not do a regular full backup, you run the risk of the original full backup becoming corrupt over time. Plus, a simple restore might mean restoring every single disk or tape you ever used to backup. That could turn a simple hour-long task into a multi-day ordeal.
5. Password-protect it — Despite what you see in the movies, a well-chosen password and strong encryption is very, very hard to crack. If you AND your laptop are driven over by a bus, nobody will be able to get your files and photos back from your password-protected backups. Unless you have government secrets or incriminating evidence on your computer, it s much better to just leave out the password-protection.
6. Automate it — Automation is good, but you need to check up on it. An automated backup system that fails without you knowing it can give you a false sense of security. This also ties in with password-protection: If you have a password-protected, automated backup, the chances are good that you will not remember the password when you need to restore.
7. Restore to original location — Many backup programs have an option to restore your data to the original location, overwriting the files that are already there. This is a bad idea. If you need to restore some files, always restore them to some safe location and then compare them to the original files. Otherwise, you might end up with month-old files in place of your newest work.

Johan has spent too many hours doing backups and restores using overly complicated programs. He then created Abbackup, a program that does backups of large amounts of files, photos and music to CD-R and DVD-R, quickly and easily.With Abbackup s automatic refresh system, you only need to do a full backup once. To learn more about how it works, visit this page.

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http://EzineArticles.com/?Breaking-Your-Backup:-Seven-Ways-to-a-Useless-Backup&id=252087

The Seven Golden Rules Of Data Backups
By Keith Edmunds

Backups of company data are carried out for two main reasons. The first is to cater for those times when a document is inadvertently deleted or damaged and you wish to recover the original document the second is as part of a disaster recovery plan in case something catastrophic happens to your computers (e.g., victims of a fire or theft).

Backups cost time, money and effort to implement, and they are of no value right up until the time you need them. This means they tend to be given a low priority, but ultimately they may easily represent the difference between your business surviving and failing. In this TipSheet, we look at the most common mistakes businesses make with backups.

1. Backup often

Re-entering data is tedious and frustrating. Backing up your company data once a week means that the most you should ever have to re-input is one week s worth Backing up your company data once a day means the most you should ever have to re-input is one day s worth. Frequent backups lessen the impact of data loss.

2. Don t keep any volatile data on desktop PCs

In many organisations, documents are kept on the hard drive of desktop PCs. It is unlikely that this is backed up regularly, if at all. A PC can easily be replaced: last week s quotations may not be so easy to replace. In particular, check that email is not stored on the local hard drive (this is very common in small to medium size businesses). All documents, spreadsheets, email, etc should be kept on a central server, which is in turn backed up regularly.

3. Automate the backup process

Backups are tedious to do. At 6:30pm, most people would prefer to set off home or join colleagues in the bar rather than stay in the office to find the correct tape and start a backup. Automating tedious tasks means they get done.

4. Monitor the backup process

While automating backups is a good idea, do check that they are running correctly. Make sure new files are being backed up make sure the files of new users are being backed up. A quick check once a week could avert a much more serious problem later.

5. Keep backups offsite

If your business premises suffer a fire or flood, it is likely that backup media will be lost as well. Fireproof safes only protect media for a given time, typically one hour - if you use one, check the manufacturer s specification. If you always keep your backup tape in the server then when it is stolen the thief will probably throw the tape away. It s worth nothing to him, but it could represent bankruptcy to you.

6. Produce a “backup recovery” manual

A major disaster is not the time to try to remember how to recover data from your backup media. Have an idiot-proof, step-by-step procedure written - with a copy stored off-site - detailing how to reinstate your company data.

7. Test the recovery procedure periodically

Without warning, give the backup recovery manual to a member of staff and see how long it takes them to recover data. Many organisations never do this! No one involved with creating the manual or the backups themselves should be involved in the test. The results of the test should be analysed and the manual updated accordingly. A recovery test should be carried out at least twice a year. This proves both that the backups themselves are usable, and that your organisation understands how to use them if necessary.

About The Author

Keith Edmunds has been helping companies get the most from their IT investment for over twenty years. He is the Managing Director of Tiger Computing Ltd (http://www.tiger-computing.co.uk) and may be contacted at keith.edmunds@tiger-computing.co.uk

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http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Seven-Golden-Rules-Of-Data-Backups&id=16354

Computer Help Desk Stupid Questions Brought To You By Computer Service Now
By Sampson Michael

Computer Help Desk Stupid Questions brought to you by Computer Service Now (CSN) CSN Helps desk technicians know first hand that the phrase there are no stupid questions is untrue.
It s understandable that people are nervous about computer technology, but everyday computer technicians are asked to help people out of problems that leave them asking…
…how do you get to work?

Here is some proof from the help desk stupid questions archives at CSN:

A customer was enraged because his computer had told him he was “Bad and an invalid.” The tech explained that the computer s “bad command” and “invalid” responses shouldn t be taken personally. Another customer called tech support to say her brand new computer wouldn t work. She said she unpacked the unit, plugged it in and sat there for 20 minutes waiting for something to happen. When asked what happened when she pressed the power switch, she asked, “What power switch?”

Computer companies have change the text to their manuals from “Press Any Key” to “Press
Return Key” because of the question where is the “Any Key”?

A confused caller was having trouble printing documents. He told the technician that the computer had said it “couldn t find the printer.” The user had also tried turning the computer screen to face the printer-but that his computer still couldn t “see” the printer.

A woman called with a problem with her printer. The tech asked her if she was
“running it under windows.” The woman responded, “No, my desk is next to the door.
But that is a good point. The man sitting in the cubicle next to me is under a window
and his printer is working fine.”

And last but not least:
TECH SUPPORT: “O.K. Bob, let s press the control and escape keys at the same time. That brings up a task list in the middle of the screen. Now type the letter “P” to bring up the Program Manager.”

CUSTOMER: “I don t have a P “.
TECH SUPPORT: “On your keyboard, Bob.”
CUSTOMER: “What do you mean?”
TECH SUPPORT: ” P on your keyboard, Bob.”
CUSTOMER: “I m not going to do that!

CSN specializes in nationwide multi-location computer support.

http:www.adsensemoneys.com
About CSN: A nationwide business to business computer service company, Computer Service Now, the CSN website can be found at Computer Service Now and can be reached toll free at
877-422-1907.
About the Author
President of Xponex Web and Media Services

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Selecting Help Desk Software
By Michael Colucci

Before you purchase help desk software, it is important for you to make sure you choose the best product for your needs. Before you can make the correct purchase, it is important for you to understand the background of the help desk software industry. If you are operating a small business or large company in this day and age, it is critical for you to support the technological needs of your customers. By doing this, you will increase their productivity, and they will reward you for it. Depending on the industry you work in, your ability to increase the productivity of your users will determine your profitability.

Because of this, it is important for you to make sure you find the correct help desk software. However, there is a problem that many companies run into at this point. The costs involved with acquiring these products can be high if you don t use the proper methods to acquire them. The goal of any information technology department should be to purchase the best help desk software for the lowest possible price. Once you have done this, you can put your company on the road to success. Many companies today have a small information technology budget, especially with the rise of outsourcing.

It is important to realize that you can acquire powerful help desk software no matter what budget you have. There is software available that can meet the needs of virtually anyone. The biggest challenge that companies will face is finding the right software to suit their needs. The large selection of software available can be overwhelming. Being able to sort through this large selection to quickly find the best software for the lowest price should be your goal. When you are looking to buy help desk software, it is important to avoid the sales hype that you ll often encounter. No matter which help desk software you purchase, they will also basically have two features, which may also be called faces.

One of these faces will interact directly with the consumer. The other face will interact directly with those that support the consumers. The success of a help desk software lies in its ability to transfer information from one face to another. When issues come up, it should be easy for the support team to assist the consumer. When the information is able to freely flow through this channel, this will create a system that is powerful and efficient. Some help desk software is extremely complicated. They may have a large number of functions, and when you look at them to decide if you want to make a purchase, you should place an emphasis on the primary features.

Looking at the primary features will allow you to quickly decide if you want to purchase the product. Not only will this save you time, but it will also help you avoid purchasing software that is not suited to the needs of your company and the end users. Once you have found a selection of software that has the same feature, you can then begin looking at their price and secondary functions to determine which one is the best.

Michael Colucci is a writer on Help Desk Software which is part of the Knowledge Search network

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External Hard Disk Drive: The Best Backup Medium
By Yuri Filimonov

Want to backup quickly and easily? Backup to external hard disk drives.

As a hard disk is the fastest and largest backup medium you can get, you may want to backup all your important files to an external USB hard drive. You can backup literally everything: your Outlook and Outlook Express files, your bookmarks, your favourite save games, and of course, your important work documents, photos, images and maybe even videos.

As an external HDD is detached from your system and, combined with a strong encryption algorithm, like blowfish or 3DES, you can get maximum security. Just make sure you actually remember the encryption password. You can also store your external hard disk offsite (at a friend s house, a paid locker or specialized fire-proof storage place) in case your information is very important (well, generally, anyone can do that and it can t hurt for sure).

As external USB drives have the cheapest storage volume (about 200Gb for $150?) and you can reuse them for several years, you may as well get the cheapest backup medium at your disposal. When using a backup schedule, you can simply backup the backup program run when you are absent (or maybe even at night) to backup everything without supervision. If you need two or more backup disks, you may as well get another external HDD.

Also, now there are quite large mobile hard drives, which can admit all the necessary data: work documents, e-mail files, etc. You can also carry your data anywhere you want and feel safe, because some external USB HDDs are now hard to break by dropping.

So, go with external HDD and backup as fast as you want, as much as you want, secure your important data, get the cheapest backups and even be able to carry your backups anywhere you want.

Read more articles about backing up to DVD, FTP, CD with or without backup encryption, compression or backup scheduling.

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http://EzineArticles.com/?External-Hard-Disk-Drive:-The-Best-Backup-Medium&id=184231

The Help Desk
By Ben Shar

When you think of a help desk, what do you picture? Do you see a large desk with an elderly woman sitting behind it pencil behind the ear? Maybe it has a computer or two? Of course the person is smiling, but you know it’s not going to be much help to talk to them. Now, transform this image to the computer help desk. Now, erase those images and focus on the computers. The help desks of the internet are much more computer powered and, as it should be, helpful!

A help desk is found throughout the internet on websites that require your input. Web merchants have them. Websites with message boards often have them. Their main point is to allow you the opportunity gather the information you need to finish your task. Let’s say that you are in need of a password for a website. If there is an icon labeled help desk, you can click on it. You may have to do a search for the topic you need. You may have to browse through a list of frequently asked questions. But, often it will take you to a web page that you can send an email to the actual help desk. That “desk” is a contact that can answer your question for you. While it is not an immediate response, it can be responded to within a day or so. Some websites offer help desks that move much quicker, others slower.

The point of a help desk is to allow the user to communicate with the owner of a website. It serves as a way to ask questions and get information. The help desk is such a great tool on websites because of this. To find out if a website has a help desk, you can simply look on the home page for a link to it. Usually this tends to be near the bottom of the page or at the very top. The next time you need some help, try utilizing the help desk feature!

The Help Desk Resource Site is an all-in-one Resource for everything about Help Desks.

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http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Help-Desk&id=23472