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Filed under: Utilities, Web services

McAfee now offers unlimited online backup, but you should use Mozy instead

There are cases where re-branding something might make sense, but this isn't one of them.

McAfee has announced that they are adding an online backup service to their stable of products. There's no limit on your storage space and it runs $59.99US per year. That's not a bad deal at $5 a month -- right?

Well, no, it's not. But you could go and get the exact same service without the red McAfee M from Mozy - who are handling all the heavy lifting for McAfee Online Backup anyway.

Apart from the fact that you get service from the guys actually storing your data, Mozy also allows you to pay monthly, yearly, or biannually. Book a year and you get one month free. Step up to two years at a time, and you get three months of free service. McAfee doesn't offer any such discounts.

Even if you're a McAfee fan you should skip the middleman and use Mozy. Of course, it's highly likely that McAfee doesn't plan on standalone purchases of Online Backup from their web store. They'll no doubt get a pile of signups from users who receive their security apps preinstalled on retail laptops and desktops.

Filed under: Internet, Security, Macintosh, Commercial

Carbonite launches online backup for Mac

Carbonite for Mac
Carbonite has been providing online backup services for PC users for years. This week the company launched a Mac client.

Here's how it works. For $54.95 a year, Carbonite provides you with unlimited online storage space to backup all the important files on your computer. At regular intervals, the program will scan the folders you designate and copy any new or changed files to the server. If you're using your internet connection to download files, watch online videos, or do other things, Carbonite will adjust its upload speeds so it doesn't interfere with your other activities.

In the event that your computer crashes, or if you need to recover some files you accidentally deleted, you can use Carbonite's tools to restore the data to your Mac.

Carbonite isn't the first service to offer online backup for Mac users. Mozy also has a Mac client which offers up to 2GB of storage space for free, or unlimited storage for $4.95 per month (or $59.40 per year).

[via Yahoo!]

Filed under: Internet, Commercial, VoIP

Subscriptions make great presents - Holiday Gift Guide

Skype Pro
The holiday shopping season is upon us, and if you're trying to think up a few good gift ideas for your geeky or not so geeky friends and family, we're here to help. Over the next few days we'll be bringing you a number of suggestions for Download Squad style gifts.

To kick things off, I wanted to talk about a gift idea for the computer user who doesn't really need any new software: subscriptions. Nothing says I love you like a year's worth of unlimited domestic VoIP phone calls, or the security of knowing your files are securely backed up to an offsite storage space. Well, maybe not nothing, but certainly few things. Here are a few ideas for subscription based services you might want to buy for your loved ones. Feel free to add your own ideas or argue with my choice of services in the comments.

Skype

Skype provides a free way for Windows, Mac, and Linux users to make free voice or video calls to one another. But you can also buy credit or monthly subscriptions to make calls to regular telephones. You can also purchase a phone number that people can call to ring you on Skype.

Prices range from a few cents a minute for domestic calls, to $9.95 a month for unlimited international calls. For less than $36 a year you can buy a plan that will allow users to make unlimited domestic calls in the US and Canada. $60 a year will get you a SkypeIn phone number. If you purchase both an unlimited calling plan and a SkypeIn number, the price is even lower. And there are a ton of other options available.

Skype isn't the only game in town. You might also want to check out Gizmo5 or newcomer VoxOx.

Read more →

Filed under: Business, web 2.0

Mozy now offering Enterprise backup

Online backup provider Mozy has just introduced its enterprise backup solution, aptly named MozyEnterprise. We'd like to first point out that the name "MozyEnterprise" commits not one, but two egregious web 2.0 transgressions: cute misspellings of common words and removing all spaces from the name.

How's the service itself, you ask?

MozyEnterprise is offered as a fee-based subscription service. It remains an online backup solution, though Mozy has pumped up the security features: 448-bit Blowfish encryption and 128 bit SSL encryption, with the additional option of private encryption keys.

Other enterprise-themed features include:
  • Administrative console: Centrally manage end-user backups from any location through a web-based administrative console.
  • "Hot" backup of Exchange, and SQL server
  • Snapshot support: Restore from multiple file versions saved up to 30 days in the past.
  • Automatic or scheduled backup
If you're the network administrator of a large company, why don't you "mozy" on over (har-har) and check it out?

[via Web Worker Daily]

Filed under: Security, Ask DLS

What's your offsite backup solution? - Ask DLS

MozyA friend of the Squad, (we're not naming names here Ben), recently had a little mishap with his data backup plan. He was doing a fresh install of Leopard on his Mac, and so he backed all of his data up to a external hard drive, installed OS X 10.5, and then found out that the drive was corrupt.

No problem, he logged into Mozy, his online backup service to access his 60GB of offsite data. But he had to wait 12 hours before the data was ready, and then he had to download 100 different dmg files. He wasn't pleased.

We've mostly heard good things about Mozy, but we've also heard people rave about Carbonite, Amazon's Jungle Disk, and several other services. And we're intrigued by, if a bit disappointed by ADrive. But honestly, we're not sure which is best, so we thought we'd ask you, our trusted readers. What do you use for offsite data backups, do you like it, and why?

Filed under: Business, Security, Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Web services, Apple, Microsoft, Commercial, Freeware

Mozy - PC and Mac online backup you never have to think about

Computer damageWe've mentioned Mozy before, first just over a year ago, then more recently in passing, but somehow we've never mentioned that the service is available for both Windows PCs and Macs. Having used it now for just over a month on a Mac, the surprising thing is that it truly is "set and forget". It's possible to hide Mozy in your user interface so completely that you don't see any clue whatsoever that it is running, and yet it's there, faithfully backing up your precious data.

While we haven't upgraded to the paid version (mainly because we haven't needed to), the free version of Mozy is operating like a champ. Keep in mind that it's not a full-drive backup; for that you should be looking at something like SuperDuper! for the Mac, or Acronis True Image for the PC.

Filed under: Internet, OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft, Troubleshooting

Avoiding lost data on a Windows PC

Avoiding lost data on a Windows PCLost data, the words should make any user cringe at the thought. Hours of time spent creating documents, all gone in a matter of seconds. It's something that we never want to happen to us.

Of course there are ways to ensure that data can be recovered. Microsoft has been so kind as to build in a back up program on Windows XP and Vista operating systems. Wired has an outline of all the goodies users are going to need in order to achieve a proper backup of files. This includes a secondary external hard drive, the built in Windows XP or Vista backup options, 3rd party software options, and online backup options like Xdrive and Mozy.

Maybe we will be lucky enough to see system backups unnecessary in the upcoming years as operating systems evolve. After all, it would be a nice feature to build in.

Filed under: Security, Macintosh, Commercial

Backup your Mac online with Mozy

Mozy Mac betaMozy has been offering an excellent automated online backup service for Windows users for a while now, but the company has now launched a Mac OS X client.

There's a dearth of companies offering backup solutions for Mac users. While some may say that's because Macs don't crash as frequently as Windows machines, that doesn't help if you happen to have your Macbook stolen.

Mozy lets you store up to 2GB of data online for free, and charges $5/month for unlimited storage. You can either backup your entire hard drive on a regular basis, or you can do a partial backup covering specific files like your iTunes or iPhoto collections.

You'll need Mac OS X 10.4 to play with the new beta.

[via TechCrunch]

Filed under: Security, Utilities, Windows

Mozy: Free automatic remote backup

MozyMozy is an remote backup service for Windows whose main differentiating factor is that it's free. Sort of. I'll get to that in a moment. Like most online backup systems, you install some software and then schedule it to send your precious files to a server somewhere else every week, night, whatever. Mozy emphasizes security, transmitting your files over 128-bit encrypted SSL and then storing them with 448-bit Blowfish encryption on Mozy's server. For free you get 2GB of storage space, which is plenty for many people's most important documents. If you drop $4.95 per month, you get bumped up to 30GB. So, what's the catch? Mozy sends you a newsletter each month filled with ads. Mozy says they "only work with advertising sponsors we think offer worthwhile, useful products and services" and your email address is never shared. This business model seems to rely on the fact that most people can't figure out how to filter its newsletters into the trash, but hey, if it's working for them, more power to them.

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