Computers...

[Earl Weiss]

Above Bill reccomends baacking up your hard drive. A couple of suggestions.

1. External hard rives are available in up to 3TB. Use this and keep a copy off site. ;and / or
2. Use carbonite
3. Keep a secure copy of all PINS and Passwords somewhere that people can access in case of death or disability.

 

[mac]

The other thing I always like to mention is the unwritten law of leaks in an equipment room. It states, "Any leak will invariably be directed to the most expensive thing in range."

 

[pitzerwm]

I use lastpass.com to store all passwords, it works great. You download the add on for the browsers and it will automatically place your info in the appropriate slots.

 

[seattleguy]

I have been using dropbox.com to sync and backup all of my computers. I am very pleased so far.

 

[bigleo48]

Backups are a very interesting thing. First, you must understand what you are backing up and what for. Are you backing up for equipment failure, or are you backing up for viruses and other contamination. Do you want to back up your important stuff and reload it once a new computer has been built, or do you want the capability to restore completely (OS, registry, drivers, etc) to the same hardware and be back and running ASAP.

This is what I have decided to do;

I have a NAS at home that is RAID. It serves a few purposes, primarily as a backup server and but also as a media server. It contains 2TB hard drives and I have another one the shelf. Because there are only two in the NAS, they are mirrored (same data on both as opposed to striped) , so it looks like 2TB and not 4 (AKA hardware diversity). I swap out one drive every week that I keep off the property (AKA space diversity). As an extra step, I also keep important info (like accounting backups) on secure directories at my domain host's servers (aka route diversity).

I use Genie Backup that is scheduled to backup my main PC every night, then shuts down my PC and for security sake, the NAS also shuts down after hours. It also helps if you have a good Ethernet switch that is hardwired as opposed to wireless.

I also map a drive for my notebook and the kids notebooks that they use for their school assignments and projects. That way I don't need to back them up and if they get stolen, lost or broken, there isn't info of values on them.

They can also access their directories from the web via virtually mapped drives (using DynDNS for my dynamic ip) and the NAS company's service. This is helpful to get their homework from school. Next year when my daughter is off to college. that's the way I'll do it for her. She'll be able to work and save on my NAS or a backup online service or my domains. So if she loses her PC far away from home...she can just get another, reconnect via a few simple steps that I walk her through and she's back in business.

Big

 

[Earl Weiss]

Big,

After readingyur post, all I can say is.... my head hurts.

 

[Ric]

Big,

After readingyur post, all I can say is.... my head hurts.[/QUO

Ditto...I don't want to build one.

 

[bigleo48]

Since I worked in tech for 27 years, backups have always been a issue. In the company we use to spend a great deal of time discussing how to properly back stuff up. Yet most of our backups didn't really do what they were suppose to do...so we were still left scrambling when we had a major failure. So I've learned to appreciate them the hard way.

Now that I have my own business (accounting, credit card system backups, CAD drawings, etc, etc) and the amount of digital info at home (pictures, kids school assignments), I needed to take the same approach...especially when a virus almost took all my data (and backup) a few months ago. That would have been catastrophic for us!

Once set up, its all automatic (except for the hard drive switch once a week). Even the posting to secure directory on my domains is done after hours with a macro program (workspace macro).

Not doing this IMHO is irresponsible. Let me ask you guys...how many of you do regular backups on your credit card servers, WSII or other entry systems for your automatics, etc? What would happen if you lost that info in a power surge or the like?

I've taken other measures to deal with stuff...like I use GMAIL for all our mail, calendars, etc. Put my pictures and video on Picasa, youtube, facebook. Voicemail, faxes reside on my toll free service. That way its on the web and not on my machines. I use online billing instead of paper so they keep my records. I'd like to get to a point where all this resides on the ether and I don't have anything at home or the wash.

I guess this comes from my "what if" scenarios I always had to deal with when I worked for wireless phone companies as they are considered 'lifelines' to emergency services. All these concepts are what they think abut in network ops and engineering on a daily basis.

 

[mjwalsh]

other backup approaches?

Big Leo,

We have a no longer used license of Windows Server 2003 so we are leaning towards that vs a NAS. We also are leaning towards a SonicWALL TZ 200 for a router because I remember our Internet Kiosk once got hacked into in a totally unexplained way once --- which was very scary. We are leaning towards Novabackup vs the Genie Backup. I am relying on an outside company helping me ---- any thoughts on this approach? We have not ordered or signed a contract for the new setup but might any day now. Acronis & Symantec seem more complicated than needed. Since our recent MegaVendor & cameras damage there will definitely be a push to tweak the notification time to our cell phones --- which is relevant to the computer network setup we choose.

MJ

 

[bigleo48]

Big Leo,

We have a no longer used license of Windows Server 2003 so we are leaning towards that vs a NAS. We also are leaning towards a SonicWALL TZ 200 for a router because I remember our Internet Kiosk once got hacked into in a totally unexplained way once --- which was very scary. We are leaning towards Novabackup vs the Genie Backup. I am relying on an outside company helping me ---- any thoughts on this approach? We have not ordered or signed a contract for the new setup but might any day now. Acronis & Symantec seem more complicated than needed. Since our recent MegaVendor & cameras damage there will definitely be a push to tweak the notification time to our cell phones --- which is relevant to the computer network setup we choose.

MJ

MJ,

Its hard for me to comment as I dont know your exact situation and what happened that was totally unexpected in the past. Every situation is different and I have the level of skill to determine my needs and how to protect my data.

Improved notification times on sms emails to your cell. If I'm getting this right, it has more to do with email server latency. Most people use a POP mail account that the machine would need to log into and push the email to the SMTP (outgoing) server). The server takes the email and addresses it to the domain server destination address (ie...phonenumber@pcs.att.com). One way to greatly speed this up is to have your own SMTP mail server on one of your "always on" PCs (thus cutting one of the slowest steps out of the process). Typically you need a static IP address for this to be accepted by your internet service provider (to control SPAM). When one of my applications on our intranet needs to send mail to my cell phone...it gets out in a few seconds. Some testing at my end was less than 5 seconds to get a machine (like my PDQ M5) to send me an SMS email to my cell.

Hope this helps...Big

 

[mjwalsh]

MJ,

Its hard for me to comment as I dont know your exact situation and what happened that was totally unexpected in the past. Every situation is different and I have the level of skill to determine my needs and how to protect my data.

Improved notification times on sms emails to your cell. If I'm getting this right, it has more to do with email server latency. Most people use a POP mail account that the machine would need to log into and push the email to the SMTP (outgoing) server). The server takes the email and addresses it to the domain server destination address (ie...phonenumber@pcs.att.com). One way to greatly speed this up is to have your own SMTP mail server on one of your "always on" PCs (thus cutting one of the slowest steps out of the process). Typically you need a static IP address for this to be accepted by your internet service provider (to control SPAM). When one of my applications on our intranet needs to send mail to my cell phone...it gets out in a few seconds. Some testing at my end was less than 5 seconds to get a machine (like my PDQ M5) to send me an SMS email to my cell.

Hope this helps...Big

Big Leo,

I hope Earl doesn't feel his post is being hijacked.

http://www.softstack.com/freesmtp.html

I just checked this out but it will be awhile before I can set it up & test it etc. It says to use the Localhost address instead of the ISP POP address it seems. If it is faster than an automatic dialer ---- your post should be useful to many of us. It would be nice to have specific notification tones too --- depending on the specific alert that we would want sent. I wonder if this email approach would be just as fast as texting ---- for those of us who did not add the extra cost for prepaid texting plan on our cell phones. If a remote desktop mobile app with sound allowed concurrent users --- that would be even greater ---- in combination with the fast notification --- for those of us who have our cameras on an always on computer screen. We could have a wav file play over a loudspeaker like you are using to keep the damage to a minimum. The notification would make a lost remote desktop connection less of a problem. Since I already had the sensors in my cameras --- that last Sunday morning camera wrecker criminal would have more likely been stopped in his tracks before the horrific damage occurred!

MJ

 

[Earl Weiss]

Big Leo,

I hope Earl doesn't feel his post is being hijacked.

http://www.softstack.com/freesmtp.html

as long as people heed the original point irrespective of using last pass or whatever. There is sstill at least one password your executor / trustee / agent under a power of attorney should be able to locate to manage things.

Used to be if something happened we just watched the mail for statements, bills, 1099's etc. Now things have gone paperless and people will need to access e-mail and electronic statements.

 

[bigleo48]

I just checked this out but it will be awhile before I can set it up & test it etc. It says to use the Localhost address instead of the ISP POP address it seems. If it is faster than an automatic dialer ---- your post should be useful to many of us. It would be nice to have specific notification tones too --- depending on the specific alert that we would want sent. I wonder if this email approach would be just as fast as texting ---- for those of us who did not add the extra cost for prepaid texting plan on our cell phones. If a remote desktop mobile app with sound allowed concurrent users --- that would be even greater ---- in combination with the fast notification --- for those of us who have our cameras on an always on computer screen. We could have a wav file play over a loudspeaker like you are using to keep the damage to a minimum. The notification would make a lost remote desktop connection less of a problem. Since I already had the sensors in my cameras --- that last Sunday morning camera wrecker criminal would have more likely been stopped in his tracks before the horrific damage occurred!

MJ

Sorry to hear about the wrecker criminal...that really sucks

Local host IP 127.0.0.1 is like a loopback...a way to send to itself. Obviously other PCs on your network would require the IP address of the SMTP server PC. Email/SMS would certainly be faster than dial up tones and should have more info in it. Also, if your cell is off, out of service area, etc, you'll get the message when reentering service (Initial Registration).

The remote monitoring and loudspeaker messages are another topic that being covered in a different thread. But for $50...its been very useful to me.

Big

 

[Sequoia]

Backups

IMO, the focus of your backups is best as:

a) emergency / catastrophic backup; and
b) future population of data to the new computer you just bought.

To accomplish the above, the first thing I did was abandon the "my documents" and all the other various folders ("my pictures") that windows wants you to use. I created my own named folder, and then created numerous sub-folders. Anything that is important and needing to be backed up is kept in that folder. (Except a total drive image.)

Next, I use an external USB hard drive on each machine I want to back up. Just plug it in, and to get everything that is critical all I need to do is back up my one folder and I know I've gotten all the critical (and recent) data.

I keep this backup drive in a small, fire protected hand held safe. Then I place that safe inside my main fire protected safe. I figure that probably gives an hour of fire protection between the two.

I also have an ethernet connected ReadyNAS / raid server like Big, but I've found the simplicity of the external USB hard drive is hard to beat.

 

[bigleo48]

Sequoia.

Nothing wrong with what your doing, but there is a simple way. Map your important stuff to a directory on the NAS. Then just switch out a drive on a semi regular basis.

Big

 

[pitzerwm]

Hijacking this thread a bit.

I just installed the new Win 7 Service pack 1, the results were that the computer wouldn't work at all. I couldn't open my Outlook, the Internet would not work right. I rebooted 3-4 times, finally just went back to a restore point before the update. It did erase all of my restore points prior to a system image (one below the update) that I had placed on a new internal backup HD.

Thankfully, its back to normal, but I assume that the update, has some good fixes.