Mozy Online Backup
At Tech-Pro.net we hear from people who have lost important files and irreplaceable photos every day. We sell
more data recovery software than any other type of product. But we would prefer to save people the anxiety of
losing data and then wondering whether they can get it back.
Mozy is the product that can prevent these scary moments. It uses your broadband Internet connection to store backup copies of your files on a remote server. It can do this automatically, while your computer is idle, or at set times. Best of all, it costs just $ 4.95 a month for unlimited online storage - the lowest cost of any comparable service. It's free if you only need to store 2GB or less.
Mozy is easy to install and use. First you must create an account with Mozy, which you can do at the bottom of this page. You will then receive an email with a link to download the Windows software (a version for Apple Macs is on the way.) Install and run the software, type in your account details, and you're ready to go.
Ready to use
Mozy comes with several ready-to-use backup sets for things like word processing documents, spreadsheets, email and browser favorites (and it knows about Mozilla Thunderbird and Firefox as well as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook Express.) These will be good enough for most people, but if you're curious you can right-click a backup set and select Edit and see what file types and folders it includes. If you have any non-standard backup requirements then it's easy to create your own backup sets.
You can also use the File Systems tab to select what to back up by drive and folder. It's best not to, though, because there is no way to filter what is included by file type, size or other attributes, as there is with a backup set. It pays to think about what you want to back up, as there is no point wasting time and bandwidth backing up files you no longer need or can easily replace from another source.
Backups can be scheduled to run either automatically, when the computer is idle, or at a set time every day or week. There are several other options, including the ability to specify a bandwidth throttle - a limit on the data transfer rate Mozy will use, so that it doesn't interfere with normal Internet use.
The first time you run Mozy, it has to back up everything you selected. This might be a couple of GB of files, which may take a couple of days. If you're the impatient type, this may be frustrating, but it isn't the fault of Mozy. Broadband Internet connections are much slower uploading than downloading, and Mozy doesn't utilize the connection all the time, in order not to interfere with your web browsing and emailing. But once everything is backed up, Mozy only needs to send changes, which normally take very little time at all.
Secure
If you're concerned about the security aspects of keeping your data on someone else's server then rest assured. Your files are encoded using 448-bit Blowfish encryption and sent to Mozy's servers using 128-bit SSL encryption. Mozy uses its own encryption key by default, which means that you have to trust it not to go peeking at your data. If you wish, you can use your own private encryption key, but wisely that is not the default setting, because if you lose the key no-one, not even Mozy, can get at your data.
For backup products to be any use, they have to be used regularly, preferably every time
the computer is used. For this to happen, they have to be no effort to use -
just one click to back up, or completely automatic. Mozy meets this requirement.
For a backup product to be really useful, the backed up data needs to be easy to restore. Mozy meets this requirement too. There are several ways to restore your data. The easiest - which you'll use when you want to restore an accidentally deleted file, or one you changed and now want to get back the previous version - is to use the Restore Previous Version or Restore Files in Folder options that are added to Windows Explorer menus. You can also browse the contents of your Mozy backup as a virtual drive, accessed from My Computer. If you need to restore files to another computer, even one on which Mozy has not been installed, you can do this from your web browser.
Ideal
We think that Mozy is the ideal backup system for home users and small businesses. Once it is installed, it is no effort at all to back up regularly, and the backed up data is easy to restore. Mozy is free to try, if you only need to back up less than 2GB of data. If you need more storage capacity and more flexible backup and scheduling options, choose Mozy+, it's just $ 4.95 a month per PC.
