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McAfee Online Backup - New Web Service

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Carol Haynes:
What are your upload speeds?

I tried an online backup system (expensively provided by my bank) but it was almost unusable because the maximum broadband upload speed for most UK ISPs is 448kbs and in reality it is more like 375kbs. Trouble is it means it takes forever to upload any reasonable size backup.

Unless you have fast upload speeds unlimited backup is pretty meaningless - unless you are prepared to take weeks creating the intial backup.

The other issues I wonder about are:


* how secure is the data you upload (in terms of reliability of the backup)
* how secure is the data you upload (in terms of others looking at your data - including the employees of the service)
* how quickly can I get important data back - odd files will probably be OK but if I need a system rebuild how quick is the server at streaming your data back to you? It's all very well having 20Gbs broadband or more but if the servers only send at a low rate is it worth the hassle.
Can someone explain the advantage over buying an external USB drive or two?

Josh:
My big problem with online backup solutions is this. What happens if THEY lose your data or it gets corrupted on their systems? I have heard of one particular user, trying to locate the article, where a user went to restore his data only to find out that the company providing the backup services had lost his data. They then proceeded to tell him that they are not responsible and that it is ultimately the end users responsibility to back up said data.

Thoughts?

Innuendo:
Can someone explain the advantage over buying an external USB drive or two?-Carol Haynes (November 22, 2009, 03:37 AM)
--- End quote ---

I think the advantage is supposed to be if your computer and peripherals are burned in a fire or if someone came in and stole it all your data would be safely stored on a server many miles away.

Of course, you could take that "external USB drive or two" and store them at a friend's or relative's house & have that same advantage.

Lashiec:
My big problem with online backup solutions is this. What happens if THEY lose your data or it gets corrupted on their systems?
-Josh (November 22, 2009, 06:36 AM)
--- End quote ---

If it's a serious company, it's a given that they should have a backup system in place in case these kind of things happen. Since you can't really tell, as everyone says they backup their users data, and when shit happens, it turns out they don't, you're pretty much f***** up.

The thing is, with the paltry upload speeds most people has, and the small storage space most services offer, online backup services are supposed to be used as secondary (or even tertiary) backup systems, never as the primary one, and only for really critical files that should be backed up in more than one place. As it is, I don't expect Mozy of McAfee or whatever to hold my entire musical collection or my ISP to be able to handle such enormous transfer with a reasonable upload time. I do expect them to be able to store copies of certain documents or key files, though.

mouser:
What Innuendo said.  The idea is to have 2 copies, then it doesn't matter of the online company has a fire or your house has a fire, as long as both dont have fires at the same time.

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