Online Backup Services

I received the e-mail below yesterday from my service provider, Comcast. It has motivated me to write this blog post. I have been putting it off for some time now. You can click on this "photo" to enlarge it.

Backing up your data is critical. No one of us wants to ever lose those family pictures or videos. None of us wants to lose our music libraries or our personal documents. If you are a small business, you cannot afford to lose all of those important business documents. I'm afraid the IRS just wouldn't understand!


So how do YOU back up your data (and I sincerely hope you do)?

There are several ways you could. Among these are:

1) Copying to your own hard drive, which is hardly effective should your hard drive fail.

2) Copying to your own external hard drive. This is what I have chosen to do. I am a control freak and want to be fully responsible for my own data and be fully aware of exactly what I have backed up and where it is. I also don't want to spend money for this service. Finally, there is a downside to this method, and it's a big one. If the external drive is kept within your home, the same home that houses your PC and all of its data, then both could be lost in the same physical event (flood, fire, theft, etc.). So I have chosen to keep my external drive in a location apart from my main computer, the one I am sure contains all of my data. I make a copy of "My Documents" once a quarter, so my method is not perfect. I could lose data from the current quarter before it's backed up.

3) You could subscribe to a service that automatically backs up all of your data once to their own remote hard drives, and thereafter will make backup copies of all added files and new versions of existing files. This is probably the safest option. All of your data is backed up and easily retrievable, your data is encrypted and stored at the service provider's site, and since it's a constant, you do not risk losing data from the recent quarter as explained in number 2 above. However, these services cost money, so you have to weigh the cost vs. the benefit before deciding. The 2GB of free storage Comcast is offering me (see above) is not very much considering "My Documents" now amount to over 80GB. So I'd have to read their fine print to see how much their service would cost.

Finlly, PC World has provided an evaluation of some of the services that will back up your data for you on their own hard drives. You can see what they have to say at The Best Online Backup Services
I caution you, however, that this report is nearly 2 years old, so you might want to do some more research on your own should you wish to evaluate this backup option.

Here is a second review, dated October, 2009, of three backup service offerings. It's from consumersearch.com. Online Backup Services: Reviews

Tips on using free software

From time to time I like to remind my readers that this blog is just one man's opinion. Many of you who know me value my opinion, and I appreciate that. However, in this blog from now on, and only once in a while, I will post something I'll refer to as a "Guest Post". This is the first of such posts. The blog post below comes from the blog of Lisa Hendrickson, and her blog can be found at http://www.callthatgirl.biz/

I like to view Lisa's blog, named "Call That Girl" several times a week. I can always learn something new. Anyway, it's not a coincidence that for Lisa's first post I am choosing something we pretty much agree on, but it's nice for me, and I hope you too, that others feel the same way I do.

Lisa and i don't agree on everything. After all, each of us expresses our own opinions.

Posted by callthatgirl on March 15, 2010

"Many of us today are using Gmail, Google applications, AVG free, etc. Free software is usually great, but the support you get if you need help is usually not up to par. About a month ago, I decided to start using Google documents to store a few files because I needed to have them on 3 computers. I worked on a massive “to do list” and after I was done, I hit the “cut” button to move something and it all disappeared. I could not get it back, even though it had saved just a minute before! I was LIVID to say the least. I had been saving it too for a whole day or so and I’m not sure how easy it is to put in a support ticket to Google and have it checked out for a restore, but decided then and there…to only rely on myself for such needs from now on.
Support is very important when it comes to things you need to use.
Here are my opinions:

• AVG free is a good product, but not a great product. The download for AVG 9.0 takes a very long time to install (up to 45 minutes) and we see that program on virus infected computers. It works, but I quit recommending it to folks who want free software because it doesn’t work either. Toss up on AVG free!  AVG free offers online FAQ/Knowledge Base and Forum help. No email or phone support that I could find online. If you upgrade to the paid version, then you get the premium support.
• Microsoft Security Essentials Antivirus so far is doing well with the clients who I have recommended using it. Only one client so far has had a problem with “real time protection” and Microsoft will support that issue via chat or email.
• Google calendar can have glitches that can’t be fixed easily (from what my clients have told me, I am having success using it for now, but am looking at paid alternatives). Again they have the forum/FAQ help, but put in a ticket and wait a few days for help, if they help….Google decides if they support you due to the millions of users.
• Gmail is not something I am fond of, but many of my networking friends use it frequently and are happy with the product. My problem with Gmail is, what if you woke up one morning and your emails were all gone. Do you have time to wait for Google to figure it out? Who do you call? With Gmail, you have to search their support and help forums first, then put in a ticket and wait a few days. If you’re using Gmail for business (or hotmail, yahoo, etc..) do you have a few days to wait? Business is on the line!"

THANK YOU LISA!!

March MVPS HOSTS File Available now

I can't really tell you that the MVPS HOSTS file is updated monthly, but I think that is the author's objective. In any case, for those of you who have the February file or older, here is your chance to make sure you can update this file on your own. I have plenty of posts in this blog, as you followers know, on this subject and how to install the HOSTS file, so have a go at it!

You can download the March 2010 file at http://msmvps.com/blogs/hostsnews/default.aspx

If you have any difficulty in doing this, send me a quick e-mail, pcdoc at brpcdoc dot com and I'll try to help, and Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Correct your file associations

This comes from the Kim Komando web site, http://www.komando.com/. Among many other interesting and useful tidbits, Kim posts a Tip of the Day. This web site is among those I visit every day. You never know what you may find. I am sure most of you know that Kim is also on the radio, and has a great show.



Q. My computer is acting funny. My photos are opening in Microsoft Word. My videos are opening in the wrong video program. What is going on? How can I get everything straight again?
—Josie in Phoenix, listening on KFYI 550 AM

A. This problem is actually pretty common. It's also fairly easy to fix. File associations tie file types to specific programs. When you double-click a file, it opens in that program. Your file associations apparently are mixed up.

There are a couple of ways this happens. You can do it by accident. That's probably what happened to your photos. There's no other reason they should be opening in Word.

Installing new programs can also change file associations. Music and video programs are notorious for doing this. They want to take over the role of default player. And they'll do it if you're not careful.

Thankfully, resetting these associations is fairly easy. You didn't say if you were using a Mac or PC. So, I'll cover both. Either way the process is simple. First, find one of the files you're having trouble with.
In Windows Vista, right-click the file. Select Open With>>Choose Default Program. You'll see a list of programs. Select the program you want to use. Or hit Browse to add a program to the list. Check the box labeled "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file." Click OK.

In Windows XP, right-click the file. Select Open With. Find the program you want to use. Or click Browse to find another program. Again, check "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file." Click OK.

In Mac OS X, right-click the file. Select Get Info. Click the heading labeled "Open with." Use the dropdown menu to select a suggested program. Or click Other to browse for something else. Click Change All. Close the window.

Now those files will open with the correct programs.

Sometimes, a program isn't available to open a particular file.  These free programs will handle common file types:

• Video files come in a ridiculous number of formats. This media player can open them all.
• You need a suite to open office documents. Microsoft Office is the standard, but it's expensive. For a free alternative, try OpenOffice.org.
• PDF files are easily opened with Adobe Reader. But it isn't the best program. Instead, try Foxit Reader or Sumatra.

Prepaid wireless market hot in U.S. during recession

This is an interesting article, or at least it is of interest to me. I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I am on a month-to-month with Verizon Wireless and not happy with what I have to pay for their service. If anyone out there has an opinion, in favor or opposed, please add a comment below. This can be done anonymously if you like. No fancy necessary registrations with userid and password required here. Anyway this article is from the computerworld.com web site and appeared there today.
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Prepaid usage rises as recession-worn users seeks cheaper deals for wireless service, IDC says

Matt Hamblen

March 15, 2010 (Computerworld) The hottest market in wireless communications in the U.S. is for customers who pre-pay for their service, with that group accounting for 65% of all net new subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2009, research firm IDC said.

Pre-paid customers grew during the recession and its aftermath as wireless users sought ways to avoid long-term contracts and related costs paid by post-paid customers, said IDC analyst Richard Murphy.
Pre-paid plans can also result in tremendous savings over monthly costs for postpaid plans, Murphy noted. For example, a savvy consumer can get unlimited voice, text and Web access for $45 a month with the pre-paid TracFone Wireless Straight Talk plan, he noted.

By contrast, a postpaid subscriber can easily spend more than $100 a month for service for an iPhone or other smartphone, he noted. "Some customers are more driven by the phone they want, so if you go for an iPhone you are probably not going to really care about the monthly cost at 100 bucks or more a month," he said.

Some careful customers, however, might realize they only need a phone for voice and text messaging, and will reserve their Web browsing for a desktop or laptop to save on monthly costs, he noted.

"The prepaid market in the U.S. will remain very competitive," said Murphy, noting that several carriers are most active in the space. At the end of 2009, TracFone led with 14.4 million prepaid customers, Boost (with the addition of Virgin Mobile) had 10.6 million, T-Mobile USA had 7 million, MetroPCS had 6.6 million, and Leap Wireless had 4.9 million.

The nation's largest wireless carriers, Verizon Wireless and AT&T, both appear to be moving away from the prepaid model in recent months, even though they each had about 5.4 million prepaid customers at the end of 2009. AT&T actually lost 800,000 prepaid customers in 2009, while Verizon gained 500,000.

IDC recorded that 4.2 million net subscribers were added by all the nine largest carriers in the fourth quarter of 2009, with 65% of them pre-paid customers. Overall, there were 285 million wireless subscribers in the U.S. at the end of 2009.

Some carriers are focused on bringing in customers on post-paid plans, luring them to use smartphones that rely on data plans. "To keep their revenues up they have to focus on selling data plans," Murphy said.

"The first step for a consumer walking into a carrier's store is to pick out a phone and that often means getting the customer toward a smartphone that obligates the user to a data plan. That's just the way the marketing is, since the wireless business is very competitive and the carriers are competing for every dollar."

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld.