CrashPlan Backup

AVSIM Staff,First, I'm glad that you guys are up and running. After I heard about your hack, a fire was lit under my (engines) and I started looking into offsite backup solutions for myself and all of my clients. (I'm a computer tech) I know that you have a great team of guys but I wanted to bring to your attention a fantastic solution that I found. (That may be entirely free for you as it was me)This isn't Mozy or Carbonite, but CrashPlan.http://www.crashplan.comI have started to implement CrashPlan at all of my clients and I must say, this software is fantastic! If you use it on a single (personal) license then it would be free. There are other solutions (including backing up directly to CrashPlan, which is really how they make their money) but I wanted to give you a quick overview of why CrashPlan is awsome. (And for any users reading this, consider it, it's a great piece of software. And no, I'm not an affiliate or sales person, just a tech who now loves this software)It allows you to backup to local drives or offsite. Offsite solutions include:To CrashPlan (You pay I think 5 dollars a month per 50 gigs)To another computer. (Create a free account, sign into free account both on server AND remote computer, which can INCLUDE external removable media.) (FREE)To a "friends" computer. Basically, the same as to another computer, but using two separate accounts. (Entirely Free)Or to locally attached media. (Not what you want, heh)Now, heres even more killer stuff about this software:You can backup your entire drive, or choose what to backup/restore.You can backup everything locally, say to an external USB 2.0 drive, then take that drive OFFSITE to your other computer, and from that point on continue incremental backups.You can choose, on the remote computer, where backups are stored. IE, the internal drive, or an external drive/media.You can set an "away" time. IE, I'm away from my computer when it's idle for 5 minutes. (You choose the interval)You can tell CrashPlan to always backup, or only during certain times.You can set CPU availability to Crashplan. IE, when I'm using my computer, use 10% of CPU for backup. (You can even set that to 0%!) When I'm away, use 50%. Not sure how "idle" a server is going to be, but you could (as you should) choose to backup at off peak hours, and then just set both settings (away and while you are at computer) to say 40% or whatever you prefer.You can set CrashPlan to require your account password to start the software. IE, unless you know the password, you aren't getting into the app to change settings. I believe it runs a background daemon so backups will continue without the software having to be running.And, the best darn thing of all, it encrypts the backups!! Either with your account password, a password of your choosing or a secure randomly generated key/passphrase including random characters if you want.I can't say enough about this fantastic and free piece of software. When I initially tested it (After your hack, again, I'm sorry to hear that happened) I took an external 1 TB USB 2.0 drive and connected it to my machine. I installed CrashPlan and setup a (free) account. I chose my destination as a folder. (Which lets you just pick an external drive/volume) It did my initial backup, of 450 gigs, to the external 1 TB drive. I chose an encryption with a random key, which spit out a 36 character key including +'s, and other random characters. I kept a copy of that key. This backup took over a day. 450 gigs with that level of encryption.After that was finished, I setup a stand alone xp box at a client of mine (Who runs a dual bonded T1) and installed CrashPlan on that remote xp machine. I signed into my (same) account with that external USB drive connected. I then went into the xp boxes CrashPlan settings and told it to store the backups on the external drive. Finally I RDC'ed (Remote Desktop Connection) back into my home machine, and while onsite with the (offsite) backup computer/drive, changed the destination from the (formerly) attached local drive on my home computer to the offsite computer/drive that now was instantly showing up at home. (Once you login to your account on both home and remote computer, both computers show up as an option. You chose the "remote" computer from home, and then on that remote computer you tell it to store your data on the external volume. So it goes Home machine -> remote computer -> external drive) I ran a test backup, which backed up 1 file at home that had changed. So now, I have a completely free, offsite encrypted solution with a ton of options.The software is completely cross platform. Mac, Windows, Linux, Solaris. You can backup a Mac to a PC, linux to Windows, Windows to Mac, Solaris to Windows, whatever you want. I am truly amazed at what this software can do, and given it's free what it offers.I'm sure you guys have a monster backup plan already in place and that is good! But I wanted to let you know about CrashPlan, even for a redundant backup, it's really cool.Good luck!Matt RigginsVATSIM Pilot, USA-WCoral Airlines, N324CRPilot ID: 908853www.mycessnasim.comwww.my737sim.com (in the works)