Amazon S3 – A Backup Strategy for the Internet Age

Sadly, data vanishes every day. Your hard drive, that tiny electronic filing cabinet inside your computer, will eventually fail. It’s just a matter of time. Like the water pump in your car or the batteries in your TV remote, your hard drive has a fixed life; and if you don’t have backup copies of your files, you can kiss them all goodbye.

In previous editions of this newsletter, we’ve talked about various backup media such as flash drives, CDs, DVDs and external hard drives. While these media work, they have a few drawbacks. First they rely upon human intervention – users must consciously remember to perform certain steps at a specific time. Second, they do not provide complete protection from catastrophe unless they are stored off-site. A burglar, fire or a natural disaster will most certainly claim your backup media along with the rest of your computer gear.

Amazon’s new Web Services division may have the answer to unattended, reliable and pain-free offsite backups: it’s a service called Amazon Simple Storage Solution or S3 for short. S3 uses your high-speed Internet connection to transfer copies of your files to a safe and secure location in cyberspace. The backup jobs can be configured to run in the background and at scheduled intervals of your choosing.

How does S3 Work?

S3 requires a third party software program to allow your computer to “talk” to the Amazon backup storage servers. There are many choices available. Typically, the software installation process walks you through the steps necessary to:

1. Establish your S3 account with Amazon
2. Select the files and folders you wish to back up and
3. Create a backup schedule.

The entire set up process takes 15 to 20 minutes. Depending upon the size of your backup job and the speed of your Internet connection, the initial upload can take quite awhile – perhaps days. However, once the initial job completes, S3 only backs up newly created files or those files that change. Most families and small businesses find that only a handful of files change from day to day.

How Much does S3 Cost?

There are two cost components to S3: The cost of the software application mentioned above and the cost of the S3 service itself. Pricing for S3-compatible software varies. For example, one popular application called Jungle Disk (http://www.jungledisk.com/) costs $20. This is a one-time, flat fee. Updates are free for life. Backazon (http://www.backazon.com/), a competing product, charges an annual subscription fee of $39. Though it's more costly, some novice computer users may find Backazon to be a bit more user-friendly than Jungle Disk.

Amazon charges a separate and recurring monthly charge for the S3 service itself, based upon the storage space you use. Current pricing is just 15 cents per gigabyte. So, even for a massive data load of 20 GB, the cost is only $3.00 per month ( $36 per year). The table below outlines some of the key features and benefits of the S3 service.

Conclusion

S3 is a great solution even if you want to keep your existing backup plan. (There is nothing wrong with implementing a strategy that provides a “backup to the backup.”) If you are already backing up to flash memory or an external hard drive, consider supplementing your onsite backup with S3 to grab the most critical files. Considering the reliability of the system, its capability for unattended automation, and the fact that backup jobs are always stored off-site, the low cost of S3 is cheap insurance!

Keep in mind, however, that S3 service is only feasible if you have a high-speed Internet connection. Dial up connections are simply too slow to backup up large amounts of data over the Internet.

If S3 seems like overkill or your Internet connection is too slow to make it work, it’s important to do something! You can easily attach a price tag to your computer but, in many cases, data is priceless. Save yourself the pain and suffering associated with a computer crash – implement some sort of backup strategy today. Even if it's not the perfect solution, something is better than nothing.

We have been installing and configuring S3 backup plans for many residential and business customers. Contact us if you require assistance.

Dealing with AVG’s Auto Update Errors

The good: AVG Free Edition 8.0, as the name suggests, is completely free for non-commercial users.
The bad: This freeware is extremely popular. At any given moment thousands of computers are trying to connect to AVG’s update servers at the same time. The ugly: Sometimes, automatic updates can fail which, over time, can leave your computer exposed to threats that invaded the Internet since your last update.

Over the past several weeks, we have taken quite a few calls from customers who are frustrated about their AVG updates. Here are some important tips that will help you keep your computer protected while taking advantage of excellent, free malware protection.

Make Sure You Have the Most Recent Version

Grisoft, the company that publishes AVG, recently posted a new version to their download site. This latest build, version 8.0.233, dramatically improves the performance of the automatic update feature. To check your AVG version, double-click the AVG application icon on your desktop screen, click the HELP menu, then ABOUT.

Check the “AVG Version” number on the Information screen that opens:

If the AVG version is not 8.0.233 or newer, uninstall AVG (via Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs), then download and reinstall the latest version. You can get the latest version by clicking the AVG Free Edition download link on our website: www.computerhomecare.net/links.

Perform a Manual Update when Necessary

Watch the AVG icon in your “System Tray” – that’s the area at the lower, right corner of your screen, next to the clock. If an exclamation point covers up the colored patchwork AVG icon, it means an automatic update was missed or it failed. When you see the exclamation point, always perform a manual update as soon as possible.

To update manually, double-click the AVG application icon on the Windows desktop, click UPDATE NOW and follow the prompts. After a minute or two, the update process should complete and the exclamation point should disappear.

Tweak AVG's Advanced Settings

If the manual update does not resolve your problem, you may have to play with AVG's "Advanced Settings." Along the top of the AVG main application window, click TOOLS, then ADVANCED SETTINGS.

Delete Temporary Update Files

From the left pane of the Advanced Settings window, double-click UPDATE in the left column to expand the branch, click MANAGE, then click the DELETE TEMPORARY UPDATE FILES button in the right column. Click YES to confirm. When the process is complete, click OK.

Note: The MANAGE UPDATES function is not available unless you have version 8.0.233 or newer. Refer to the topic: “Make Sure You Have the Most Recent Version” (above).

Adjust Scheduled Automatic Update Settings

Unless you specify otherwise, AVG schedules automatic updates for a time of its choosing. When installing AVG, most people do not change the default update schedule, meaning the vast majority of AVG installations all knock on the update server’s door at the same time every day. AVG’s servers experience the highest traffic during normal business hours. By scheduling updates outside of prime time (early morning or late at night), you will have a better chance of getting through without errors. (Of course, your computer needs to be ON at the scheduled time you choose.)

From the ADVANCED SETTINGS screen, expand the SCHEDULES branch, then click the PROGRAM UPDATE SCHEDULE option. Make sure the screen is configured as shown, then click OK to save your changes.

Once you make these changes to the Advanced Settings screen, try another manual update. If you still have problems, delete the temporary update files again and repeat the manual update process. You may have to try several times to complete the updates. However, once AVG is completely up to date, you should find that auto update performance improves.

If you have trouble reinstalling AVG or configuring the settings we discuss here, please call us to schedule an appointment. In many cases, we can actually log on to your computer from our office and quickly fix the problem.

Office 2007 Compatibility Pack

Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint are all part of a larger suite called Microsoft Office. The latest version is called Microsoft Office 2007. Much to the chagrin of many experienced Office users, the 2007 version changes many things – it looks quite different and the file formats for Word, Excel and PowerPoint are not inherently compatible with previous versions.

Although these programs allow you to use the SAVE AS feature to save Office files to a compatible “pre-2007” format, most of us either forget to do this or we simply don’t know how. As a result others who have not yet upgraded to 2007 cannot open our files. That is, until now.

Microsoft has recently released the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack, which is a free download, available from Microsoft. Click here to learn more and to access the download link.

Frequently Asked Question

Question: Is it safe to buy stuff on the Internet?

Answer: Yes, as long as you are buying from a Web retailer who utilizes secure shopping cart technology – technically known as Transport Layer Security (TLS). Fortunately, it's easy to determine if a website uses TLS. When the checkout (payment) process requests private information, such as your credit card number, a padlock icon should appear in the web browser "chrome" – the area that surrounds the page and contains the toolbar, menus and status bar. The location of the icon depends upon the browser and the version of browser you are using. The latest version of Internet Explorer (version 7) shows the icon next to the web address.

Instead of – or in addition to – the padlock icon, you may see that the address of the web page begins with HTTPS (rather than HTTP).

Either of these signs separately, or both of them together, indicate the retailer is using State of the Art technology to protect your identity and secure your transaction. If you do NOT see the characteristics of a secure shopping cart, always err on the side of caution: just say "no." Also, under no circumstances should you ever send confidential information of any sort in an e-mail message. E-mail is not secure!

A payment transaction processed by TLS is actually safer than handing your credit card to a cashier because you, the buyer, is the only human who can see the payment details. TLS encrypts the information into a long string of code which can only be deciphered by a special computer on the other end.

Note that old versions of Internet Explorer, such as those included with Windows 98 do NOT support secure shopping carts. For this reason, the native Web browsers packaged with Microsoft operating systems earlier than Windows Millennium Edition (ME) do not include adequate security for Internet-based transactions. It is very important to make sure these versions of Windows are upgraded to Internet Explorer version 5.5 before making Web purchases. Windows ME and newer versions of Windows are equipped with security-compliant browsers – you only need to concerned about the browser version issue if you are using a very old version of Windows.

One more word of caution: Beware of websites that attempt to create a forgery of the padlock icon. If the icon appears on the web page itself, you are probably not secure. The icon must appear in the browser chrome area that borders the web page. (See the figure above).

Don't See What You're Looking For?

Forward your content suggestions to appointments@computerhomecare.net.

Copyright © 2009, Computer Homecare & Small Business Solutions • All rights reserved