If it safe to use online backup?

Probably not many people will remember the days of shuffling floppy disks in and out of your PC will you tried to backup the 40MB hard drive on your Windows 3.0 PC but I guess that shows my online-age. These days there are a lot of options for file backup; external hard drives, DVD & CD backup, tape backup, NAS (network attached storage) and most recently online backup where the files are backed-up to servers in the "cloud" (a.k.a. cloud storage).

One of the biggest differences between all the preceding backup options (DVD, tape, hard drive, NAS) and online backup is that with the former you control the physical device and backup media that stores your precious (and often private) data; this is compared to online backup where someone else owns, manages and controls the servers that hold your data. How can you trust the people to keep your data safe?

What are the risks of using online backup?
The most obvious risks are:

1. Privacy of your data - you don't want unauthorized people to be able to view, change or delete personal files - this can be even more important if you are business that has legal responsibilities to keep your customers data secure.
2. Safety of your data from loss or deletion - you don't want the servers holding your data to crash, or for someone to delete your backups without your permission. Or for the online backup provider to go out of business and in the process disappear with your data.

What are the solutions to these important online backup concerns? Online backup can be very safe and secure if you investigate and pick your provider carefully and don't just go with the one with the fancy sales pitch.

What questions should I ask of my online backup provider?
Some good questions to ask, or see if they have addressed already in the FAQ, include:

Is my data encrypted before it leaves my computer?
If your data is encrypted with a password (or using private key / public key encryption which uses a shared secret and passphrase), then not only will it be protected from someone viewing the information on the servers in the cloud, but it also protects your data from snooping as it travels over the Internet. Even better is if the files are broken into smaller pieces and encrypted as chunks as then not only would someone have to break the encryption (or hack you password) they would also need to assemble of the file pieces together in the correct order. Also ask what level of encryption your provider uses, usually the greater the key-length the better, and look for open standards, such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), or Data Encryption Standard (DES).

Are my backup files stored in multiple redundant locations?
You want your online backup provider to not only store one copy of your backup files, you want them to store multiple copies. Why? Because if for some reason one of their servers fails you won't loose your data as there will still be one or more copies available to reconstruct your backup file. This can either be done using duplication of files, or be the hosting provider using RAID, or various other forms of redundant data storage.

Who is the company behind the online backup service? Do they have the financial ability to stay in business? Do they have the corporate standards to look safely after your data? Do they have a good reputation online?

If your are comfortable with the answers to all these questions then online backup can be just as safe as traditional offline backup, which can have risks itself of people stealing the physical backup media! Remember ask questions and choose carefully, this company will be handling your more precious digital assets and you don't want to cut corners and take the a cheap option if it means sacrificing quality.


We'll talk more about the features you should look for in online backup software in a future blog.

How do I open a 7z file?

Years ago it used to be 'How do I open a PDF file?' and the online population banded together to put those little Adobe Reader icons everywhere -- honestly you still see them around and they could use an extreme makeover -- I mention PDF only because that's a question you hardly hear anymore, I think everyone and their 90-year old grandma now know how to open a PDF file so perhaps those funky 80's styling icons do work? (If you are one of the 4 people on the planet who doesn't know how to open PDF please download Adobe Reader)

I'm getting off track -- the question you mainly hear today (apart from which video player do I use to open this crazy commercial my buddy sent me) is how to a open 7z files (and also how do I open RAR files but most people are getting that now).

Well to answer the first question a 7z is a type of compressed file created by 7-Zip - these files with the .7z file extension are compressed files and in concept just like ZIP & just like RAR -- except someone has used 7-ZIP because they are perhaps a little more cutting-edge (or at least want to appear to be ;) so instead of using ZIP & RAR, which are pretty well industry standards they've used something a little less common. Why? You may ask. 7Zip, albeit less common is a fine file compressor, in tests it compresses files better than most other compressed file formats (i.e. it makes them smaller and therefore quick to email/share) and it often uses less resources to do it. It's also open source which is nice as people can #1 implement support for 7-ZIP in other applications and #2 you also know it's going to be free forever in some shape or form.

Now to answer the original question, if someone sends you a file with .7z at the end just download and install 7-zip and then reply to the sender asking why do they have to be a rule-breaker...?

(If someone has been a bit more civilized and sent you a ZIP or a RAR then it's usually best to open ZIP with WinZip, and if you are wanting to open RAR best to download WinRAR.)

VLC Player

My favorite, or least one of the top 3, media players would have to be VLC Media Player. I don't know about you but I'm a big fan of video clips - they are great for a quick when you have a few minutes to spare to browse YouTube, or when a friend sends you some crazy beer commercial from Sweden. The biggest problem is #1 your friend has sent you some crazy video format with a uncommon video codec (the thing that compresses the video, like MPEG, AVI, DivX, MOV, xVID, etc. and without having the right one makes playback of the video completely impossible), or #2 when someone doesn't seem to realize the difference between kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes when sending videos as attachments.

While #2 is harder to fix, I've found most videos can be played by using VLC, nearly every video I try can be played on it -- if it still doesn't play installing the DivX codec usually seems to allow a few more to work. So while it might not play 100% of video's you get, it will play the good majority and with low system impact so you're machine doesn't freeze up while you're doing it.

VLC Media Player is free so I'd recommend you give it a go next time your college buddy sends you the Budweiser Frogs commercial for the 100th time!

File blog launched

How many blogs have you seen launch, make one or two posts and then die away, never to be touched again. I wonder if there is a word for that? Blogocide? Blogvation? Blogneglect?

Well the Files.com blog is here now so no need to worry, we'll be bringing you more information about the latest happening in the world of files, software and downloads. There is a lot going on in the software sector from the transition from desktop software products to 'software as a service' (SaaS), to combination products utilizing a desktop component and a cloud back-end, and much more.

Along with general industry commentary we'll be bringing you some file reviews, special offers and interesting tid-bits that we find cool. So stay tuned... oh, and we promise we'll try and make more than two posts before we find something better to do with our time.