Very Interesting Back Up plan

[Xairbusdriver]

The latest TidBITS newsletter has a review of a very interesting and apparently very customizable back up system using a P2P system. While the paid version would normally use the 50GB space at 'CrashPlan Central', it is also possible to use the software for backing up to a friends computer, via the internet or a LAN. Doing that can actually be cost free to the owner of the back up drive owner.

The software is actually a Java app, so it's not completely "Mac", but it can be used on Windows, Linux (soon) and OS X because of that.

Read the review at: <TidBITS #868>
Or check the info at: <CrashPlan>

[Gregg]

Not sure I understand this, so this may be a moot point... What if the computer you back up to crashes?

Yeah, removable media can fail too...

[Thomas S. England]

Here's another backup plan which looks very interesting--Jungle Disk

From the website (  http://www.jungledisk.com/  ):

"Jungle Disk is an application that lets you store files and backup data securely to Amazon.com's S3 ™ Storage Service.

Store an unlimited amount of data for only 15¢ per gigabyte
No monthly subscription fee, no startup fee, no commitment
Your data is fully encrypted at all times
Data is stored at multiple Amazon.com datacenters around the country for high availability
Access files directly from Windows Explorer, Mac OSX Finder, and Linux
Automatically back up your important files quickly and easily"

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

What if the computer you back up to crashes?

Same as what would happen if you didn't back up at all, I guess. The point is, you can use their servers which are hopefully more reliable. As Thomas points out, there are other places that offer this kind of service, including iDisk. Read the linked article to understand the differences offered by this service, at least in the opinion of someone who has studied many of the 'solutions' available. If you need more than 50GB, you can get each GB for 10 cents. If you don't need 50GB to begin with, other services can be cheaper. The advantages with this service are the space provided, the easy to use software and the ability to use drive space on your friends drives if you have enough friends (!), and they don't pay anything ( if you want to pay them is another question! ). Please read the article.

I won't be using even the free trial for a couple of weeks. The latest version of Java is required and one can't use that without 10.4.8. I'm not about to change horses until I get a major project for my wife done. Then, we'll see...

[Parker]

hey whatever all this is, it's cheaper than iDisk