A Networked Home

Archive for the ‘Security’ Category

I recently learned of the company Phorm (aka webwise.net).  I won’t waste time here explaining why this company is so bad.  Instead, do a google search for them or, better yet, check out the Leo Laporte-Steve Gibson podcast, “Security Now”, episode #151 for the lowdown.

For this space, I just want to give a quick tip on stopping this horrible spyware in your Firefox browser.  So, here we go:

• Open Firefox and click the “Tools” menu.
• Choose “Options”.
• Click the “Privacy Tab”.
• First, and this has nothing to do with Phorms, make sure you have unchecked the “Accept third party cookes” radio button.  Then, click the “Exceptions” button next to “Accept cookies from sites”.
• Now enter in webwise.net and, for safety’s sake, www.webwise.net and click the “Block” button after entering each of these items.
• Click “OK” and you’re done.

We decided to take a look at some of the leading online backup services available. For those not familiar, online backup is a way of backing up your most important data to an off-site source via your internet connection. This is crucial because if there were a fire or any sort of natural disaster at your home then your data would be safe - all those precious, irreplaceable family photos would survive.

In most cases, you want to only back up the irreplaceable files because it will cost you for the space your backup files use. In other words, don’t back up things like programs (Office, Photoshop, etc.) because you can always re-install them from the CD or from a web site, or, at least, by repurchase. The key files would be your documents, photos, music and video - in other words, things that can’t be replaced with money.

The first thing you need to realize is that uploading all of these files is a large undertaking, so, a high speed connection (DSL, Cable, etc.) is almost required.

Another, and perhaps the biggest, consideration is the destination. In other words, “is this a reliable company who will still be around if my files get wiped out 5 or 10 years from now?”. That is the toughest question because it is really a guessing game. Obviously the clearest choice for this one would be Amazon with their S3 backup service.

Next you need to look at the cost for storage. Most charge by file size per month or annum. Here again we see Amazon coming out on top. They charge $0.15 per GB per month. So, if you store 50GB it would cost $7.50, whereas Box.net will charge $19.95 for 15GB. But, if you have a LOT to store then you may want consider Carbonite which charges $49.95 per year for unlimited storage. Going back to the Amazon 50GB example to compare to Carbonite, this would be $90 per year on Amazon. But, if you have very little to back up then Box.net offers 1GB per month for free and iDrive offers 2GB free.

So, calculate how much you want to backup (but remember not to skimp because if you lose it then it’s probably gone forever) and take a look at our chart below. Figure out what works best for you and don’t hesitate to make this well-spent purchase.

(click the chart to view all services)