![]() ![]() You can start the initial backup immediately, when your PC becomes idle, or on a schedule you set in the Configuration dialog. In any case, you can always suspend Mozy's backing up and uploading activity if you need your PCs resources for more pressing tasks. During backup, the "Estimated time to completion" entry almost always said "unknown" in the status dialog while it was uploading my backups-not very useful. That's considerably slower than Carbonite and IDrive's times in my testing, but much depends on your particular Internet connection. MozyHome said my 1.1GB of files would require about 5 hours if I used the quickest setting-the actual time was 3:51 with the backup working in the background. It tells you how many days your initial backup will take, based on your chosen setting. The interface includes a slider control that lets you specify how much of your PC's resources the backup process can consume. Luckily, my 2.6-Mbps connection passed, and the test reported that I could back up between 4.8GB and 10.5GB per day. It would be even better if Mozy offered this before you paid, however. ![]() The wizard then does a bandwidth test-a good feature not offered by other online backup services I tested. You can fine-tune all of this later in the more-detailed Configuration dialog. Selected default file types include e-mail and contacts from Outlook, photos and images, spreadsheets and databases, video and movie clips, and word-processing documents. By default, selected folders include My Documents and its subfolders, as well as browser favorites. You can choose to back up by folder or file type. Next, you run the Backup Configuration wizard, which asks for your username and password, lets you choose between your own private symmetric encryption key or Mozy's default 448-bit key, and makes suggestions about what to safeguard. A setup wizard then takes you through installation. After this, you download either the 7MB Windows version of the software client or the 4.5MB beta for Mac OS. Enter an e-mail address, create and confirm a password, choose how many PCs you'll be backing up, and set the length of your subscription. ![]() But in an increasingly competitive online backup market, this former Editors' Choice hasn't evolved enough since our last review, and it suffers from usability and security shortcomings. There's a lot more to like, too: 128-bit encryption during data transfers and 448-bit Blowfish encryption on the servers, the ability to back up open files, and a bandwidth-saving strategy of backing up only changed portions of files. You get 2GB of storage space free, and $4.95 a month gets you unlimited backup space-on a par with what most personal online backup solutions are charging these days. MozyHome Online Backup makes it easy, and because EMC, one of the biggest names in storage, is behind it, you have some assurance that the service-and your data-won't disappear. For consumers or people who work from home, that can be hard. No matter where you use your data, it's best to store somewhere else. ![]()
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