AWS Simple Storage Service (S3) in US-East-1 is effectively down (up to date status here). They say "increased error rates", but it's down. US-East-1 is their primary region, where all billing is done, and I suspect there may be the odd service that only runs there. You couldn't even guess at the amount of storage and traffic that goes to S3, it probably stores a significant fraction of resources on the internet, though not all will use that region.S3 is core to many different AWS services, so in effect the whole region is having big problems. Existing resources are keeping working, so long as they don't rely on S3. Many, many websites who rely on S3 and haven't architected for reliability are down. AWS at its core just runs data centers, and data centers fail from time to time, so organisations with a need for reliability need to account for this when they architect their solutions. AWS provides plenty of ways to do this, including S3 cross region replication, which could mitigate these problems if considered in system architectures.AWS services and regions go down fairly rarely. It'll be interesting to see how this evolves, and the root cause.
AWS S3 "increased error rates" 1 March 2017 NZT
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New CRM Needed - Suggestions, Recommendations etc.
Hi all,So after several years with the existing CRM (ACT) that "came with the business" when I took over I have decided it is now time to replace it. In saying that there seems to be A LOT out there nowadays and as a move like this involves the foundation of the business from one platform to another I really don't want to do it again.At the moment I have fallen back to a number of shared spreadsheets, Xero and ACT to try and capture information that cant be captured in a single application (or too difficult to do in a small team)So we are completely Xero based for Accounting, Invoicing etc. so integration or linking with Xero would be a nice to have but far from a requirement.If I was to come up with a list I guess we would need:*****************************************Preferably a SaaS based CRMAbility to have a "service" module addon (for Techs)Integration to Xero would be nice but not a requirementHighly customisable but not so much that it requires 3rd party to constantly update and maintainEasy to setup and import existing data (still to be cleaned)Local and homegrown; however if international then something that has local guru's who can be called on for support services etc******************************************Has anyone perhaps recently done, consulted or even "sold" a CRM solution that may be able to point me in the right direction?
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How to map a drive with Office 365 SharePoint drive.
How to map a drive with Office 365 SharePoint drive on Windows 10.It might sound like a simple thing and I stumped. I've been following instructions all morning on how to do this but I always stuck with the following error: And I have the websites in the the list of trusted sites. In fact they where automatically put there. REF:https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2616712/how-to-configure-and-to-troubleshoot-mapped-network-drives-that-connect-to-sharepoint-online-sites-in-office-365
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Email hosting
I'm looking around for NZ based companies that offer email hosting with billing in NZD. The use case I am thinking of is organisations/people who have their own domain name and want to use it for emails, and would prefer to pay in NZD. The email service should at the least offer both IMAP/TLS and Webmail/HTTPS access with a decent UX along with an outbound SMTP/TLS gateway. Ideally it could support iOS push notifications for IMAP and have a decent amount of storage (>1GB per mailbox).Basically I am looking for a local equivalent to FastMail. Maybe without the 25GB storage. :PBefore anyone suggests self-hosting, I am currently hosting my own mail sever on my VPS and have used it to host emails for various non-profits in the past. In recent years however I've off-loaded them to other providers and their experience with other providers have been variable. Some have opted (against my advice) to just go for a Gmail account (with 'reply to' their domain names). Hence I am looking for a reliable NZ firm to recommend to NPOs and other individuals who want an easy-to-use managed email hosting using their own domain name.I've had a quick look and found:-Net24$5+GST monthly500MB storage5 mailboxesOpenHost$2+GST monthly1GB storage5GB traffic10 mailboxesRamsu$4+GST monthly500MB storage1 mailboxUmbrellar$5+GST monthly1GB storage1,000 email deliveries1 mailboxWould love to hear feedback from anyone who uses any of the above or other similar services. I'm particularly interested in OpenHost which has a good price for the storage they offer (and they also offer more cost tiers above that price for any future expansions).If you are a user could you feedback on the following:- Do they offer TLS for both IMAP and SMTP connections? Bonus marks if they enforce TLS on both!- Which Webmail application do they use? Do you like it? Why/why not?- How good is their spam filtering? Do they filter outright or to a separate mailbox?- Do they support IMAP IDLE?- Do they support iOS push notifications for IMAP mailboxes? (i.e. via ActiveSync or otherwise)Thanks in advance for your feedback. :)
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Advice Needed for storage consolidation and shared access to files - 2 iphones, 1 ipad, 1 Mac and 1 Windows 7 laptop
Advice Needed for storage consolidation and shared access to files - 2 iphones, 1 ipad, 1 Mac and 1 Windows 7 laptopMy hubby and I are home users. By no means IT experts but can find our way around basics. We've been talking about consolidating files, photos and videos for storage in one common place, with access from anywhere, and back up. We're currently all over the place - some files saved to Windows (running windows 7) Laptop hard drive, Mac hard drive, photos on 2 x iphones and ipad, but some stuff saved to free icloud and dropbox accounts. A bit of a dog's breakfast!We have lots of photos and videos stored in separate places locally and in icloud, and then quite a few documents (mostly Word, Excel, PDF and Powerpoint files). We also have personal email clear.net.nz email, as well as 2 business email accounts and gmail. We realise we are currently incredibly inefficient in terms of storing our files and also at risk of data loss. Would love to free up space on our iphones/ipads, and in terms of back up we have a Seagate portable hard drive we back up the Windows laptop irregularly but that's really it. Considering cloud solutions which we realise can be costly in terms of ongoing annual costs, or some kind of hardware solution - eg. Mycloud - but would love to know what works best. Any help/recommendations or suggestions would be appreciated!
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Microsoft blanket bans 100's / 1000's of NZ IP addresses from sending email
Today Microsoft blanket banned at least 512 - 1024 ip addresses in NZ from sending email to their clients, including @live.com, @hotmail.com, office365 domins and domains hosted with Microsoft / office 365.The reason for this is that ONE ip address, hosting a server, mis behaved and spammed them. In reurn they bonced / rejected email from 100's / 1000's of ip addresses in NZ - most of them VDS / VPS being used as mail servers, website hosts etc. The impact of this affected hundreds of companies. Below is my response to Microsofts arrogant fix of this issue. By fix I mean a half baked, semi lifting of the ban. I also include Microsofts official response for your edification - please note there was only 1 IP address totally banned. Talk about swatting a fly with a mack truck.After 3.5 hours plus on the phone to cretinous overseas help(sic) desk I got through to an NZ lass who got me what I wanted in under 15 mintes - and she wasn't even IT support. Thus my testy tone.--------------------------------------------Let me be blunt: We run a mail server at 120.138.28.18 and work bloody hard to ensure we have a good reputation so that all the clients we host can enjoy consistent and smooth mail services. We have run this mail server for at least 3-4 years, have a clean reputation with the top 104 black lists we monitor every 5 minutes and have done so for years. To be blanket banned because someone else, on a different IP address, but in a similar range, has mis behaved is unacceptable. You have cost me time and money re-mediating this, damaged my and my companies reputation with clients and cost my clients hundreds of dollars, as well as potentially jobs because you decided to act like god and kill our ability to send mail to your clients. Well your clients pay you for the privilege of hosting their mail and you have hurt them too. They too have failed to receive emails that give them contracts and work, and by not getting said emails will miss out on work. These actions by Microsoft are a shoddy, bad mannered, ill conceived, half baked example of crap IT in action. It was not good practice, it wasn't even half arsed practice - it was totally shoddy, cretinous , stupidity in action. Treating my mail servers as if they are new, and forcing them to re-prove themselves to you is an arrogance seen only practised by companies who think they can do what they like because they are so big. Considering the amount of spam and crap we receive from Microsoft customers - you should be crawling on your knees begging me to allow your clients to send mail to me. Shame on you. Shane From: WINLV.EDFS.WW.00.EN.MSF.RMD.TS.T01.SPT.00.EM@css.one.microsoft.comSent: Thursday, March 9, 2017 4:48 PMTo: itsupport@outsourcedit.co.nzSubject: Reported deliverability problem to Outlook.com SRX1377583436ID Dear Shane hollisWe have completed reviewing the IP(s) you submitted. The following table contains the results of our investigation.Conditionally mitigated120.138.28.0; 120.138.28.1; 120.138.28.2; 120.138.28.3; 120.138.28.4; 120.138.28.5; 120.138.28.6; 120.138.28.7; 120.138.28.8; 120.138.28.9; 120.138.28.10; 120.138.28.11; 120.138.28.12; 120.138.28.13; 120.138.28.14; 120.138.28.15; 120.138.28.16; 120.138.28.17; 120.138.28.18; 120.138.28.19; 120.138.28.20; 120.138.28.21; 120.138.28.22; 120.138.28.23; 120.138.28.24; 120.138.28.25; 120.138.28.26; 120.138.28.27; 120.138.28.28; 120.138.28.29; 120.138.28.30; 120.138.28.31; 120.138.28.32; 120.138.28.33; 120.138.28.34; 120.138.28.35; 120.138.28.36; 120.138.28.37; 120.138.28.38; 120.138.28.39; 120.138.28.40; 120.138.28.41; 120.138.28.42; 120.138.28.43; 120.138.28.44; 120.138.28.45; 120.138.28.46; 120.138.28.47; 120.138.28.48; 120.138.28.49; 120.138.28.50; 120.138.28.51; 120.138.28.52; 120.138.28.53; 120.138.28.54; 120.138.28.55; 120.138.28.56; 120.138.28.57; 120.138.28.58; 120.138.28.59; 120.138.28.60; 120.138.28.61; 120.138.28.62; 120.138.28.63; 120.138.28.192; 120.138.28.193; 120.138.28.194; 120.138.28.195; 120.138.28.196; 120.138.28.197; 120.138.28.198; 120.138.28.199; 120.138.28.200; 120.138.28.201; 120.138.28.202; 120.138.28.203; 120.138.28.204; 120.138.28.205; 120.138.28.206; 120.138.28.207; 120.138.28.208; 120.138.28.209; 120.138.28.210; 120.138.28.211; 120.138.28.212; 120.138.28.213; 120.138.28.214; 120.138.28.215; 120.138.28.216; 120.138.28.217; 120.138.28.218; 120.138.28.219; 120.138.28.220; 120.138.28.221; 120.138.28.222; 120.138.28.223; 120.138.28.224; 120.138.28.225; 120.138.28.226; 120.138.28.227; 120.138.28.228; 120.138.28.229; 120.138.28.230; 120.138.28.231; 120.138.28.232; 120.138.28.233; 120.138.28.234; 120.138.28.235; 120.138.28.236; 120.138.28.237; 120.138.28.238; 120.138.28.239; 120.138.28.240; 120.138.28.241; 120.138.28.242; 120.138.28.243; 120.138.28.244; 120.138.28.245; 120.138.28.246; 120.138.28.247; 120.138.28.248; 120.138.28.249; 120.138.28.250; 120.138.28.251; 120.138.28.252; 120.138.28.253; 120.138.28.254; 120.138.28.255;Our investigation has determined that the above IP(s) qualify for conditional mitigation. These IP(s) have been unblocked, but may be subject to low daily email limits until they have established a good reputation.Please note that mitigating this issue does not guarantee that your email will be delivered to a user's inbox.Ongoing complaints from users will result in removal of the mitigation.Mitigation may take 24 - 48 hours to replicate completely throughout our system.If you feel your issue is not yet resolved, please reply to this email and one of our support team members will contact you for further investigation.Not qualified for mitigation120.138.28.64; 120.138.28.65; 120.138.28.66; 120.138.28.67; 120.138.28.68; 120.138.28.69; 120.138.28.70; 120.138.28.71; 120.138.28.72; 120.138.28.73; 120.138.28.74; 120.138.28.75; 120.138.28.76; 120.138.28.77; 120.138.28.78; 120.138.28.79; 120.138.28.80; 120.138.28.81; 120.138.28.82; 120.138.28.83; 120.138.28.84; 120.138.28.85; 120.138.28.86; 120.138.28.87; 120.138.28.88; 120.138.28.90; 120.138.28.91; 120.138.28.92; 120.138.28.93; 120.138.28.94; 120.138.28.95; 120.138.28.96; 120.138.28.97; 120.138.28.98; 120.138.28.99; 120.138.28.100; 120.138.28.101; 120.138.28.102; 120.138.28.103; 120.138.28.104; 120.138.28.105; 120.138.28.106; 120.138.28.107; 120.138.28.108; 120.138.28.109; 120.138.28.110; 120.138.28.111; 120.138.28.112; 120.138.28.113; 120.138.28.114; 120.138.28.115; 120.138.28.116; 120.138.28.117; 120.138.28.118; 120.138.28.119; 120.138.28.120; 120.138.28.121; 120.138.28.122; 120.138.28.123; 120.138.28.124; 120.138.28.125; 120.138.28.126; 120.138.28.127; 120.138.28.128; 120.138.28.129; 120.138.28.130; 120.138.28.131; 120.138.28.132; 120.138.28.133; 120.138.28.134; 120.138.28.135; 120.138.28.136; 120.138.28.137; 120.138.28.138; 120.138.28.139; 120.138.28.140; 120.138.28.141; 120.138.28.142; 120.138.28.144; 120.138.28.145; 120.138.28.146; 120.138.28.147; 120.138.28.148; 120.138.28.149; 120.138.28.150; 120.138.28.151; 120.138.28.152; 120.138.28.153; 120.138.28.154; 120.138.28.155; 120.138.28.156; 120.138.28.157; 120.138.28.158; 120.138.28.159; 120.138.28.160; 120.138.28.161; 120.138.28.162; 120.138.28.163; 120.138.28.164; 120.138.28.165; 120.138.28.166; 120.138.28.167; 120.138.28.168; 120.138.28.169; 120.138.28.170; 120.138.28.171; 120.138.28.172; 120.138.28.173; 120.138.28.174; 120.138.28.175; 120.138.28.176; 120.138.28.177; 120.138.28.178; 120.138.28.179; 120.138.28.180; 120.138.28.181; 120.138.28.182; 120.138.28.183; 120.138.28.184; 120.138.28.185; 120.138.28.186; 120.138.28.187; 120.138.28.188; 120.138.28.189; 120.138.28.190; 120.138.28.191;Our investigation has determined that the above IP(s) do not qualify for mitigation.Please ensure your emails comply with the Outlook.com policies, practices and guidelines found here: http://mail.live.com/mail/policies.aspx.To have Deliverability Support investigate further, please reply to this email with a detailed description of the problem you are having, including specific error messages, and an agent will contact you.Not qualified for mitigation120.138.28.89;Our investigation has determined that the above IP(s) do not qualify for mitigation.Outlook.com limits the number of email messages a particular IP can send within a time period based on the IP's reputation. When an IP exceeds its sending limit, any further SMTP commands from the IP will receive error code 421 from Outlook.com and the connection will be terminated.Please ensure your emails comply with the Outlook.com policies, practices and guidelines found here: http://mail.live.com/mail/policies.aspx.To have Deliverability Support investigate further, please reply to this email with a detailed description of the problem you are having, including specific error messages, and an agent will contact you.More information needed120.138.28.143;We were unable to identify anything on our side that would prevent your mail from reaching Outlook.com customers.If you are still experiencing deliverability issues, please reply to this email with a detailed description of the problem you are having, including specific error messages, and an agent will contact you.If this is a new IP space, and you have not yet begun to send mail to Outlook.com users, please reply to this email and one of our support team members will contact you to collect more information.Regardless of the deliverability status, Outlook.com recommends that all senders join two free programs that provide visibility into the Outlook.com traffic on your sending IP(s), the sending IP reputation with Outlook.com and the Outlook.com user complaint rates.Junk Email Reporting program (JMRP) When an Outlook.com user marks an email as "junk", senders enrolled in this program get a copy of the mail forwarded to the email address of their choice. It allows senders to see which mails are being marked as junk and to identify mail traffic you did not intend to send. To join, please visit http://support.msn.com/eform.aspx?productKey=edfsjmrpp&page=support_home_options_form_byemail&ct=eformts.Smart Network Data Services program (SNDS). This program allows you to monitor the 'health' and reputation of your registered IPs by providing data about traffic such as mail volume and complaint rates seen originating from your IPs. To register, please visit http://postmaster.live.com/snds/.There is no silver bullet to maintaining or improving good IP reputation, but these programs help you proactively manage your email eco-system to help better ensure deliverability to Outlook.com users.Thank you,Outlook.com Deliverability Support
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CDN with a node in New Zealand?
My manager has asked me to look into CDNs, with one of the requirements being that there should be a New Zealand nodeIs webdrive the only option?I've done a quick search and it looks like Akamai might, but their website isn't very clear about exactly what they offer
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Google Drive now backup & Sync
Turned on my windows PC this morning to be greeted by a message that says Google Drive has now been renamed Backup & Sync. I checked google folder in startup apps and sure enough google drive has been renamed. The message stated that it could not sync my apps so I should send a message from my email account.These seems so strange cannot find anything on web about it. Does anyone know what is going on. Is it some form of hack to get access to my google stuff?Rather than risk it I uninstalled the app called backup & sync from windows went to Google and downloaded Google Drive and reinstalled it.It seems to be back to normal now Google Drive is showing as Google Drive no sign of an app backup & sync but would like to know just what happened.
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Exposed sensitive files on Microsoft's document-sharing site
From the BBC"Confidential documents, passwords and health data have been inadvertently shared by firms using Microsoft's Office 365 service, say researchers.The sensitive information was found via a publicly available search engine that is part of Office 365. Security researchers said many firms mistakenly thought documents would only be shared with colleagues not globally.Microsoft said it would 'take steps' to change the service and remove the sensitive data.Security researcher Kevin Beaumont discovered the sensitive information after using the search engine on Docs.com - a website that is part of the Office 365 online software service.Many firms use Microsoft's well-known suite of office productivity programs by subscribing to Office 365 which also gives them access to online services including Skype as well as a document-sharing and storage system."http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39417479
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Poll: Preference between Gmail or Office 365 Exchange online for Email (only)
I'm tossing up whether to move from 365 to Gmail for my email hosting.Gmail is slightly cheaper, but would be curious to find what most GZ'ers prefer and their opinion on what they think is better in terms of security etc. Both products will work fine for me, and I'm not really tied to Outlook, but I do need active sync.I did consider ZohoMail, but they seem to have endless problems with Spam and other random issues which don't make for a very polished solution.
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Spam volumes down
Anyone else notice the volumes of spam have plummeted ?I have gone 48 hours with only 4-5 spams, normally I am up to 300 a day (most days are 30-50) , I get to see them on the work spam filter so I have a good idea of how many I get. I wonder if this has anything to do with Trump dropping bombs on Syria, and the Russian spammers are now trying to hack the US instead of spamming viagra/make money fast/other scams. Anyone else notice a drop in Spam ??
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Enable smtp access to your gmail account
So quite some time ago Gmail blocked insecure smtp access to your gmail account, even when you turned on tls which previously had been working for a few years.There is however a workaround for this where you create an email-only login to your gmail account: Open My Account from the Google menu:Click the Signing in to Google link:Click App passwords:You're prompted to verify your login:Follow through the options here, under Select app choose Mail (or other Google function -- say Youtube if you're setting up a special login for a media box), select a device from the drop down list or choose Other, then click Generate:Copy and paste the created password into your device. SMTP settings are smtp.gmail.com:465, tls enabled, user is your gmail email address. HTH!
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Has anyone used snozz.co.nz for webhosting?
On my facebook today was an add for Snozz.co.nz with a picture of a datacenter so I clicked to have a nosey. On their webpage they said they do free webhosing. We're thrilled to announce that we've opened up a new web hosting package, simply called; "Free" to get more of you Kiwipreneurs online! I have my own domain but no website so the price is right :-) Has anyone used their free webs service? Were there any gotcha's or forced advertising like wix? TIA John
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Underwater Data Centers
You may have seen several article about Microsoft's experimental undersea data centres.Here's a recent summary of IEEE's "Dunking the Data Center"http://www.leverege.com/blog/project-natick-underwater-data-centers"To take advantage of freely available cool air, we've seen Google open a data center in Finland and Facebook open a data center in a Swedish city near the Arctic Circle. Now Microsoft wants to build one underwater to follow suit. Not only do they argue that this plan is feasible, they think it could also "reduce construction costs, make it easier to power these facilities with renewable energy, and even improve their performance," according to Sean James, a Microsoft engineer. Before validating James's claims, putting a data center underwater comes with a myriad of challenges:1. The container must stay dry. 2. Sea water should cool the servers efficiently. 3. Containers must be free from barnacles and other sea life that may inhibit the cooling process. Why go through all this trouble to build something underwater, when you can build it in Finland or Sweden like the other tech giants? To this end, James postulates several advantages other than the cooling factor. First of all, the Microsoft team argues that building underwater pods avoids the hassle that comes with constructing data centers on land. Today, companies must deal with building codes, taxes, electricity supply, and network connectivity in other countries before putting in the rack of servers. On the other hand, the ocean provides a relatively uniform environment for these underwater pods. These pods can be made almost on demand (instead of planning it out and negotiating with governments and land owners long before) and deploy at any coastal site with little customization. Microsoft's goal is to deploy these pods within 90 days from purchase. Microsoft also points to the the remote locations of these data centers as a limitation in how fast these servers can respond to requests. They cite that almost half the world's pouplation lives within 100 kms of the ocean, concluding that bringing these pods closer to where we live will add speed benefits. Lastly, Microsoft mentions that many data centers use evaporation to cool the surrounding air, consuming more water. In Microsoft's case, they'll be using surrounding water to transfer the heat from the air out, so will not be "consuming" water in a non-renewable manner. Even at intermediate depths between 10–200m, the water remains between 14–18 °C, making it an ideal environment for cooling data centers."
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IDrive: good option for cloud-based file storage? Better alternatives?
Hi there,I'm looking for a new cloud sync tool to replace OneDrive (now all my free additional allowance has gone!), and at this point have narrowed it down to IDrive or Google Drive. It's not for a huge amount of data - probably around 100GB. The other key requirements are automatic syncing in Windows, and apps for iOS and Android, and being a reasonable price. Decent security is preferable as well.The one that seems most appropriate is IDrive - $60 US a year for 1TB; it apparently has decent speeds, and most usefully also has the provision for cloud-based system backups as well (so appears to be able to fulfil the functions of both cloud-based file storage like OneDrive and also a cloud backup tool like Carbonite). There's also an offer I have found providing the first year for around $17 US, but I'm not sure if that'll work for NZ-based customers.I also am considering Google Drive, which is $20 for 100GB (which may not be enough, certainly not long-term) but jumps up to $100 for the next category (1TB). Of course, it also doesn't offer the backup solution aspect either.Anyway, has anyone here got direct experience with or knowledge of IDrive? Any particular reason why I should avoid it? Or any other recommended products that would meet my requirements?Thanks in advance.
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Degoo.com 100GB Cloud Storage for Free
Has anyone used Degoo? They offer 100GB of storage for free which lets you backup two devices.
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webhostingnz 5star service
I am in the process of bringing back to NZ some websites I own. I came across https://webhostingnz.com/ as one of the affordable hosts.I dont know if they are technically amazing or if what they offer is good or bad for anyone else. My needs are very basic.What I would like to mention is the brilliant attention to customer service, there promptness to reply to questions. The fact that there online chat service seems to be always attended even on Sunday afternoon.They (Daniel and Fiona) the two I have spoken to have been excellent and patient. Just if you are looking I would consider them.(They dont sponsor me or and have not asked for any applause from me.)
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No Gmail spam for four days
OK. I'm not complaining but I have no spam arrive in my gmail junk folder since the 4th of May (now four days). There are 2,500 emails currently in there (which is around 80 a day) so would have expected some.Has something changed in the last few days?Cheers, Matt.
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Musings on rolling your own remote "cloud" backups and general backups
Thinking out loud. Comments welcome.CrashPlanMy annual CrashPlan subscription is coming up for renewal. It costs something like NZ$70 for unlimited storage, which seems like a good deal, especially coupled with my unlimited broadband. CrashPlan also lets you backup to local disks. Support is good, it's reliable, doesn't seem to slow my PC, and they have a data center in Australia so it's pretty quick.The client gives you quite fine grained control of versioning. For example you can keep versions every 2 hours for a week, then after the version is a week drop to daily, after a month take it to weekly, etc. That keeps key information but minimises disk space required.Cloud Storage PricingIt occurred to me that I store around 100GB of data in online backups, maybe rising 50GB per year (family photos and video). 200GB storage in AWS Glacier in the cheaper US regions is US$0.83/month, which is US$10 per year or about NZ$12/year. 1TB/year costs about the same as Crashplan. AWS Sydney costs about 20% more than the USA regions. In AWS three copies of the data are stored, it's checked for consistency, and bad blocks replaced. It's reliable. Getting data there is the main issue.Backup Integrity / Trust in ToolsOne of my main backup tools is Cobian Backup. I like that Cobian copies whole files that you can access directly in the backup file system, so restores are trivially easy. You don't get compression, and incremental backups just make another copy of the file, wasting space. It's also pretty long in the tooth, with no active development and no releases since 2012.Also, I have terabytes of files, images and videos, and incremental backups are essential to protect against viruses and crytoware. A small defect in one file in the chain could potentially mean you can't restore your backups. I guess you have hope your tool can tolerate small errors, and ideally use a reliable file system.Backup ToolsDuplicati and CloudBerry Backup both backup to Amazon S3 easily, and can backup to a huge variety of targets (AWS Glacier, RackSpace, FTP, etc). You can of course store data directly in S3 or Glacier, but the user interface isn't so good. DuplicatiDuplicati doesn't have direct support to backup to Glacier - you can fudge it using Lifecycle rules and some settings, but it's not ideal. So with Duplicati you need to use S3 infrequently access storage class, which costs 3X what Glacier costs, but gives you instant access to your files.I had a play with Duplicati 2.0 experimental yesterday before I realised it didn't support Glacier directly, backing up to both S3 and local disks. It seems like a nice tool, and runs on multiple platforms, and gives you fine grained file / folder selection. It's also under active development, unlike one of the backup tools I use, Cobian Backup. CloudBerry BackupThis seems like a nice piece of software. It can back up to just about anything - S3, Glacier, Azure, Google Cloud, FTP, local disk, etc. It's commerical with a free tier for home use, so problems may be fixed more promptly than open source systems. It supports file versioning with plenty of options, though not quite as many as CrashPlan. It runs as a service, so it can backup when you're not logged in.With CloudBerry to get compression you need to pay the $30 license fee (comparison chart), but the free version backs up without compression. Given most large files are compressed (mp4/jpg/RAW files) compression doesn't seem essential.If you use AWS S3 as your backup target you can choose to have compressed, incremental backups in large archives or individual files stored in S3 so you can easily access them directly. Individual files is more convenient, but in an archive reduces costs through compression and fewer requests. You could backup some files to Glacier, some to S3, depending on whether you need to access the files from multiple locations. Rolling Your Own Cloud BackupsWith current data volumes, I could save some money moving to AWS Glacier, with some files in S3 cheaper tier (IA). However it would take some time to set up, test, and maintain. If I wanted to save $50 a year, then I think CloudBerry backup with AWS Glacier would be a good way to go.CrashPlan at $70 with unlimited data storage and versioned backups is probably good value, taking into account setup and maintenance time. Local BackupsI think I might give CloudBerry a try for my local backups, which I store both onsite and offsite. It seems like a nice tool. QuestionWhat's your favorite software to do backups to local disks? Incremental backups are essential IMHO, to protect against viruses and cryptoware. Mirrors aren't a backup.
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Email issue
I couldn't determine an appropriate forum for email issues, so I'll start here.For many many months, well years really, I've been getting email replies to emails I've never sent.Either non-delivery reports, or automated responses. But every now and then, from an actual person.The addresses I've supposedly sent emails to are old, I haven't used most of them in quite some time, but there a handful that are still relevant.Some are to old workplaces, which have never been on my personal computer, that I can recall anyway.Many scans over time with various programs have found nothing untoward, so I don't think my computer is the "sender".Talking to the real life people who have received these emails, they are definitely typical of scam/spam, containing an enticing message and something to click on. The email address that is being used as the sender is not one I have used for sending email for ages, but it still current is as much as my Microsoft domain is registered to it.I can only presume that something "out there" is doing this.But is there anything I can do to stop it.
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