A helpful post from our archives -

Step 1: Backup your data

If you’ve been told once, you’ve been told 100 times – back up your data. Here’s the hard truth – your hard drive is going to fail or it’s going to get wiped out by a virus or you are going to delete some extremely important information one unsuspecting afternoon. These things happen every day, every hour – somewhere. It’s 2008 and it’s easy to backup your data so make sure you are doing it.

Step 2: Check the backup logs

There is no way around it – consider this the “brushing your teeth” part of your day. It’s a pain sometimes but it has to be done consistently. You need to check a few things – make sure the backup actually ran, that it found your backup device and then ensure that the backup was not only complete but successful.

Step 3: Test your backups

So you’ve been backing up your data for the last 2 years to your CD burner and you figure you have it all under control, right? Have you ever actually verified that the backups are working? It’s crucial that you make sure the backups are copying your data and that it can be restored if needed. A good test would be to restore some piece of information every month or once a quarter – this will give you piece of mind in the event of a real disaster.

Step 4: Take your backups offsite

This is the most basic definition of disaster recovery. If your home or office is ever involved in an unfortunate disaster; burglary, fire/water damage or natural disaster, have a current copy of your data at an off-site location will put you in a better position to get back online.

‘”I have not backed up all my photographs, and I’m just sitting here sick because those are the things that matter the most,” she said. “It’s your memories, our wedding pictures, I don’t have, because the negatives are in the house.

“Please, everybody, practice fire safety, and back up all your pictures,” she said.’

Now IT Works considers backing up all personal data to be one of the most critical actions you can take, in the event of hardware failure or natural disaster. Of course, the most important part of this story is that no one was hurt.

We encourage you to take the sound advice of Rhonda Adkins – practice fire safety and back up your precious family memories.

For those of you who still use the word ‘password’ as your password for all of your Internet logins – I have an idea that may help to make you more secure, without requiring you to remember all of the passwords.

Previously, I would help people create Excel documents that listed out all of the websites, usernames and passwords. Then we would password-protect the document with a master password. This way, users had all of their passwords in an easy-to-read document that could only be opened with a master password – this master password would be the only one they would need to remember.

Some folks liked this idea, others did not – most of them did not use this consistently.

I recently stumbled upon a new program that I think will help users with their passwords – it uses the same concept as I’ve just described, but additionally it has some really useful features.

This new program is called KeePass – you can download a free copy of this software here.

Here are a few reasons why I suggest KeePass:

1. Easy to use. This program is very easy to use with it’s split pane view and limited options, it makes it simple to use and understand. Also, you can double-click on one of your passwords and automatically copy it to the program or website it’s needed on – so no remembering or typing it in!

2. Create passwords easily. KeePass automatically creates a unique password for each new entry – which you can use or change. The unique password is great for security – since it’s not going to use your kids name or street you live on (hint hint).

3. More secure than Excel. With the Excel solution previously discussed, the Excel file is password protected – but not secure. With a $199, someone could download an Excel password-cracker program and gain access to all of your passwords.

With KeePass, the database is secure and encrypted with the same algorithm that banks use – click here for more technical information.

4. Backup program. This program includes a backup program built-in – so you can backup your password database into an encrypted file.

5. It’s free. That’s right – it falls into the open source world, and it is a free program.

Now IT Works Follows Best Practice with KeePass:

• Download and install KeePass.

• Purchase a USB key (2MB should be fine) and download the Portable version – unzip the Portable version and save it to your USB key.

• Backup your KeePass file to your USB key and save this in a safety deposit box or somewhere that if you lose it, at least you still have another copy

• Security is tight; no one can break into this file – or retrive it if you forget the master password.

Just like your car, computers have parts that wear out just like a belt or engine part, that require replacing. Whether it’s replacing your hard drive to increase speed or running a periodic Malware check, every bit helps to extend the life of your computer. And as always, make sure you are backing up your data, both locally and off-site.

Have a great weekend everyone!

You might wonder why this day is actually necessary? Well, for starters, last year at this time, only 8% of those surveyed were backing up their data on a daily basis.

In the past, we have posted articles and tips about backups but here’s a few tips, to make sure you are securely backing up all of your critical data:

• The most important tip in backing up your data, is backing up your backup. Make sure you have a local and off-site backup of your data, at all times.

• Check your backup logs to make sure they are actually backing up the data required, not just running logs.

• Archive your data every 12 months.

For more information, visit the official World Backup Day website.

Previously, I would help people create Excel documents that listed out all of the websites, usernames and passwords. Then we would password-protect the document with a master password. This way, users had all of their passwords in an easy-to-read document that could only be opened with a master password – this master password would be the only one they would need to remember.

Some folks liked this idea, others did not – most of them did not use this consistently.

I recently stumbled upon a new program that I think will help users with their passwords – it uses the same concept as I’ve just described, but additionally it has some really useful features.

This new program is called KeePass – you can download a free copy of this software here.

Here are a few reasons why I suggest KeePass:

1. Easy to use. This program is very easy to use with it’s split pane view and limited options, it makes it simple to use and understand. Also, you can double-click on one of your passwords and automatically copy it to the program or website it’s needed on – so no remembering or typing it in!

2. Create passwords easily. KeePass automatically creates a unique password for each new entry – which you can use or change. The unique password is great for security – since it’s not going to use your kids name or street you live on (hint hint).

3. More secure than Excel. With the Excel solution previously discussed, the Excel file is password protected – but not secure. With a $199, someone could download an Excel password-cracker program and gain access to all of your passwords.

With KeePass, the database is secure and encrypted with the same algorithm that banks use – click here for more technical information.

4. Backup program. This program includes a backup program built-in – so you can backup your password database into an encrypted file.

5. It’s free. That’s right – it falls into the open source world, and it is a free program.

Now IT Works Follows Best Practice with KeePass:

1. Download and install KeePass.
2. Purchase a USB key (2MB should be fine) and download the Portable version – unzip the Portable version and save it to your USB key.
3. Backup your KeePass file to your USB key and save this in a safety deposit box or somewhere that if you lose it, at least you still have another copy
4. Security is tight; no one can break into this file – or retrive it if you forget the master password.

Most hard drive manufacturers only warranty their hard drives for one year. For most brand-name desktop computers, you should try to replace your hard drive every 24 months. Replacing your hard drive might sound like a major upgrade but with common disk-cloning software available, moving your entire Windows setup and all programs isn’t very difficult any more. Take advantage of reinstalling your operating system on the new hard drive and rest assured you are starting with a fresh drive and no problems.

Step 6: Store your data in one folder, or use sub-folders

By this point, you already know that backups are important and you know you should be doing it – but you have data all over the place, right? Try spending a few minutes and move all your data to one location. Then you can create shortcuts to these locations from your desktop.

Step 7: Archive your data every 12 months

If your backups continue to grow in size, you may want to archive data that you aren’t using. Create a folder called “Archive” that lives outside the normal backup folder and move any data that you don’t use into this folder. You should burn this data onto two separate CD’s; one for your on-site use and the other should go to an off-site location. When the CD’s have been successfully burned and checked, you can empty the Archive folder and start over.

Step 8: Save your Outlook Express email

An item that is usually forgotten from the backup plan is Outlook Express email. By default, there are two types of files you need to backup – the first is .WAB (this is the Windows Address Book) and the other is .DBX (this is where all of your email lives – be careful, for every sub-folder you create, there will be a corresponding DBX file). In Outlook Express, click on Tools, Options, Maintenance – you can change the location of your DBX files to be placed inside of your single backup folder.

If you’ve been told once, you’ve been told 100 times – back up your data. Here’s the hard truth – your hard drive is going to fail or it’s going to get wiped out by a virus or you are going to delete some extremely important information one unsuspecting afternoon. These things happen every day, every hour – somewhere. It’s 2008 and it’s easy to backup your data so make sure you are doing it.

Step 2: Check the backup logs

There is no way around it – consider this the “brushing your teeth” part of your day. It’s a pain sometimes but it has to be done consistently. You need to check a few things – make sure the backup actually ran, that it found your backup device and then ensure that the backup was not only complete but successful.

Step 3: Test your backups

So you’ve been backing up your data for the last 2 years to your CD burner and you figure you have it all under control, right? Have you ever actually verified that the backups are working? It’s crucial that you make sure the backups are copying your data and that it can be restored if needed. A good test would be to restore some piece of information every month or once a quarter – this will give you piece of mind in the event of a real disaster.

Step 4: Take your backups offsite

This is the most basic definition of disaster recovery. If your home or office is ever involved in an unfortunate disaster; burglary, fire/water damage or natural disaster, have a current copy of your data at an off-site location will put you in a better position to get back online.

With certain models of vehicles, you will get this great piece of technology that will email you when your oil needs to be changed, when the tire pressure is low or when there is a problem with the engine.

What a novel idea! Make your computer do the hard work and email you when something bad happens.

Over the years, I’ve seen many disasters (not with our customers, thankfully) and the majority of them occurred because no one was watching the computer logs for errors.

With the new technology that is out, we can avoid issues like my friend Bob D had – a server in his QA department died. At least that was the call we received.

When we went on site, it was determined that the hard drive was dead. Now, it wasn’t the only hard drive in the computer, nor was it the only hard drive with Windows installed on it – although it did happen to be the one with all of the data.

So after 6 hours of downtime, we bought a new hard drive, installed the drive, booted the computer up and restored the data from a remote location.

The new technology mentioned above would have alerted someone that the hard drive was going to fail before it actually failed. That way the hard drive replacement could have been scheduled to happen after hours instead of interrupting the busy work day.

Now IT Works offers such a product – it’s called PC Crash Protection. Not only will it tell you if your hard drive is going to fail – it will email us when your backup fails, if a service does not start, if someone is attempting to login multiple times or with a disabled account. Did I forget to mention – it also provides automatic anti-virus and anti-spyware protection through AVG.

Contact Now IT Works for more information about this revolutionary new product! Visit our company website to request more information or contact an account manager at www.nowitworks.com

KeyPass Password Safe

KeyPass is a utility that consolidates frequently-used passwords in a simple, password-protected database.  You can install the portable version on your thumb drive, then simply open the program to have access to your passwords.  The software sports features like a random password generator (no need to remember them if you have them all documented, right?), AES encryption, import/export, database transfer and scheduling for password expiration.

OpenOffice.org 

You have probably heard of OpenOffice by now.  This is the completely free office suite that emulates Microsoft’s flagship software package.  It can create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, databases … the works!  Plus, these documents can all be saved in formats that anyone can open.  It’s a great addition to your arsenal, in the event you get stuck on a machine that doesn’t have Word of Excel.

GIMP 

GIMP is the open-source image editing software that’s sweeping the nation!  Okay, the sweeping has been going on for a while now, since around 1996.  But if you’ve ever found yourself without Photoshop when in dire need of some picture-editing goodness, GIMP can be a life-saver.  It has almost all the capability of Adobe’s monster program, and is completely free, which is better than the $700 price tag of the former.

 

VLC

This little media player can play just about anything, from MP3s and WAVs, DVDs and CDs, MPEGs, AVIs and just about any other video format you can imagine.  It has server functionality (though I wouldn’t recommend this for the portable version) and runs on any operating system.  It’s the perfect solution to help you avoid having to use RealPlayer or WMP.

Filezilla

Best FTP client out there, hands down.  Now offered in a new portable format.