What’s it all about

Backups. Something we never remember to do, but always wish we had done when the unthinkable happens. Be it a hard drive gone bad, accidentially deleted file or lost memory stick, data is lost. Not a big deal if you have a copy. If you don’t, well, though luck.

As hard drive capacities keep on growing, backing up your becomes more and more important. The need for data backup isn’t something limited only to companies anymore. Nowadays consumers have just as much to lose: ever-growing archives of personal pictures, videos, important documents and other files that they value. Formerly you could just copy whatever you had to memory sticks or optical discs, but particularly optical media has failed to keep up with current requirements for storage space.

Recordable Blu-ray is still in the horizon for most people, so those hoping to backup all the data from their computer need to have multiple hard drives, an external drive, a network drive or something similar. If these drives have a high capacity, there’s always the little temptation to store something “temporarily” to these disks. This can lead to a situation where your backup drive has files that are not backed up anywhere else – in addition to your backups.

There are various ways to deal with backup. In the quick and dirty method the user selects the files to back up by hand and copies them manually to another location. This requires regular activity from the user and is far from being the optimal method. Backup software, such as Time Machine for Macintosh, tries to automate this process and make sure that backups happen on regular basis. In these cases, the files are often backed up to an external drive or another hard drive.

Fortunately, I’ve yet to lose data due to those things just mentioned. It’s bound to happen, though, sooner or later. When considering the many devices I own with hards drives inside them, luck’s been on my side. Nevertheless, my backup record has been less than stellar. I had the occasional document backed up now and then, but mostly just the really important ones. When I started writing my thesis. Then the data loss paranoia struck. Around then I read about online backup, and decided to try it out. I was happy with the service I initially tried (still using it, in fact), but noticed there were a number of other contenders as well.

Online backup tries to bring a new way of dealing with backup. As network connection speeds have increased, it has become a valid choice even for regular users. One can think of it as a way of outsourcing your backup. There’s no need to supply disks or other storage media, everything is automated. Instead of local storage, all the files are copied over the Internet to service provider’s servers.

Let’s spend a few minutes wondering the upload speed -issue. For example, finnish internet-operators are rather stingy about upload speeds they offer. You might have a balanced connection with 24 megabits for download and 1 for upload. So, when transferring massive amounts of data, you should keep in mind that it might take weeks for the first backup to complete. The following backups happen faster, of course, since we’re only transferring data that has been changed from previous backup.

It’s all good, but…

The online backup – model has a few considerable advantages:

• the backup process is automated and runs on the background
• backups are stored separately from original data
• large amounts of storage space availabe, even unlimited amounts
• multiple versions of files can be stored

(It should be noted that backup software like EMC Retrospect or Apple Time Machine provide some of these features as well.)

Not unlike life, online backup has its share of problems. Security in particular is often debated, and rightfully so. First of all, all the data you back up is transferred over the Internet. If said data is not encrypted, eavesdroppers might have a feast on your files. Fortunately nearly all providers use modern security methods (encrypting the data, for example), thus decreasing the risk remarkably. Still, if your provider uses terms like “state-of-the-art, secure FTP-connection”, be very afraid.

After getting through with the transfer, we’ve faced with another issue: storing your data on service provider’s data center. Who has access to data after transfer? In best-case scenario even the service provider has no access to your data without your private encryption key. Unfortunately this means that the data is unaccessible even for yourself, in case you happen to forget the password. Let’s just not forget the password, OK?

Some service providers default to encryption method that they can decipher, if needed. This way they can provide you a new password, and you’re able to gain access to your data even after forgetting the original one. The downside to this is, that the service provider can also provide access to your data for third parties, such as authorities, if requested. How big a problem or security threat this is, is up your own paranoia-level (Is the organization after me the government, the police, Illuminati, etc). Seriously speaking, though, this is an issue worth thinking over, if your data is not encrypted by your private key only.

Finally the ultimate problem: service shutting down. Yes, it’s possible. Happened this year with HP’s Upline service shutting down, for example. Just a reminder that nothing lasts forever, especially in the Internet. Same risk you’ll be taking with other services: Gmail, anyone? It’s a free service, and if Google chooses to shut it down tomorrow, you’re pretty much out of luck. Companies come and go, and there’s always some risk involved. As for online backup: free space may not be free in the future, so don’t rely on it. When selecting a vendor, it’s worth spending a few minutes reviewing things like their history, support and business model before making choices. Things like “forever” or “free unlimited storage” sound good, but talk is cheap.

Sea of Services.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, we can start getting to the point. There’s been a surge in online backup, as new providers keep appearing to the field. Vendors vary from smaller enterprises to big ones (like F-Secure and EMC). While it’s good to have options, it’s becoming rather difficult to determine the service that’s “right” for you. Most offer the same basic features, so it comes down to details.

I’m initially focusing on three different providers in this article series. First up is Mozy, followed by Spideroak and then we’ll see what Backblaze has to offer.

Heads up for Windows-users: I’m mostly writing things from Macintosh-user’s point of view. Windows-versions are available for each service, though, and generally the differences between platforms aren’t big, so this shouldn’t be an issue.

Finally, the two questions that might have come up when reading this:

1. “I’m already backing up my data to a mirroring raid-array and also have monthly backups to network storage.”
2. “I don’t have anything important to back up.”

1. That’s nice. You take backup seriously. It’s still worth looking into the subject, some of covered services might just fit surprisingly well to your backup plan.
2. That’s also great. You’ve managed to obtain an admirable zen-like approach to computers and have achieved a situation where anything you do with your computer doesn’t matter to anyone – even yourself. Is this really the case? Think things over and check out the possibilities.

Published articles will be linked here.

NOTE: This article concerns firmware version 1.9.85 and prior ones. Newer versions may suck more/less and address some of the issues mentioned here.

WL-500W Wireless router is Asus’ offering for users wanting the next generation wireless speed today. Based on draft N-specs, the max speed is around 300 Mb and it should skate circles around 11g devices even in average speeds. Some of the features the device has to offer, in addition to N-speeds: WPA/WPA2 encryption, RADIUS-support and wireless bridging. There are four ethernet-ports, but unfortunately none of them support gigabit speeds. For configuration Asus supplies a web-based interface for the unit.

The router also has two USB-sockets, which can be used for several purposes. First of all, there’s an in-built print server, so you can share an USB-printer for network printing. WL-500W also supports webcams, so you can hook up a webcam to an USB socket. This allows you to watch the camera via web browser. There’s also Security mode, which allows attached webcam to act as a surveillance device, monitoring and taking images whenever movement is detected.

External drives connected to USB slots can be shared over the network with FTP-server, and WL-500W also has media sharing features as well, so you can stream the media files on connected storage. One special feature Asus advertises is called Download Master. This is related to an in-built BitTorrent-client the router has. You can assign torrent-files to the router, and the files will be downloaded on connected USB-storage. This way you can download files separately from your desktop computer: just assign a torrent file to the router and WL-500W will do the rest.

I’ve yet to test some of the router’s advanced features, such as webcam support and bittorrent-server. On my network, the WL500 first served as a wireless bridge, so there was no need for the advanced stuff. After a while I changed the network topology, and made WL-500W the primary access point, but haven’t managed to test the advanced features still. No chance to test the webcam-support due to a lack of webcam, and haven’t had time to try out the Download Master-features. I’ll try to check these both out someday, although Download Master being Windows-only limits it’s usefullness a bit.

Based on my initial experience with WL-500W and bridged-mode, I had very mixed feelings towards it. On the other hand, it had a nice feature set, was theoretically very fast and got the job done. On the other hand, it had numerous issues with speed and reliability that severily limited is usefulness. With first few firmware revisions even the wired port throughput was remarkably bad. To be exact, the performance was equivalent to an ancient 14 kbps modem. Or less, since modems at least managed to keep the transfer somewhat steady. The performance on those router ports would start ok, but soon slowed down to a crawl. This issue made WL-500W basically useless for… well let’s say… anything. Even web browsing was out of the question, as the connected computers generally managed to load the first page and choked on the following ones, regardless of the site.

Fortunately, Asus did not give up on device firmware, and managed to fix most of the issues. By the time they released version 1.9.85, the performance had improved and I generally did not experience the same problems the prior versions had. In fact, the operation is quite stable now: the router works much better, both as a wireless bridge and as a wireless access point.

Even though the router is reliable for everyday use, I’ve yet to successfully complete a firmwire update via the web interface. Unfortunately the process is as unreliable as it is easy. To this date I haven’t been able to complete the update without having to go through the device recovery process. Granted, I might be hideously bad at this, but it just doesn’t work the way it should. I’ve even tried several browsers, no difference. After a new firmware is uploaded from the web interface, WL-500W starts the update and ends up with a red light orchestra. The device keeps blinking all the lights and stops responding to anything. In order to fix this the device must be put into recovery mode and firmware needs to be deployed with Asus’ own flash recovery program. Afterwards, everything is ok.

When handling firmware updates using the Asus program, there are no problems at all. Using web update, problems are all you’ve got. Unfortunately, like all Asus software, the Firmware Flash -utility is Windows-only. Linux and Mac-users are out of luck, and have to upload the firmware using other means, such as TFTP.

Put some oomph in it

As one might guess from the looks of it, X-Arcade is a controller. To be precise, a arcade game controller. In addition to doubling as a gym weight it claims to bring the true arcade feeling to your home. No more playing old arcade games with puny keyboards that have no feel at all, X-Arcade is the way to go.

This piece of gear is brought to you by Xgaming. The manufacturer sells two versions of it, Solo (Smaller, single player model, retails for about $100) and Dual (wider 2 player one, priced at $130). Dual version is the one I’ve been meddling with and writing about. Solo is almost identical, except it naturally has buttons and a joystick for one player only. Priced that high they certainly are not the cheapest controllers available, but to balance the price tag you get a high end quality controller with a lifetime warranty. Some might say it’s an investment (then again, some might not).

X-Arcade works with a very wide range of systems, ranging from Dreamcast to PC although you have to shell out some cash to buy the necessary adapters as X-Arcade ships with just one (in this case, PC). My tryout is limited to PC, as I had only the PC adapter available. The X-Arcade PC adapter is connected to PC’s standard PS/2 keyboard connector. The controller has a built-in PS/2 plug which allows pass-through for your regular keyboard so you don’t need to juggle wires just to be able to use keyboard.

So. Now that you have a controller like this, this is strictly old school. You’re not going to use it to play that new 3D-shooter you’ve been waiting for ages (Well you could, but where’s the fun in that?). The proper way to use X-Arcade is to kick up MAME and lay back with some retro gaming. Other emulators may be acceptable too, it might be interesting to play Super Mario Bros with this. For MAME use, there’s a nice application called GameEx which gives you a easy-to-use, nice looking frontend to use MAME with.

GameEx brings easy access menus to MAME that can easily be operated with X-Arcade (or any other controller). This essentially removes the need to use mouse to switch between games. GameEx has a nice category-based system for displaying the titles, you can for example choose to view all games in your library by name or from certain year or by genre. It also has many other features such as music playlists, news reader and video player. GameEx is ideal for home theater PC solutions as tuse of mouse is not necessary in the menu driven interface.

X-Arcade Dual (click for larger image)

Armed and dangerous

Once the software’s tuned up, it’s time to play and this is where X-Arcade is expected to shine. The controller is rather heavy (in fact, the manual suggests the weak to hit the gym) and this has a few advantages. Weight helps in achieving that sturdy arcade feel and you don’t need to worry about controller sliding around the table. The size also makes it potentially a ergonomical nightmare if you place it on a high table and sit much lower yourself. The joystick and buttons can be a strain to your wrists when playing for long amounts but I suspect this is nothing new for those having used similar controls in arcades.

Both the joystick-part and the buttons have a nice feel in them and there’s certainly no need to worry about them breaking up in middle of intensive gaming. There are 8 regular buttons for each player on top of the controller plus 2 buttons for choosing 1 or 2 player mode. X-Arcade also has a button on both sides so there’s no need for compromises even on pinball games, which I thought was a nice touch. The controller is fully programmable, but I did not test those features as the basic setup suit my needs.

I have to say that X-Arcade really does keep it’s promises. If you’re a fan of arcade gaming and don’t mind the price, this controller is the way to go. Xgaming has game adapters for most recent systems available and plan to add support for upcoming ones as well. Currently they are working on Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii support. Playing emulator games never had the shine of the originals when sitting in front of a keyboard, but X-Arcade manages to bring some of the magic back.

GameEx is an equally good piece of software to tag along. Having a dedicated computer with X-Arcade hooked up on a TV running GameEx, what else you need? Although real hardcore gamers probably won’t be satisfied unless the setup is built in a real arcade cabin (Xgaming has one for sale)…