Backup Anytime

Geansai gorm. What did I learn?
I wouldn’t consider myself a fan of Damien Mulley. If you are in Ireland and blog you will know all about him. He is ubiquitous in Irish blogs. Anyway, where was I. I am not a fan. Indeed I have found Mulley strangely unavailable (even to answer a repeatedly asked question) to amateur bloggers like myself but quick to pull the verbal trigger should someone dare to venture an opinion which differs from what he has freely spoken. I consider much of his commentary (such as the Hardwood Restaurant review) to be abrasive and damaging even when people genuinely try to engage and communicate in a positive manner. So much so that I expect many of his apologetic respondents wish they didn’t reply at all. People however are complicated and dismissing them entirely on the basis of specific events or differences of opinion can serve only to exclude yourself from some positives. He can actually be generous of spirit and use his blog to point to social wrongs. God forbid however that the same woman in this story should on the day she received the H.S.E. letter happen to serve up a meal to Mulley with an attitude, in a manner or above a timescale which wasn’t acceptable. An example of something I like about Mulley is his fresh thinking. I much prefer this to his belief in free speech applying to aggressiveness of speech. This fresh thinking coupled with his blog following can (on occasion) be conducive to producing web marvels. An example of this is the Geansai Gorm competition.

This competition interested me as I had never come across an SEO race with a level playing field. The key was the requirement of a new domain and in addition the need to use keywords which up to then would be uncompetitive.

Granted, some entrants will have contacts for links and even control over powerful domains but these tools combined with the knowledge of when and where to use or not use them are surely part of an entrants skill set from a potential client view point.

The results so far are interesting. I considered joining for a while for fun and chickened out. Not because I feared I would not come first. I knew that I wouldn’t win. But because I didn’t like the idea of coming in below midstream. Somewhat akin to lining up against the wall as a kid to be picked for football, not expecting to be picked first but praying you would be ahead of centre. I now regret not entering as any knowledge I gain from the competition is third hand and I can’t engage in any trial and error.

I did however join in to a limited extent by supporting one of the entrants. I showed my hand early on with regard to my support for Paul Savage. My reason for supporting Pauls Geansai Gorm website was his work in resolving a problem I had with Google some time back.

Anyway, less about Paul and Mulley. This post is not to thank Paul. I have already done that and it was a commercial transaction. This post is not about exacerbating or resolving my own issues with Mulley. I want to be neither “Mulleycoddled” nor “Mulleyfied”.

This post is about what I have learned from the competition and a call to SEO experts, participating or otherwise to assist with putting the list of tasks in an order of importance or weighing the relationships between specific tasks or indeed removing them from the list and adding others.

Here (in no particular order as of yet) are the SEO factors I believe to be important.
The individual list entries may be short and brief. This however is no reflection on the amount of work they require.

1. Good content (original)
2. Prevalence of keywords in domain
3. Number of words in domain.
4. Domain extension.
5. Number of links in.
6. Quality of links in.
7. Location of hosting.
8. Use of Google maps.
9. Proper implementation of site maps.
10. General use of Google Webmaster tools.
11. registration with major search engines.
12. Age of domain.
13. Frequently updated content.
14. Correct meta and alt descriptions.
15. Well managed keyword usage.
16. Blog implementation.
17. Use of social media.

I am beginning to wonder if near complete overall SEO is a financially viable option for small business. Realistically, even with strong management it is very hard to put time weights on these factors as they relate to each other regarding any order of importance.
Even after a generous once off investment one could spent near unlimited time on any of a number of these factors. It would appear to me that strong SEO management from a cost management viewpoint has to be about outcomes and not activities.
In other words, an ambition to achieve a specific page rank for specific keywords may be provided at a reasonable cost but a requirement to keep a site in perfect condition is an ongoing time consuming process rather than an event.

Also (and I am meandering now) is there an example of a “near perfect website” from an SEO viewpoint which most web developers can agree on? Is the measure of SEO simply achieving that number one spot at all costs or are there examples of tacky number one achievers which a worthy web marketer would not be proud of?

I would really appreciate some expert feedback on this. Apologies also for the general usage of the term SEO as I am sure many will see this as one factor and not relevant to many list entries as they may relate to SEM etc. I know I put much of this incorrectly but you know what I mean.

In short. Can you add to the list? Would you remove from the list? Would you dare attempt to list all or some of this list in order of importance?

Go ahead, that’s what I am hoping you will do.

Thanks
John

Windows XP simple file sharing enable or disable.

This information is specific to Systems with the Microsoft Windows XP Professional operating system which are standalone systems or are part of a Windows workgroup.
Why these systems only? Because changing the simple file sharing status on systems which are part of a domain has no effect.

Why would you want to do this? You may want or need to allow or prevent control of folders to enable or prevent file replacement commands or procedures.

How it’s done. Pretty easy actually.

Go to “My Computer”, select “tools” from the menu list, select “folder options”.
Select “View”, go to “Use Simple File Sharing”
Tick check box to enable or untick to disable.
All done.

Why is this information here? Because someone needed it for a file management process on site after using a “restore to new location” function with an online backup account. We are therefore archiving the simple steps for easy reference.

Who should use this information? Any competent person who wants to enable or disable Simple file sharing for Windows XP Pro.

TAS accounts password lockout. Solved

Did a disaster recovey for a client yesterday. All went fine bar one issue. After the restore was complete, all programs worked with the correct data in place bar TAS accounts software. The client was not able to log in to his TAS accounts pack with the user and password credentials he had always used.

We contacted TAS expecting this to be a time consuming issue and were pleasantly surprised.
If this happens you, you will need to have the following information when you contact TAS support.

TAS serial number and TAS system code. If you don’t have these they may be able to assist based on customer number and proof of I.D.
Our client had his serial number and system code so this ruled out having to fax a request on headed notepaper.

TAS support got us to run a utility which is embedded in the software so there was no need for any downloads. On entering the serial number and system code we were presented with a key code. This TAS key code allowed us to initialise some dd and .b files (under TAS instruction) which reset the passwords for the selected company. Additionally, the exercise only reset the passwords for the affected company so users of other companies were unaffected. The result was that all user accounts for the affected company were deleted and the original default supervisor account “SPV” for the affected TAS company was automatically put in place. The client could then access the company. We asked the client to check that the information was correct. It was. Next he just created the user accounts he wanted and changed the passwords.

Well done TAS. Solid support. Well engineered software. 
You can contact TAS as per the following details.

TAS Software
3096 Lake Drive
Citywest Business Park
Dublin 24

Tel: (01) 6420820
Fax: (01) 6420871

Sales Freephone: 1800 222 123
LoCall 1890-946-881

For sales enquiries e-mail: sales@tassoftware.ie

For support enquiries email: support@tassoftware.ie

Remember to keep your software maintenance subscription in place. This issue was easily resolved with a TAS maintenance contract and possibly not resolvable at all without proper support in place.,

Backupanytime stolen laptop retrieval service through I.P. address

Our focus is specifically online data backup. Consequently we assist with data retrieval on a regular basis. We did not however expect to become involved in the retrieval of stolen laptops or workstations. Stolen laptop and computer recovery is however something which we and other quality online backup providers can assist clients with. How so?
Each time your computer backs up it reports it’s I.P. address to one of our servers. Our system allows your computer to backup from anywhere. This is essential so you can backup from any location. In the event of your computer being stolen and subsequently connecting to the Internet (Most stolen systems go online within a week of being stolen and without being formatted) it will report it’s I.P. address to our servers. The I.P. address is generally a temporary number assigned by the broadband service provider through which the system connects.

How can this be used to track the system location?
Surely any efforts to track the system geographically through an I.P. address will come up with vague results. Yes and no. There are many I.P. trace tools online. Most of them will provide a broad and not necessarily accurate geographic location. Thinking outside the box however allows a more efficient method to be used.

Given that any attempt to equate an I.P. address to a geographic or postal address is prone to failure, this is what we can do. When your system is stolen you contact us. If and when the system goes on line in its’ normal state it will connect to us to backup. We will then be able to obtain the I.P. address. Next we go online and using subscription, commercial I.P. utility membership we type the I.P. address and check the results. The results we acquire are not so much based around the location of the stolen system but more so  the broadband provider being used to connect the system to the Internet. Next we need to get the broadband provider to hand over information regarding which client of theirs had the said I.P. address at the time it connected to our servers. Will they have this information? Almost certainly. Indeed they are required by law to retain it for specific periods. Are they likely to hand this information out? They operate under the data protection act and are prevented therefore from handing over their client information (which they are ironically required to retain) outside of exceptional circumstances. These exceptional circumstances usually involve law enforcement so our client (the person who owns the stolen laptop or PC) needs to go to the Gardai or police depending on your jurisdiction.

This may sound more complex and less likely to succeed than it actually is so lets put it in to a procedural list.

1. Backupanytime client laptop or computer is stolen.  (Laptops are always at high risk of theft)
2. Client reports theft to backupanytime. (Simple approved contact phone call)
3. Backupanytime get I.P. if system connects in normal state. (statistics say very likely)
4. Backupanytime check which broadband company the I.P. address relates to. (not complex)
5. Client provides this information to law enforcement. (Just call in to station with I.D. and info we provide)
6. Law enforcement request name and actual address from broadband provider.
7. Law enforcement make arrest and search warrant decisions.

We do not currently have a test situation and given data protection legislation we are unlikely to be able to report the results any real scenario in detail on the backupanytime blog. We will however report the basics without personally identifiable information.

In the interim we will be advising clients to be aware of this and that they should report stolen systems to us in a timely manner.

Testing of 100 sample I.P. addresses in the UK and Ireland gave rise to results of 100% actual broadband provider identification from I.P. address. We have spoken informally with three Irish Broadband providers and they are in agreement with our procedure list. We will communicate with more in the UK and Ireland and intend to draw up a chart of the responses of broadband providers and any amendment in the procedure list or process as befits them.

Online backup seed installation.

The word installation above could be misleading but is included because of its’ common and accepted usage when detailing the “backup to disk” function which  comes with all quality online backup systems. Backup to disk can actually be run at any time but here we are talking about the initial backup post installation.

A seed install is effectively an installation for which the first backup is run locally. There are a number of reasons for which this may be the chosen first backup method. Most equate to broadband, time, data quantity and backup window limitations. Lets take a closer look.

Broadband.

Commonly, download speeds are  significantly greater than upload speeds. In the main this is logical as web browsing involves far more download than upload and most web users general download more and more often than they upload. This offers advantages when restoring data online but the actual backup process which is the more common online backup communication direction uses upload. If your upload speed is low a seed install may be recommended.

Time

Your provider (and likely your software) can give a reasonably accurate estimate as to the amount of time the first backup will take. If you are depending on the online backup system before it has run in your environment for some time (not recommended) then the length of time between to initial backup starting and the next backup completing will be of much importance to you. If the first backup is going to take more time to run than a “backup to disk” and forwarding of same to your provider would take then a seed install may be the best choice.

Data quantity.

No matter how good your upload speed, if the data quantity is inordinately large it will take considerable time over broadband thus making the seed install an attractive option. It must be remembered that companies with enviable upload speeds commonly have significant quantities of data so upload speed advantages are often negated by excessive data quantities.

Backup window.

Your backup window is the length of time a backup has to complete to allow for user access,  application access and next scheduled backup. Seed installs are commonly used to beat the backup window deadline. In these cases it is standard practice for a technician to run the install on site and collect the data if it is to be at the data-store when the next backup starts.

There is one other area of consequence which was not listed above and that is the area of “technical issues”.

An acute example of this in computing is when a process with a progress indicator hangs on circa 99% of the completion indication. This is normally not a coincidence and usually a sign of an error, bug or fault anywhere in the system. If this equates to a significantly large first backup only it may be resolved by a seed backup but regardless the fault should be sought and rectified. Remember that any compromise on a large backup will likely be required in the instance of a large restore. 

In short. Seed installs are common. If a provider is running a seed install at your office, find out why. Many reasons are acceptable. If however, the reason is due to a system crash discuss this with the technician and see if the issue can be resolved so you do not run seed installs for the wrong reasons.

Remember that a crash may not be the fault of the technician. The online backup technician who arrived at your ofice for the first time today can not be responsible for technical issues which have been in existence visably or dormnant for some time. It could be due to a slow processor, a lack of RAM, a network issue or  your broadband. It is also important that if it is possible to rectify the issue for the technician that you  do this rather than run an unnecessary seed install.