Archive for the 'Recommended' Category

SyncBack SE is awesome. It’s only $30, but it does more than other packages that cost hundreds of dollars.  This is the best backup solution for a small office.  Combine it with an external drive or network storage server for a perfect solution.

“There are many backup programs, but few as elegant and powerful as SyncBack from 2BrightSparks.”
— PC World Magazine.

Easily backup, synchronize, or restore your files to another drive, FTP server, ZIP file, networked drive, or removable media.

Highly configurable, SyncBack SE includes: open/locked file copying; fast backups; detailed and easy to read log files; email results; simulated backups and restore; file filters; sub-directory selection; copy verification; background backups; auto-close of programs; easy and expert modes; profile groups; compare files, and an extensive context sensitive help file.

As well as an ‘Easy Mode’ for essential backup, restore, and synchronization tasks, SyncBackSE has an ‘Expert Mode’ that delivers advanced functionality. If you need to backup to an FTP server or network and email the results this is where you’ll fine-tune the software.

Buy SyncBack SE online and be running in 5 minutes.

We’ve tried many different external hard drives, and found many of them lacking in various ways. The Western Digital My Book series has been an excellent drive for us - we use them in our office, and have installed them for many clients. Amazon.com has recently slashed the price of these excellent drives, here’s an example My Book Premium Edition 320GB.

Combined with the excellent SyncBack software, you have a complete backup solution for any small office.

If you need individual help or advice on setting up a backup solution for your office, please give us a call. We can install a custom automatic backup system for you so you’ll never have another sleepless night worrying about your important business files.

Overview

In the late 90’s and even into 2000 and 2001, Norton Anti-virus was considered an excellent product. Unfortunately, the quality of the software has changed much faster than user perception.

According to the Wikipedia article on Norton anti-virus:

Despite its widespread adoption, it carries a reputation within parts of the computer enthusiast community as being slow and inefficient, ineffective, and difficult to uninstall. Some computer professionals have reported encountering machines infected with a virus despite having NAV installed and (in most cases) being fully up-to-date.

I completely agree. These are my anecdotal experiences with Norton Anti-virus.

The Short Story

Anti-virus should be effective, fast and mostly in the background. It shouldn’t pop up windows all the time asking you questions.

In short, dump Norton Anti-virus. I know it came pre-installed with a trial period. Just delete it. Get a decent product. Any of the following are cheaper, better and faster:

• Computer Associates eTrust
• F-Prot
• Norman
• BitDefender
• Kaspersky

Notice that I didn’t mention McAfee. It’s just as bad as Norton.

Performance

I consulted with one customer who was frustrated with “Word opening documents slowly”. They were using Norton anti-virus 2003.

I performed the following tests:

1. Open a test Word document. Time to fully open document: 2 minutes, 10 seconds.
2. Uninstall Norton 2003.
3. With no anti-virus installed - Open the same Word document. Time to fully open the document: 6 seconds.
4. Install Computer Associates eTrust Anti-virus. Open the same Word document - 8 seconds.
5. Remove eTrust and reinstall Norton Anti-Virus 2003. Open the same document - 2 minutes, 12 seconds.

I presented these findings to the client. Obviously they purchased a site license for Computer Associates eTrust Anti-Virus. They have been using eTrust for two years now - no performance complaints and zero virus infections.

Protection

I consulted with another customer who was suffering from an obvious virus infection. They were using Symantec (Norton) Anti-virus 2005. I booted a clean BartPE image and ran a full virus scan, which detected 12 virus files.

I moved these 12 virus files to a new directory and renamed them from *.exe and *.dll to *.bad. I also cleaned up the system registry to ensure that no virus was active or able to be started.

Here is where it gets interesting. I then rebooted back into Windows 2000, and made sure the Norton Anti-virus 2005 was fully up to date. I then performed a virus scan of my new directory that contained 12 identified viruses. Norton detected none of them.

I uninstalled Norton, and install Computer Associated eTrust and scanned the entire machine. eTrust correctly identified all 12 of the known viruses, and confirmed the rest of the machine was virus-free.

The client has been running fine without any re-infection for over a year since that time.

Summary

These just a couple examples. I have dozens more, but the story quickly becomes repetitive. I often find customers who have purchased a new machine and want to use the Norton Anti-virus for a year because they’ve already purchased it. I understand the emotion, you hate to “waste” your subscription. Trust me, it’s not worth it. You are more vulnerable and are using a bloated, slow and ineffective product.