Think back to the last time you took your poor failing (or failed) computer to your nearest G.O.D. (Geek On Duty…I just made that up and I hope it sticks). What was the first question that came out of his/her mouth? Was it “Do you have a recent backup”?  I bet you a coke that your answer was “uh…no…should I?”. And the answer is YES you should. Most computer users consider their data to be critical to their existence. Their music, family pictures, that doctoral thesis you’ve been working on for every waking moment of the last year of your life. But the Internet is filled with horror stories of ill-timed power outages, cats with an uncanny ability to find the delete key on the keyboard, and other similar tales of catastrophe. If this information is so critical to your digital life then why aren’t you taking the steps to make sure that when (that’s right, when, not if) your beloved computer decides to take a vacation (or a permanent trip to the beyond) it can be restored without tears or massive expense?

There are countless backup methods available. Some free, some not so much. Some manual and (many more now than before) completely automated. These methods range from simple self written batch files with a well placed xcopy command to massive applications that sync data to multiple locations across the planet and ensure that there are no duplicate files. Whatever method you use to back up your data, the most important thing is that it’s backed up. So what are you waiting for? Get your data safe!

GFI software was founded in 1992 and has been offering various network and content security products to small/medium sized businesses ever since (one of their most well known products is GFI Languard, which is great). Their newest product is GFI Backup 2009 – Home Edition. With Backup 2009 – Home Edition GFI has attempted to make home backup as easy as turning on your computer. Let’s see how they did with that lofty goal.

What it does

GFI Backup 2009 – Home Edition does exactly what it says, it backs things up. Well, there are a lot of programs that do that, but GFI has made the process pretty easy and relatively fool proof. Most backup solutions (especially the free ones) allow you to back up files, and some allow you to backup “system state” data (which is basic information about your Windows environment and certain user settings). GFI’s solution allows you to back up files/folders, but it also allows you to select from a set of predefined file filters (or create your own) to just back up certain types of files no matter where they are (such as video or music files), it also allows you to back up part or all of your registry, Email and Email client settings from many of the most popular Email clients, and User settings for Windows as well as a multitude of common (and some not so common) applications. It also allows you to back up to various destinations such as, a local folder or external hard drive, network locations, removable media (floppy drives, USB memory stick, memory cards, etc..), CD/DVD or even via FTP for off site storage (which is really great if you happen to have a catastrophe such as flooding or other natural disaster). You can choose to compress the backups into a zip file, multiple zip files or even into a self extracting archive (as long as the data you’re backing up is less than 4 GB). You can choose to encrypt the backups using Zip file passwords or even AES encryption. GFI also gives you the option to do incremental backups (which backs up only files that have changed), differential backups (which will back up changed files but also delete files from an existing backup if they were deleted in the source), and “stacked backups” which will make multiple versions of the backups with version numbers. Another great feature is the ability to set the backup jobs to run on a schedule, or even every time windows starts up or shuts down. There’s even a Sync option that allows you to make sure that two separate locations are synchronized so that they both contain the same versions of the same files.

Conclusion

There a multitude of programs that do the same basic operations that GFI Backup 2009 – Home Edition -  Home edition does. I have been a user of 2BrightSparks SyncBack (freeware version) for quite some time now and it’s very effective, however the user interface is very complex and can be extremely confusing. GFI have taken the concept of simple file backup and added complex features while maintaining an extremely understandable user interface. There are just enough options to allow you to make a fully customizable backup structure without overloading you with confusing choices and options. Plus the price is right! Free software that does everything you need it to do is hard to come by but GFI delivers. I suggest you download the product today and start keeping your data safe, you never know when disaster will strike.

GFI is offering this product free as part of their “We Care” initiative which offers some of their other products free of charge or at a reasonable discount. In today’s economic times, it’s great to see a company trying to lighten the financial load a little.

Symantec’s history over the last few years seems to match the second definition. The huge security company, which just a few years ago has been the biggest and doubtless the most influencing security software developer around, witnessed a steep downfall in sales. The security giant, whose products were once installed in almost every new computer, was taunted by the Revolution of the Internet. Faster download speeds made it easier to find alternatives – some of which were free; so did online reviews and comparisons, which were available to everyone: not only in geeky computer magazines.

Symantec’s products were simply too bloated and buggy, and even as alternatives began to gain popularity, Symantec didn’t make a proper change. Ironically, it was Norton 360, an all-in-one suite targeted at home users, that made a 180 degree change with low performance requirements, a redesigned and intuitive interface and a huge leap forward in general. Now, the latest generation of Symantec’s 2009 security suites is held to a higher standard, as the company makes yet bolder promises. So we’ve tried out Norton Internet Security 2009, and here’s what we have to say.

Installing

Norton Internet Security 2009 (or NIS2009) was off to a rough start. First was the psychological factor: I didn’t want to like it. I had bad experience with previous Norton products and security suites. Second, the installation file is a whooping 58.6 megabyte in size; that’s almost double the size of Kaspersky’s Internet Security suite, NIS’s main competitor, and for years, the better choice of the two.

Once the download was completed, however, I was impressed by the speed of the installation, which only took about 2 minutes in total, not even requiring a restart in the end. No complex settings or daunting wizards to go through, either: NIS2009 launched itself flawlessly and was ready for action in just a couple of seconds.

Features & Interface

So what will you get for your money? Besides the traditional components, such as an anti-virus with active protection and an anti-spyware along with a firewall, NIS2009 offers an anti-phishing component (which blocks access to suspicious or dangerous websites), identity & log-in cards (allowing you to preset identities and sensitive information to enter in websites), parental control (which you need to install separately) and home network monitoring (allowing you to see the status of other computers in the network, as well as their security status – if they’re using NIS2009 too, and also determining if your wireless connection is secure and encrypted).

Opening the main window of NIS2009 reveals 3 different parts controlling different areas of protection: Computer (anti-virus and anti-spyware protection), Internet (firewall, intrusion prevention, e-mail scanning and network security) and Identity (identity cards, anti-phishing). Each of these areas takes a different part of the screen, allowing the user to disable or enable their main features with a single click, as well as access a more complex array of settings, shown in a separate screen. There are also two performance bars total system CPU usage vs. Norton’s CPU usage, and a button to launch LiveUpdate. You’ll also find quick help texts near every control on the main screen. All in all a simple and clean layout to which I got accustomed quickly.

If you’re a more advanced user or a control freak, NIS2009 will satisfy your needs. You can control  virtually every feature; the complex settings are organized in categories, and you can access yet more complex settings through the submenus. A bit confusing, but users that choose to dig into these settings will probably know their way around, though I found that basic information like a filepath of an infection, require way too much digging around sub-sub menus. Same for firewall – which is set on ’silent’ by default (meaning you won’t get notifications prompting you to block or allow programs to connect to the internet). And while NIS2009 does a good job in filtering these, I would like to see the firewall settings laid out in a more basic way and with less digging around menus.

Touching on control freaks, they will definitely like the performance meter familiar from previous versions of Norton Internet Security. This performance meter shows total CPU consumption vs. percent consumed by NIS2009. We’ll touch on the subject of performance later on, but you can also get very comprehensive graphs and reports on background jobs done by NIS2009 when the PC is idle.

One of the most important innovations in NIS2009 is Norton Insight, a technology allowing you to cut scanning times by mapping known “good” files, either from an online database or from a user input. It works by clicking the Norton Insight button in the main window, and allowing Norton Insight to scan known directories for ‘good’ files. You can also specify specific files that you want to check against the online database. As you can see from the screenshot, on my PC Norton Insight found only 19% ‘trusted files’, but that means many files and a significant reduction in scanning time. The great thing about this feature is that it’s community based. NIS2009 collects data from users (with permission) and tests to see if the same files appear in many different computers. If so, the file is assumed safe by Norton Insight, thus reducing scan times. So, with time this feature can only improve.

NIS2009 also includes the LiveUpdate feature built-in the product, unlike previous versions which had a clumsy and separate application performing updates. LiveUpdate here works flawlessly, and downloads definitions every several minutes. Thankfully, NIS2009 doesn’t disturb you to inform you of this, but more about this later on.

Like most security suites today, NIS2009 includes predefined log-in cards which you can configure and define as you like. You can password protect them or not, and you can set a master password required each time you want to use a certain log-in. All around a basic and easy to use feature, that also uses a toolbar (thankfully supporting both Explorer and Firefox, unlike previous versions) to fill in details. This toolbar also gives you information about site safety (phishing).

Performance & Detection

Performance was one of the biggest issues of previous NIS versions, and this version is lighter than ever. In normal computer usage – background operation with no scans running – Norton consumed between 10 to 20mb of memory; very impressive, and actually better than some standalone products. While scanning, NIS2009 took between 60 and 70mb of memory in a given moment, which on a fairly modern machine should not slow things much.

Like most modern anti-virus solutions, NIS2009 offers a ‘Quick Scan’ feature (scanning high-risk areas), which is quick indeed – on my machine this scan took just under 40 seconds – while scanning just below 4,000 files. A full scan, however, will take several hours – depending on the size of your hardrive, computer speed and amount of files.

Evidently, a great deal of effort has been put to make NIS2009 as silent as possible, hence the  inclusion of Silent Mode (also present in previous versions of NIS and other Symantec products). Like the name says, Silent Mode makes sure NIS2009 won’t disturb you during games or movies. You can set it to detect full screen automatically and turn Silent Mode automatically, or set it for a specific period of time. Once the time is over or full screen is ended, Norton will notify you if there were security incidents during the period. However, to my surprise I found that using Silent Mode isn’t necessary; NIS2009 was very quiet and didn’t alert me unless a shield has been disabled or it found a suspicious activity, even without Silent Mode.

However, not everything was perfect with NIS2009. While security suites traditionally have high detection rates, many have a lot of false positives, and this was the case here. On my clean machine, NIS2009 found several false positives and marked them as ‘highly dangerous’. Also, I encountered occasional problems with file downloads freezing, unless I turned NIS2009’s Active Protection off. Same with bigger file transfers through MSN Messenger. I also didn’t like the short freezing between clicks in the main program window.

Overall I would rate NIS a huge improvement over its predecessors, and a huge success. If you were to list the most common complaints about Norton Antivirus, and Norton Internet Security this release answers them all:

1. Bloated
2. Difficult to remove
3. Large memory footprint
4. Resource hog
5. Live Update

Norton has always enjoyed good detection rates, now it has a quality application and interface to go with them. It should be on your short list of antivirus applications. NOD32 was my former antivirus of choice (a geek favorite). I now run Norton Antivirus, and I can say it proudly. Well done Norton!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

“To print circles, you should print in circles” is one of the tag lines on the DiscPainter page of the DYMO website.  The DYMO contention is that you can’t get the quality from normal CD/DVD printing methods that you can from their “revolutionary” RadialPrint Technology.

In my time I have used every imaginable method of printing on a disc.  I have used sharpie more times than I can remember.  I printed the stick-on labels.  I currently use a typical disc printer at work, and now I have the opportunity to use the next generation in disc printing technology.

The idea behind the RadialPrint Technology is very interesting to say the least.  Rather than print from side to side like a typical printer, the DYMO DiscPainter spins the disk while printing.  The disk moves slowly from back to front.  The print heads actually move very little.  The disk spins around and moves in and out to allow the head to cover the entire disc.  This lack of extra moving parts could potentially mean less maintenance in the future.

The DiscPainter is surprisingly small, in fact, it’s much smaller than i would have expected. It’s just wide enough to fit a CD and about twice as deep in the front while the back rises to about 6″.   The small size makes it a great fit for just about any desk.  The only other disc printer that I have used is about 2x the size of your typical inkjet printer, which means you have to give up a significant piece of desktop realty to have it.

The DYMO prints discs at excellent speeds.  Even with the printer setup at the highest quality, the DiscPainter finishes a full color picture print in about 90 seconds.  At normal print quality, the DYMO can finish a disc in just under 60 seconds.  It takes just over 30 seconds to print a few words on a disc.

The quality of the DiscPainter is quite comparable to a good quality photo printer.  At the lowest quality, the printer does just fine with text.  With the settings at the highest quality, the DYMO produces excellent results with pictures.  Upon very close inspection, you can make out very small lines in a circular pattern around the disk, but you have to look very closely to notice.  The average print settings still yield great results with either text or photos.

The DiscPainter employs inkjet technology with a single print cartridge to replace.  The cartridge costs about $35 depending on where you shop and is supposed to print about 100 disks.  This estimate is based on “normal” print quality settings.  The price of printable disks is really no different than that of typical CD media.  With that kind of consumable price, the cost of printing each disk is actually quite low.

The DiscPainter is virtually silent.  This is probably the quietest inkjet that I have heard.  With so few moving parts, there is nothing to make extra noise.  When you think about it, the noise from your typical inkjet printer is from the heads banging from side to side and the paper feeding.  The DYMO is just slightly louder than your typical CD player (with the music off!).

The included “Discus” CD creation software is extremely simple to use, while remaining very powerful and feature rich. The interface is intuitive and makes the process of creating a nice looking disk easy.  Loaded in the software are over 300 different backgrounds that you can use to create great looking CDs without having to find your own pictures.  The text and picture tools are all that you should need to design your own CD masterpiece.

Overall, the DYMO DiscPainter is impressive.  Until I had a CD printer at home, I didn’t realize how much I would use one.  With Christmas coming up, I found myself making all sorts of CDs that would normally have been decorated with my scribbling in sharpie.  A disk printer may not be for everyone, but for those interested, I recommend the DiscPainter from DYMO.

Appearance = Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Quality =  Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Ease-of-use = Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Features =  Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Performance =  Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Value = Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
===========
Overall = Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

The recent rise in popularity of digital photo frames is no real surprise.  You can’t get a phone without a camera anymore, there are hundreds of models of digital cameras priced at or below $100.  With all those cameras, we have to have a way to display the pictures without paying for printing, right?

The market is currently flooded with photo frames.  Everyone is making them, and some are making them dirt cheap.  During the recent “Black Friday” deals, I noted frames starting at $29.99!  I bought one.  Wouldn’t you?  With such a price, one is forced to ask the following question: What kind of quality can I get out of a thirty dollar frame?

The answer is pretty simple – meh.  It has almost no onboard storage space and the display quality is moderate at best.  It only supports a few card formats, only accepts JPG images, and lacks in options.  What if I want a nice photo frame with lots of onboard storage space and great image quality that accepts a bunch of card formats, image formats and has tons of options?  The Image Moments line from Digital Foci promises all those things, and more.

Upon initial inspection, it’s a nice looking unit.  Very clean lines and classic look.  The 8″ model includes interchangeable frames, so you can choose which frame works best with your decor.

The display is clean and crisp.  You can certainly tell the difference between this and the cheap model that I purchased.  Each photo transitions smoothly without jumping.  The display is bright and easy to find small details.

The internal storage space is great.  The 5.7″ frame can display images at 640×480 (800×600 for the 8″).  If I were to shrink all my photos to that size I could easily fit thousands of pictures on the internal 450MB without the need for an external storage device.

The Digital Foci frames accept CompactFlash, SD Card, SDHC Card, MultiMedia Card, xD-Picture Card, Memory Stick, MS PRO, MS Duo, and MS PRO Duo memory cards so that no matter what your camera, this frame likely takes the card you have.  These frames also accept JPG, BMP, RAW, TIFF, and GIF image file formats.

The menu system and on screen options on the Digital Foci frames are the best that I have had experience with.  You can view your photos in thumbnail view, which is great for when you are searching for one photo to show someone.  You also have the option of organizing the photos into folders for quick access.  You can even specify playlists so you can have a different set of pictures playing when family comes over, and then switch back to a different set of pictures when you are the only one home.

The Digital Foci frames offer an interesting feature that you cannot find on cheaper models.  The photos are automatically rotated based on the EXIF data.  Now this feature greatly depends on your camera.  Mine automatically senses if it was turned to take a picture and stores that information.  The Image Moments frame was able to read that and adjust each picture accordingly.  This is a nice feature for someone as lazy as I am who doesn’t want to be bothered with rotating pictures before transferring them to the frame.

Now for the tough question, is this frame worth the higher cost?  Value is subjective.  Is it worth it to me?  From a high def perspective, the 15″ model will be worth the money because of the larger view size.  With the 5.7″ and 8” frames, I would likely never look at it that closely to be bothered with how crisp the image is.  The features that really set the DigitalFoci line apart are the large internal storage capacity, the on-screen display options, and the number of different card formats accepted.  You are going to have to decide if those features are worth it to you.

Overall I think the $149 (after rebate) spent on the Digital Foci Image Moments 8 frame is probably worth the money.  Many of the features will be even more exciting on the bigger sized 15” frame due out next year, but they still offer a lot in such a small package.  Just in time for Christmas, I would add this one to my list.

Appearance = Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Quality =  Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Ease-of-use = Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Features =  Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Performance =  Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Value = Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
===========
Overall = Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

One of the biggest challenges for personal and corporate computer users is the security of sensitive data.  When data is stored inside a corporate network, it’s usually firewall and password protected to ensure its safety.  Unfortunately for IT Security personnel, all their security is worthless when sensitive data is transferred by USB key.

To combat this security hole, many companies have switched to encrypted-only USB keys.  The problem with most encrypted USB keys is that the security can be turned off.  When a user gets tired of entering a password every time, they have the option to just go in and disable the software that encrypts the drive.

The solution is a USB key that offers encryption at the hardware level.  The SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise does just that.  The Cruzer Enterprise boasts 256Mb hardware-based mandatory encryption.  Let’s take a closer look at the offering from SanDisk.

The Cruzer Enterprise comes in 1, 2, 4 and 8GB size, which is surprising since the Cruzer is marketed towards “Enterprise” customers.  As a corporate user, I don’t use anything less than 16GB since anything smaller will not fit all the data I need to carry for work.

The price of the Cruzer is on par with its competitor the IronKey, however it lacks many of the features that make the IronKey such an alluring investment.  The price of the Cruzer is $80 for the 1GB and $240 for the 8GB.  This price may seem steep, especially compared to your typical USB key that you can pickup up at any electronics store, but remember, those are not hardware encrypted.

You may ask, why do I need a hardware encrypted USB key?  If you are not an employer who needs to require encryption for your employees’ USB keys, then you might not.  It’s nice, and generally more secure, but certainly not necessary.  Any USB key can be encrypted with a free download.  You can get faster keys with twice the storage space for the same price.

The real benefit to a hardware-encrypted device is in the case of theft. From a data retrieval perspective, it’s irrelevant if it’s stolen, because then you are likely not getting that data back anyway. The hardware encryption. however, will keep the average thief from using the USB key at all. They will just throw it away. With a software encryption option, your typical thief will be able to format the USB key and use it, but your data will still be inaccessible. In either case, your data will be safe from most people, but you will probably not be getting your data back.

The hardware encryption option does offer significantly better protection from an advanced hacker. The encryption key on a hardware encrypted device is stored on the device and cannot be transferred to a host computer. The hardware device also keeps track of the number of access attempts itself, rather than relying on the host computer to keep track.

Another major benefit to this device in an Enterprise environment is that the Cruzer has a password that cannot be turned off. It can be changed, but it must be a strong password, so it’s still secure, even if changed. If I were a company with sensitive data, that feature alone would be worth it.

Overall this product is really difficult to rate.  Is the price worth the security?  That depends on the level of security you require.  Do you have data that you need to secure from even the most nefarious of hackers?  Then you need a hardware encrypted USB key.  If your purpose is to keep your brother from looking at your diary, then a software option would be the best way to spend your money.

Appearance = Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Quality =  Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Ease-of-use = Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Features =  Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Performance =  Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Value = Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
===========
Overall = Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Networks are getting larger and larger every day. Between company mergers and normal expansion some corporate environments are getting down right massive. With more computers in a system you have to contend with larger levels of interaction to make sure that all of those computers are running well, configured properly, and are actually physically in your building. Add to that the overhead associated with making sure that all the software in your environment is accurately accounted for, licensed, and approved through company policy and you’ve got an administrative headache that would make even the most efficient multi-tasker go off the deep end. With the increase in complexity we have seen an increase in “Asset management and tracking” software availability. These packages range from the complex (and expensive) to the relatively simple (and often completely free).

One of the packages that falls into the later category is Lansweeper. Lansweeper is a hardware and software inventory package that can be installed on any Windows machine that is also running Microsoft SQL Server or SQL Express. It has the ability to scan and display hardware information, software information, windows information, user information, configuration information, and any custom registry locations that you desire. They have two packages, one of them is an advertisement free fully functional freeware version and the other is a paid “Pro” version with certain added features (such as active scanning and Active Directory integration). Due to the current economic environment I chose to install the freeware version on my system to do some asset tracking.

How it works

The Lansweeper “server” is composed of three basic components; the database (which stores the collected information), the “GUI console” (which is used to modify the server settings), the web console (which is where you can view the information and run custom actions).

The Lansweeper “server” is installed on a machine that’s running either SQL 2000/2005 or SQL Express and Internet Information Services (IIS). According to my sources the original Lansweeper console was exceedingly difficult to install for the uninitiated (it was described as “witchcraft” if I remember correctly) but the newest installer is a breeze. It creates the database instance for you, sets up the web console in IIS, and installs the GUI console.

Once the server is installed you can start scanning your network assets. In the free version a client program is run (not installed) on the computers to be scanned into inventory while the paid version allows for active scanning from the server. The client program (lsclient.exe) is automatically placed in the Lansweeper folder when you install the server. This client program initiates a scan of all the areas of interest and reports back to the server.

What it does

Once you’ve initiated your scans and the server has received all of the data you can start to browse through the plethora of information that’s now been made available. From the web console you can easily view this data by category. The available categories are the Digital dashboard, Software reports, Hardware reports, Server reports, General reports, License compliance, and OS license compliance. It’s pretty self explanatory as to what these do.

You can also open your domain and drill down to individual machines to check specific information about that machine. From the “computer level” screen you can run custom actions that you configure with the GUI console (such as initiating a VNC connection, or running an application via PSexec).

One of the handiest features of Lansweeper is the “License Compliance” feature. To set this up you can supply the amount of licenses you own for a given software package and the per license price in the GUI console. This information is then compared to how many versions of that particular product Lansweeper finds during it’s scanning process. If you go over the stated limit you’re told how many licenses you need.

What’s the verdict?

Overall Lansweeper is a great product. It’s extremely easy to install and equally easy to use. Some of the features can take a little getting used to, but these issues are a matter of figuring out what info is where. One of the biggest extra advantages of the product is the support forum. At the Lansweeper support forum you can ask questions, make suggestions, and even view other people’s “custom actions” that they’ve created. The best part about the support forum is that it’s directly managed by the developer so when Lansweeper responds, you’re talking to the guy who writes the program. This is a big help when you’re having a weird issue or making a feature request because you don’t have to wait for the question/suggestion to move it’s way up the support chain. I’ve tried other free products (such as Spiceworks) and could never get them to work quite right. A lot of the other products on the market rely on a “clientless” scanning method that can sometimes run into network issues that can make a scan take forever or outright fail.

Appearance = Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Quality = Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Ease-of-use = Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Features = Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Performance = Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Value = Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
===========
Overall Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

The Photo Safe could be the answer to the woes of millions of digital photography enthusiasts.  If this little device works as advertised, I know it will change the way I do things, and it may for you as well.

The Photo Safe is not the only device of its kind.  The DigitalFoci device has competition from Epson, Wolverine, and a few other manufacturers.  If given the opportunity, I’ll compare them with the DigitalFoci.  However, from initial glance, they all appear to offer about the same things, but at significantly varying price ranges.  The 80Gb models range from the DigitalFoci at $130 to some very spendy units at almost $300!

What it is.

The Photo Safe is basically a portable Hard Drive with slots for all kinds of different memory cards.  It’s got a small display and one-button operation to move your photos from your memory card to the Photo Safe’s 80 (or 160) GB hard drive for safe and convenient storage.  All for the cost  of a good memory card, but with 80x the storage space!

What it works with.

The DigitalFoci Photo Safe II works with the following memory card technologies.  CF Type I (including Sandisk Extreme III, IV), xD-Picture Card, MMC, SD/HC Card, miniSD, Memory Stick, MS PRO, MS Duo, and MS Pro Duo.  Finding the right slot for each card is easy on the Photo Safe with clearly marked slots.

How it works.

The DigitalFoci has very simple one-touch operation.  You stick the card into the appropriate slot, the screen shows  that a card has been inserted, and you hit the copy button.  The screen goes into a percentage display so you can see how much has been done.

On the disk, the device creates a separate folder for each offload.  This makes finding the images easy.  It also curbs my concerns about offloading multiple times between the big offload to the computer.  Since the files are separated into different folders (even if the offloads are seconds apart and the exact same data), I don’t have to be concerned about overwriting files.

How it looks.

Aesthetically the Photo Safe is a good looking device.  It’s got a multi-colored plastic casing.  The screen is large for a unit this size.  The screen is backlit with a very bright green glow that makes the display easy to read regardless of how bright or dark it is outside.

The unit is just a bit larger than my Zune at 4 1/2” X 3” and fits easily into the palm of my hand.  The Photo Safe is not heavy (about 1/2 pound), and I really didn’t notice the extra weight when I put it into my camera case.

Speed.

I was not able to test the speed from the card to the Photo Safe.  There is just no testing mechanism that I know of to do such a thing.  What I did was time-test to give some idea of its capabilities.  With my Sandisk Extreme III card, I was able to transfer 1Gb worth of data in 3:43.  To compare, it took  me 3:16 to offload the same data directly to my computer through my card reader.

Durability.

To be fair, I have to question the durability of the Photo Safe.  While its plastic case may look good, it certainly doesn’t scream “rugged”.  A drop from a good distance will surely crack the case.  Each of the card slots has a rubber cover to keep out dust or water.  I believe that under normal conditions, the Photo Safe will fare just fine, however with it being all plastic, there is room for concern if something bad were to happen.

Practical uses.

You could use this device for so many things, it’s difficult to list them all.  In my time with it, I used it for some very interesting things.  I used it for the obvious task of emptying my card when I was out taking lots of pictures, which saved me from having to lug around my laptop and the card reader for it.

I used it out in the woods to take pictures off my digital trail cameras.  I found this especially nice.  I used to have to keep extra SD cards with me so that I could swap them.  With this, I just emptied the card onto the Photo Safe, then formatted the card and went on to check the other cameras.  Now I can get more cameras without having to buy more cards!  Wait until my wife finds out.

At a wedding, I got a picture of my wife and I from a friend, just by asking them for their card and downloading the contents to the Photo Safe.  In the past, I would have had to ask that person to email me that picture and hope they remember.

Also, the Photo Safe can be used as a portable hard drive.  When you hook your computer to it, it just installs as another drive.  You can copy files to it and transport them from place to place.  While I plan to keep it empty to use for photos, the ability for it to be flexible is there, which is nice.

Battery.

I ran the Photo Safe through the ringer a number of times.  I filled my card with 1Gb of pictures, then started offloading.  I offloaded repeatedly over the course of an hour.  I got to the 15th time and it stopped transferring 1/2 way through.

The Photo Safe did a good job keeping a charge when not in use.  However, like any battery powered device, the user has to be conscious of the battery and its limitations.  Ensure that you have it charged if you are going to use it.

The nice thing about the Photo Safe is that you can charge it almost anywhere.  I charged it with my cell phone charging unit in my car (MiniUSB Connection).  You can also charge it with any computer with a USB port.

Price.

Compared to its competition, the DigitalFoci is on the low side of the price range.  At $130, when you consider the obvious upside, it is a unit that’s well worth the cost.  The cost of a 32Gb card for my digital camera costs $299.  The Photo Safe has 80Gb worth of storage space, making it a very good investment.  The 160Gb version of the Photo Safe costs $189, which is still a steal for those who take a LOT of pictures.

Overall.

Overall there is a lot to love when looking at the DigitalFoci Photo Safe II.  The idea behind the technology is brilliant, the price is great, the transfer speeds are good, the size is nice, and the features are great.  Admittedly I have not used the DigitalFoci’s competition yet, but for the price, it’s a very worthwhile investment.  I will have one in my camera case from now on, and I recommend anyone serious about photography do the same.

If Corsair were to offer this power supply as a modular unit to limit the tangle of leads to deal with when it’s installed, it would be nearly perfect.

Well now I’ve been given the opportunity to review one of Corsair’s new modular power supplies and it’s got a tough act to follow.  The HX620W claims many of the same attributes of it’s bigger cousin, it’s powerful, efficient, quiet, cool, customizable, and it’s dual GPU ready.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the box is that the HX620W is not 100% modular.  It has the 20/24 pin connector, a 4 pin connector, and an ATX 8/4 pin connector hard-wired to the unit.  Still, this is a huge improvement when compared to the tangle of cables the TX750W sported.   In all fairness, I installed this power supply in the same cases I used in the TX750W review, one a top mount and one a bottom mount.  Let’s look at the top mount case first.

When installed as a top mounted unit, the few hard-wired cables it has are on the side nearest the mainboard, they are of adequate length to reach their intended connectors, and offer only the necessary connections to power the mainboard.  The cables are not overly long and the extra length is easily routed cleanly.  I then dug into the Corsair logo baring vinyl pouch and see what kind of cables I got to play with.

The cable assortment comes in it’s own pouch with a Velcro closure, and there’s quite a bunch to choose from.  The HX620W is supplied with two PCIe cables, three SATA cables (8 connectors total), four 4 pin peripheral cables (8 connectors total), a peripheral to fan power adapter (2 connectors), and a peripheral to floppy cable (2 connectors).  There are varying lengths of each, so this is looking very promising.

A clean install in a top mount configuration is a snap!  The cable are long enough, and short enough to make all the connections cleanly.  I only needed a couple of cables in the AOpen case as it’s getting a little old, but the cabling turned out much cleaner using the HX620 than the TX750.  No big wads of cables stuffed into every available drive bay with this unit and airflow in the case is not restricted at all.

Ok, we’ve got a definite improvement over the TX750W in the top mount configuration.  Let’s see how it does in the Antec 900 case.  That’s the one that caused so much grief with cables restricting the airflow.  The only place to tuck them away was in front of the front mounted case fans.  Not a good plan.

Like the TX750W, the HX620W must be mounted upside down in the Antec case.  This places the hard-wired cables to the outside, away from the mainboard, which caused problems with getting the cables routed to their intended targets cleanly.  The 4 pin plug on the ASUS mainboard is clear at the top, right behind the input/output panel.  About as far away from the cable as it can be.  The TX750W spanned the distance, but just barely, and it took some creative cable routing to get it there cleanly.  With the  HX620W, this cable was a perfect fit as it is several inches longer than it’s counterpart on the TX750W.  The 20/24 pin cable was also the perfect length for this installation.  My ASUS board doesn’t require the 4/8 pin cable, but it tucked away nicely under the drive bays, leaving the fans completely unobstructed.  Now for the modular cables.

There’s a peripheral connector at the back about midway up this board.  Using the closest connector in the power supply and running the cable beneath it and up the back of the board, the last connector on the cable was just long enough to fit cleanly.  That left one peripheral connector out in the open, but it’s tight against the back of the case and barely noticeable.  There’s another peripheral connector required at the top front of the case to provide power to the front panel ports and the top mounted 250mm fan.  No problem here, either.  Using the longest peripheral cable from the Corsair goodie bag, I reached it with length to spare.  Because the modular cables are flat, it was easy to tuck the extra length of cable above the optical drive bay.

That left the SATA drives to connect.  Using the longest SATA cable to connect the optical drive was a cake walk.   Again, the remaining length was tucked above the optical drive cage.  One short cable connected the two SATA hard drives with a bend of cable tucked under the drive bays.  Done deal!  And it’s clean both in appearance and where air flow is a concern.  While the cables could have been a couple inches longer in every case, they are adequate as they are… more so than those of the TX750W.

I was very impressed with the TX750W’s performance.  Let’s see how the HX620W compares to it.  I can already tell it’s quiet.  My case fans drown it out completely.  Efficiency is best measured over time, but  Corsair has been  awarded 80 PLUS Certification across the entire Corsair line of power supplies, including the award winning modular HX Series, powerful TX Series and value-performance VX Series, so I think we can take them at their word on that.

As the images below demonstrate, the HX620 is every bit as stable as it’s larger cousin.  There were some slight voltage fluctuations at lower voltage levels, but none greater then .1 volts, well within listed specifications.  There is no apparent difference in the unit’s output whether at rest or under load.  Running in SLI has no effect on out put, though the PSU temperature rises slightly when using dual graphics cards and rendering complex graphics at high frame rates.  Still, the HX620W does not get as hot as other unit’s I’ve tested under similar loads.

Corsair  HX620W on the left – Corsair TX750W on the right

Top to bottom are Vcore1 voltage, +3.3v, +5v, and +12v legs.

The HX620W does, indeed, meet or exceed the claims of Quiet and Cool.  The output is stable through all ranges and loads I was able to place it under and ripple voltage is nearly immeasurable.  I found this to be a very strong running power supply under all the conditions I placed it under, but it’s actually the unit’s installation flexibility that sold me.  Because of it’s modular design and lengthy cables, it’s very easy to install the HX620W cleanly to maximize air flow through the case…which is an important feature for anyone who uses their computer vigorously.

As one who isn’t happy until I’ve found something to complain about, I do have a complaint.  In a bottom mount situation, the logo is upside down.  This would be easily remedied by applying the offside logo upside down.  It would not be seen in top mount applications and the logo would be right side up in a bottom mount application such as mine.  Seriously, that’s the only thing I could find wrong with this power supply and at less than $170, I would not hesitate to recommend the HX620W to anyone wanting an exceptional power supply in this output range.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Windows Home Server, or WHS, is based on Microsoft’s Windows Server 2003 platform, but has been re-packaged to make it much more friendly for the home user. It uses a simple console interface to provide management functions, such as adding users, configuring backups, and managing shared folders. The typical WHS device is a computer that is connected to your home network and managed through another PC on the network. It’s capable of performing a headless boot, meaning there is no requirement for a keyboard, mouse, or monitor. Because it doesn’t require these devices, it can be tucked into a corner and takes up relatively little room. I have mine sitting in my basement, next to my router. Out of sight does not mean out of mind, however; this system is always running, monitoring the health of your network and helping to keep your critical data safe.

How it Works: As mentioned, the WHS resides on your network and is managed through other PCs. This is done through the Home Server Connector software. When this is installed on a PC, it automatically finds the WHS and creates a connection to it. That computer is then identified on the server, which will list the computer name and operating system, as well as it’s backup status.

You can define a schedule for performing backups. WHS defaults to performing backups between 12 am and 6 am, as that’s typically time period in which computers are not being used. When the server connector software is installed, it automatically configures the PC for backups. Backups will occur if the computer is on, even if it’s in sleep or hibernate mode; the computer will wake up, perform the backup, and go back to sleep. If there are multiple PCs, they will back up one at a time. You can also perform manual backups, and define how long WHS keeps the backups.

Like Sugarsync, WHS gives you options that some of the other backup solutions don’t, notably remote access. User accounts can be created on the server, and remote access capability can be allowed for individual accounts. As part of setting up WHS, you can create a domain name, such as myfamily.homeserver.com. From here, you have access to any computer on your network that is configured for remote access, as well as access to and shared folders on the server. The remote computer access is a big plus, as it gives you access to Outlook (or whatever email program you use) and other programs on your PC, whereas Sugarsync only gives you access to any data you sync online.

A basic WHS configuration includes at least 2 hard drives, which are automatically configured as hot-swappable backups. If one drive fails, the other will still have all the data that has been saved to it. The failed drive can be easily replaced, and WHS will recognize it. Additionally, more storage space can be easily added, which gives a lot of flexibility in expanding your backup space as needed, while also ensuring that your data is safe.

WHS gives several options for recovery. If you only need to recover a folder or files, you can open the appropriate backup and restore it from there. WHS keeps monthly, weekly, and daily backups, and you can choose how long to keep those. It defaults to keeping the monthly for 3 months, the weekly for 3 weeks, and the daily for 3 days, but these can be changed. If you accidentally delete a file today that you need, you can go back to yesterday’s backup and retrieve it. If you realize a month later that you needed something, you can go back to the previous month’s backup and recover it from there.

You can also do a system recovery. If your system files become corrupt or your hard drive crashes, you can boot from the WHS recovery disk and then restore your drive that way. It also saves your drivers in a separate file every time it backs up, so if you ever need drivers, such as during a re-install, you have access to them. Again, this is something that sets WHS apart from other backup solutions, as this is done automatically.

What I Like about WHS: This can easily be a configure-and-forget type of backup system, and the ease of configuring the backups makes it simple. It’s a great solution for a multi-PC household, as each of the PCs can be defined on the server and set to backup automatically. The built-in redundancy adds to the peace of mind you get from knowing your important data is backed up. The fact that you can reach your data remotely is also a plus. Now that I’ve gotten it configured and set up, I don’t have to spend any time managing the server. WHS can download and install updates and reboot as needed, with no intervention from me, and the backups run as scheduled. WHS will monitor the health of your network too, notifying you if a PC hasn’t been backed up as scheduled, checking the health of the hard disks, and monitoring the state of your router configuration to make sure that it is properly configured for remote access.

What I Don’t Like about WHS: I consider myself pretty technical, and I do have experience with Microsoft’s Small Business Server 2003, but I still didn’t find WHS that easy to work with. I installed the OEM software on my own hardware. There is a degree of networking and technical expertise that might put this out of the normal home user’s comfort level, at least during the configuration and troubleshooting stages. Preconfigured options like the HP MediaSmart may be the best option for most people.

This solution is also more of an energy hog; the WHS and all the PCs connected to it must be on in order for the backups to take place, and the best time to run backups is when you’re not using the PCs; this usually means you have to leave all the PCs on when not in use, which is not something I typically do. However, Windows Home Server does offer the option to wake computers up from standby or hibernate to run scheduled backups.

Cost may also be a prohibitive factor for many. If you already have the hardware, the OEM software has a street price of about $150. If you go with the preconfigured hardware and software, I found prices ranging from $450 to $900, depending on the configuration. Finally, this is not a portable solution; if you’re forced to evacuate your house, for example because of fire or flood, you can’t easily pick this up and take it with you. You’d be wise to consider additional off-site backup. While it offers peace of mind as far as recovering from a hard drive failure or accidentally deleting files, it may not be the right disaster recovery solution.

Conclusion: While a Windows Home Server isn’t for everyone, if you have a multi-PC home network, or a home business, this is a robust backup solution. While it can be expensive, the extra features such as remote access and shared folders are added benefits to this choice. We’ll explore all the features of Windows Home Server in another review. If you’re looking for a basic backup strategy without bells and whistles, there are other options that we’ve reviewed that may better suit your needs.

• Many people/computers can access it at once.
• There is no limitation on read/write.
• At 750Gb, it should have more than enough space to fit all your data for a long time to come.
• The price is more than reasonable at $250.
• It’s physically small enough to fit into a safe or store with a neighbor when not being used.
• You have fast access to the data via 100mb network.
• You have even faster access to the data via USB 2.0 when necessary.
• Your important and personal data is not housed and secured by a stranger.

Lets look beyond the first impression and see what this particular drive can really do.

How it works – a Network Attached Storage device is basically a hard disk in a case that has the ability to attach to the network and offer its available space to network users who have security access.  Its not a computer, although from your desktop it may appear to be a file server.  When using the NewerTech NAS, the provided software automatically detects the device when its connected to the network.  It installs itself as another drive on the computer similar to the floppy disk (A:) and hard disk (C:).  You can either use the provided software to do automatic backups, or you can manually drag and drop your data onto the NAS.

Software – The NewerTech NAS comes with three different software packages to make backing up your computer easy.  Two are specifically for Mac – Intech Hard Disk SpeedTools and Prosoft Data Backup for Mac.  One software provided is for PC – NovaBACKUP for PC.  Since I do not own a Mac, I can only test the PC software.

The NovaBACKUP software has a very clean and intuitive interface.  The initial screen is a kind of “quick-backup” screen.  If simple is what you want, this is it.  Just place a check next to one of the popular items listed (My Documents, My Pictures, Etc….) that you want to backup, select Backup from the drop-down menu, and select your miniStack NAS device or a folder on your NAS as the place you want to backup to.  It can be that simple.

Alternatively, the software has the option to go more in-depth.  If you have specific folders that need backed up more or less often or you have a folder full of junk that you don’t want to include in the backup, you can go into a full folder layout screen and check exactly what you do and don’t want to backup.

NovaBACKUP also allows you to choose full, incremental, and differential backups as a way to save time and bandwidth when doing backups.  A full backup is what you want to do the first time, but after that, you can run incremental backups.  An incremental backup only backs up files that have chanced since the last backup.  If you added a file, it will go.  This keeps you from having to backup the same files over and over if they haven’t changed.

Speed – Testing the speed of a device like this is a very difficult thing to do.  There are so many different variables to take into account that any test of speed would be inconclusive at best.  The rate of transfer to any device such as this depends on other network traffic, the speed of your router/switch and your sending device, and many other things.  Just know that my results may vary from the results that you are able to produce.

The NewerTech NAS employs a flexible design that allows multiple methods to connect to the drive.  Like any other NAS device, its got an RJ45 port (Cat5/6 cable) for connecting to the network.  This particular model also has a USB 2.0 port to allow faster transfer when backing up mass amounts of data.

Since I have a large amount of data to backup, I started out by doing a full backup via the USB 2.0 interface.  This method significantly reduced the amount of time necessary to do a full backup of my 45Gb “My Documents” folder and 8Gb Outlook database.  This transfer took about an hour to complete.  Considering the massive amount of data to transfer, this is actually a fairly impressive time.

Now that all my data is on the drive, I’ll mess around with some things, add some files, and try an incremental backup.  I’ll offload all the pictures from my digital camera and change a few word documents to see if it picks up all the different files.  In all I added and/or changed about 1Gb worth of files.  The incremental backup took just over 6 minutes on my 100Mb network.

Durability – The MiniStack NAS comes in an attractive white plastic case.  While it doesn’t have a specifically rugged look, the inside of the case is designed to help in the event of a drop or fall.

While spinning, the NAS will be susceptible to shock like any hard drive.  As the platters spin around, any shaking can cause the reading arm to slap against the platter which could cause it to scratch or mar the surface and make the data on that part of the platter to be unreadable.  Unfortunately this is just a fact of Hard Drive technology and there really isn’t anything that anyone can do to fix it.  IBM has had some success with drop detection where the computer detects a drop and stops the platters from spinning, but that technology is a long way from being perfect and even longer away from being implemented into something small like a NAS.

Flexibility – Not only does the NewerTech drive allow multiple simultaneous connections and multiple levels of user security that provide great flexibility in its implementation and use; its physical placement options are nearly limitless.  Anywhere with a network connection and power can house this thing.  It’s small and lightweight which means that you can stick it on top of a bookshelf or a cabinet.  It boasts great cooling abilities which means it should hold up well in a confined area.

Security – The NewerTech drive comes with a comprehensive security package that allows a user to define who can and who cant access data on the drive.  You can secure the entire drive from others, or you can allow access to just certain parts of the drive.

All NAS devices require a Device ID and Write Key to gain access to the drive initially.  Both these codes are only available on the bottom of the device, so a would-be intruder would have to physically have access to the device before gaining access.

Once inside the device, an administrator can set separate permissions on the folders on the drive.  This allows flexibility when installing the NAS on your home network.  To ensure that your work data doesn’t get deleted by your inquisitive children, you have the ability to restrict their access to your folder.

Overall – Compared to other home data security and backup alternatives, the NAS seems to have everything you could want, with none of the downside.  The NewerTech miniStack NAS comes with some great software, has a USB option for faster transfers when necessary, good security, tons of space, and comes in at an impressive price.  Anyone looking for a secure storage solution should certainly look very hard at the NewerTech miniStack NAS.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars