Online Backup Word Count: 556 Summary: If you are tired of using CDs or floppies to store your files, than you will want to consider online backup. Your hard drive might be crammed full of unfiled documents, and you might be wondering what in the world you would do if your computer crashed. Don't leave your important information at the mercy of your fallible computer which might catch a virus, but if you get online backup, you can be confident that you will always have your files available. Online backup is easy t... Keywords: computer virus,online security Article Body: If you are tired of using CDs or floppies to store your files, than you will want to consider online backup. Your hard drive might be crammed full of unfiled documents, and you might be wondering what in the world you would do if your computer crashed. Don't leave your important information at the mercy of your fallible computer which might catch a virus, but if you get online backup, you can be confident that you will always have your files available. Online backup is easy to use and to understand. Once you see how well your online backup program will work, you will never rely on floppies again. With online backup, you can choose between full backups and incremental backups, which will gradually store your files. These programs will allow you to pick and choose which files you want to backup and you can also save different versions of the same files. To conserve space on your online backup program, you can choose compression levels; the highest levels will save your files in their smallest form and will give your more space to store many more files. An important feature in online backup is security. It doesn't make any sense to back up all your files only to discover that a hacker has gotten his mitts on you and your customer's personal information. A good online backup program will offer encryption, which will make it impossible for outsiders to read your documents. Even the file name can be disguised, and various versions of a document will also be encoded. This coding, however, does not make it more difficult for your to retrieve your documents from online backup; only interlopers are prevented from accessing your files. With online backup programs, you can backup your files automatically or schedule backups. You might want to schedule these backups for times when you are not using the computer, since excessive activity usually slows down a computer. You will receive a detailed log of these jobs and an e-mail notification of a scheduled backup. This will enable you to organize your information and to confirm that a file backup has actually taken place. For computer users who are concerned about how online backup will affect their bandwith, space-saving technology is one way to preserve bandwith and to store documents more efficiently. In addition to compressing files, many online backup programs only transfer altered portions of a file to save space. You can select which files you want to backup quickly and easily using drag and drop features. If you are looking for online backup for a large business, you can find programs using API technology. This technology is designed to handle larger amounts of information and have heightened security features which make the files absolutely impenetrable. Of course, more sophisticated online backup costs more money, but given the importance of preserving files and keeping them secure, it is worth the investment, especially for growing businesses. The kind of online backup program you choose depends very much on the size of the files you want to backup and your priorities. Do research with different companies before making your final decision. It is definitely worth it to take advantage of trial offers and demos, and these opportunities will give you a better idea of which online backup programs are right for you.