Backup and remote file access solutions

Dojiscalper · October 2017

Hey guys, I have an attorney client who's running one Windows 2012r2 server and 4 workstations. He does some work on things himself and has had other IT pro's in to help out and it turns out the Carbonite backup wasn't configured right and hasn't been working the whole time. We could reconfigure it and it would start working, but we got local backup issues as well and full hard disks, etc.

My first move is going to be doing a full backup of everything, then second I'm going to straighten out the file system.

My questions are, since we know carbonite hasn't been working and nothing is backed up, is this the best solution for his small business or is there something better out there? Especially since I see carbonite is a pretty expensive one.

The other question is the attorney needs to be able to access files from home and while at court. He had been doing it via a VPN connection someone set up on the server, but its not currently working and I don't like the complexity of the VPN and would like to suggest something like go2mypc for easy of configuration and maintenance. Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks

techfiend · October 2017

Carbonite isn't bad but prefer Crashplan for small offsite backup.

I'd stay with VPN, it should be easy for him to use. If it's complex for you, it's a great time to learn how it works and make it easy for you next time. Taking on challenges is key in this field.

Dojiscalper · October 2017

Thanks so much for replying

I'll admit VPN isn't my strong suit and it will take some time and trial to get it functioning, but in my years in the field in these small businesses I see so many things go wrong with the services that leave the LAN, remote desktop, VPN, etc that I really like the ease of letting a third party handle the path between the office and the end user.

Things that break that connection are as simple as Spectrum coming in and replacing a failed cable modem. Sure its not a hard fix, but its still a service call and I'd like to keep those to a minimum. Well unless I'm being paid by the hour

jaguaar · October 2017

Arent Dropbox/ AWS etc. offering this kinda service?

Dojiscalper wrote: »

Thanks so much for replying

I'll admit VPN isn't my strong suit and it will take some time and trial to get it functioning, but in my years in the field in these small businesses I see so many things go wrong with the services that leave the LAN, remote desktop, VPN, etc that I really like the ease of letting a third party handle the path between the office and the end user.

Things that break that connection are as simple as Spectrum coming in and replacing a failed cable modem. Sure its not a hard fix, but its still a service call and I'd like to keep those to a minimum. Well unless I'm being paid by the hour

Dojiscalper · October 2017

They currently are using dropbox for some use, but I haven't looked further than that yet. It sounds like he liked the VPN's ability to see servers complete folder structure and didn't want to have the extra step of remembering to drop things into dropbox's system.

Since I'm starting out on my own and building a company I probably need to pick some of this software myself that I recommend to clients. This particular client jumped up from nowhere a couple months before I was ready to support
a full scale office systems reconfiguration. I still haven't gotten a lot of my business paperwork and forms completed
due to also being in the middle of building a house and moving.

Backup and remote file access solutions

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