Those of you who follow me on Twitter may have spotted that I’ve recently become disheartened by Mozy.

Until very recently they’ve been a service I’ve been happy to recommend to anyone – whether the free 2Gb account (with extra ¼Gb for every four users you sign up by an affiliate link) or indeed the unlimited $4.95pm account.

However several technical support queries have made me re-evaluate my stance. To the point where I’ve “restored” almost 12Gb of data and I’m seriously considering switching to a competitor.

To me, a service is good so long as you don’t have issues – but when you do you want that issue to be treated with respect, courtesy and in the case of a technical query by people that at least appear to be able to read. OK, so not everyone gets it right first time every time. I know that. I too work in support.

However, I at least take the time to try and understand the issue with 100% clarity before making assumptions.

I also ensure I’ve fully read any call notes and checked my own in-house FAQ or database for similar or common or known issues.

Additionally I try to make an educated insight as to the users state of mind and their actual problem based on the notes – not on what I think the notes say.

Only then do I contact the client and discuss exactly what it is I think they are saying and check if it’s been lost in translation between them logging the issue and the helpdesk operator transcribing it – well then I take the time to ask pertinent questions.

My latest issue with Mozy is that I clearly stated: “In Mozy and in Windows (and yes, I did tell them several times what my precise OS version is) I have the ‘view hidden files / folders’ turned on but I can’t see a particular folder which is usually hidden by the OS“. Additionally I noted that I could right click from Windows Explorer and use the “add to Mozy Backup” option but that the files / folders selected never showed up in any backup / restore.

So the last thing I expect is for them to teach me to suck eggs and

• tell me how to turn on view hidden files / folders in Windows and
• the same for within Mozy

No, I expect them to have worked that out from my carefully worded support ticket which already included that information and much more besides.

Additionally I don’t expect them to then presume they’ve fixed my fault and close my ticket, twice. If I did that in my job I’d expect the verbal rocket I’m almost certainly going to get.

So today, sadly, I have to say I can no longer recommend Mozy.

If you use them and have no issues – then excellent. If however you end up having issues, then lets hope you are capable of fixing it yourself.

Which is what I ended up doing.

• Do you use Mozy or similar?
• Am I being too harsh?
• Am I being too lenient on them?
• Which cloud backup service do you use?

Come on, have your say as it’s only hearing from customers that make companies sit up and take notice.

So here’s a weird one. I get a call to say that the users web browsing is ultra slow and could I have a look. Being the distrusting soul that I am, I don’t take the problem description at face value – hey, 25yrs in IT has taught me one thing and that is to keep asking questions because eventually the truth will out. I guess this is the same game the police play.

(more…)

Jim’s post about over at Church Tech Matters about the bogus security software Antivirus XP 2008 has set me to thinking – again.

I remain amazed that some people consider it still ok to surf the web without adequate protection. Let me clarify that – here I mean machines with Windows installed – before the *nix and Mac crowd start hollering. I can understand that some people don’t have access to cheap, free and useful advice but when that same set of people are my family and friends then I shake my head in anguish.

These same folks (bar one) all ask for my assistance in their purchases and as part of my patter I always tell them not to be swayed into buying the AV / Firewall / Whatever App that the store wants to push and we will do better with freebies. So, they get their shiny new box set it up and then I come along and do my magic for them. Whilst there I spend a fair bit of time on ‘safe surfing’, what to look out for, what to beware of,  what not to do and so on.

Only the other day my best buddy confessed that his PC was messed up and he was fed up with it so was going to buy a laptop all for himself. He mostly blames the messed up PC on his children (teens) and the junk they download. After he’d finished his rant my first question was what AV was he using and after getting a puzzled shake of the head followed it up with well what firewall then. So then ensued the lecture … but I don’t feel convinced that he’s going to listen and what’s more he’s now gone wireless and I’ll lay good odds that it isn’t secured either!

So, and getting back to my point, all this has got me to thinking about my advice. Rather than repeating it ad nauseam, why don’t I document it and then just update it as prevailing thoughts or technology change? To that end I’m going to work on a, I hope, fairly simple and straight forward document and publish it here. I may even give it its own page or similar. If any of you have anything to add or suggest changes then please do email me.

Oh, and once done I’ll put a link to it from this post.

Whenever I pop over to somebody else’s blog I always want to know the answer to certain questions. What’s their experience, what are their qualifications (not necessarily paper based) and what drives them. Additionally when I visit a tech blog where the owner is involved in IT support for a Church I always want to know what they support. (more…)