Saturday, February 13, 2010

Preview Program Closed to New Signups

For technical reasons, we have temporarily closed the sign up for new user, in preparation for launching the phase 2 of the preview program.

If you are an existing user, this closure does not affect you. Your service continues as normal and you can log in, as usual, to back up and restore your files.

We are currently working on phase 2 of the preview program, with some fairly exciting new features that we hope to announce shortly. The phase 2 preview program will be launching in April.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Mac and Linux Support Added

After many months of development and testing, we have now added support for running Backup Nexus on Mac and Linux computers.

Both Mac and Linux packages are available at the download page.

The Mac package is distributed as a DMG image and it is as easy to install as any other Mac software. Simply download and mount the DMG image, then drag the Backup Nexus.app bundle to the Applications folder. You can then launch Backup Nexus from your Applications folder.

The Linux package is a little more complicated, but we have bundled the whole package as a self-extracting installer to help with the installation. Once you download the bin file, do:
  1. cd /where/you/saved/the/BackupNexus.bin
  2. chmod a+x BackupNexus.bin
  3. sudo ./Backupnexus.bin
This will make the installer executable, then use sudo to run it.

For now, we are only supporting Backup Nexus in a desktop setting, meaning that Backup Nexus will run after you have logged into your desktop environment (GNOME or KDE). Running Backup Nexus as a background daemon service is not officially supported.

For the Linux package, you will also need to have a Java 6 runtime installed. For example, if you are on Ubuntu, you can install the Sun Java runtime by:
  • sudo apt-get install sun-java6-bin sun-java6-jre sun-java6-jdk
We are looking for feedback for the two new platforms. If you encounter any problem running Backup Nexus on Macs or Linux, please do let us know.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Backup Monitor and Reminder Service Now Available

We have noticed quite a few cases where, backup stopped working for technical reasons, but users were unaware of it, because they have become accustom to how quiet Bun is when running, and don't realize that backup is no longer happening.

To resolve this, we recently rolled out a new backup monitor and reminder service that runs on the Backup Nexus network itself (instead of on your computer, where it may stop working without anyone noticing). The reminder service regularly checks that you are connecting Bun to the Internet. If your Bun installation stops working for any reason, whether it is because your new firewall blocking connection or you forgot to turn on your computer, you will receive a reminder email to check on your backup status.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Backup Nexus Calculator

We have released a new tool on backupnexus.com. Along with a new welcome page, the Backup Nexus Calculator helps your figure out how safe your data is. You can plug in your own computer usage, and it will tell you what risks your files are being exposed to. For example, do you back up your files to an external hard drive and run anti-virus software? You are covered for virus infection and hard drive crash, but what about power surges that toast everything plugged into your computer?

There is another section of the calculator that is more complicated, but it figures out for your how much your data is worth and how much risk you experience every year, in dollar value, if you do not back up your files.

The most interesting part of the calculated result is the value of risk. Most people talk of the thousands of dollars in losses, if their hard drive crashed and they don't have back up. But what if you were lucky enough to never have experienced a hard drive crash, does that mean you are loss-free? As it turns out, even if you don't lose data, you still suffer the risk of data loss. The calculator will show you how much risk you suffer, in dollar term, even if you don't actually lose data.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Preview Program Details

We have just launched the new web site for Backup Nexus, with updated information on all the latest features that are in the new version. You can check it out at http://backupnexus.com/.

At the same time, we have now finalized the details for the preview program. The preview program is the time by which we decide how to package the different features of the program. During the preview program, you will have 20 GB of free backup space and have access to all the advanced features of the backup software client.

At the end of the preview program, as a token of appreciation for your early participation in the preview program, you will get 6 free months of premium service. In addition, the 20 GB of free backup space will be yours to keep forever. All that you have to do is to sign up before April 1, 2009.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Announcing the Backup Nexus Preview Program

After many weeks of quietness, we are happy to announce that Backup Nexus has now graduated from the beta phase. The next phase that we have planned for Backup Nexus is a publicly available preview program.

The preview program will bring to it a revamped version of the Backup Nexus service, including faster and more stable backup client, more network services, and better definition on how unused disk space is shared between users of the network. At the same time, the rapidity and simplicity that you have came to expect from Backup Nexus will live on. We are adding features, but not at the expense of making Backup Nexus complicated or slow to use.

Stay tuned, as we roll out a new web site and post more details about the new additions!

Monday, September 29, 2008

Beta 29, 30, 31 - Diagnostic Releases

If you are sharp-eyed, you may have noticed quite a jump in version number in bun in the last few days. This is because we have released a series of diagnostic releases, designed to capture more information about a particular problem we discovered with how the nodes keep track of each other.

First of all, there is no change to the functionality of the program, and the problem does not affect the backup of your files. It is only an anomaly in how sometimes the time stamp will be dated years in the future, causing a node to think that other nodes are present, when they are not. This problem, however, is not in the core backup engine and therefore does not affect the backup of your files.