Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3960 in Software
• Brand: F-Secure
• Released on: 2009-05-30
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X
• Format: CD-ROM

Manufacturer's Description

Make sure you never lose important files again

F-Secure Online Backup is an easy-to-use and fully automated backup and restore solution. All your important files are stored securely online, with no limit on the amount of data. The intuitive web portal enables safe and easy access to your backed-up pictures, documents and other digital content over the Internet.

We all take regular backups of our important files, right?

Wrong. Everyone knows that taking regular backups is important but few of us have the time or the expertise required to set up a working system to take care of this important aspect of data security.

Let us do it for you – automatically

F-Secure Online Backup relieves you from having to remember to take frequent backups of your pictures, music and other important documents. It works automatically in the background, whenever you are connected to the Internet, backing up all your important data safely online. You can easily restore your files, either automatically or by selecting the files you need.

Unlimited, secure online backup

All important files on your PC are stored securely online, with no limit on the amount of data. The files are first encrypted locally (3DES) and then transferred securely (SSL) to online data centers. Because F-Secure Online Backup stores your data online, you also safeguard your files against possible PC failure and property damage. Making backup DVDs or using external hard drives do not offer this added benefit.

Fully automatic operation

Simply install and connect to the Internet, F-Secure Online Backup will take care of the rest. You will also receive regular e-mail reports on your backup status.

Easy personal access

The intuitive web portal enables safe and easy access to your backed-up pictures, documents and other digital content over the Internet. You can also view your digital photos or play your music or videos with the built in media player.

Easy to Install and Use

F-Secure Online Backup is extremely easy to install and use. It is fully automated, working in the background whenever you connect to the Internet. It also keeps you up-to-date on your backup status with regular e-mail reports.

Backup Solution You Can Trust

F-Secure has a history of 20 years specializing in IT security and has become a globally recognized player in the Internet security and mobile security markets. The company's outstanding technological innovation in the face of constantly evolving security threats has attracted both international accolades and respect within the industry.

Customer Reviews

A good way to safely backup your files.
This program backs up (copies) your chosen files: you tick boxes to decide which files you want backed up.
It saves them to a location somewhere out there on the Internet, which means that your work is always safely stored should the very worst happen and somehow you manage to damage not only your PC but also your external drives. If such a catastrophe should occur, you would still be able to recover your files and load them back on to your replacement PC...

The programme loaded up smoothly and easily, and worked efficiently in the background while I carried on working. I'd asked it to backup all my files (including hundreds of photos), and because I have a slow connection to the Internet it literally took hours for the programme to back everything up. That said, it didn't seem to slow my computer down or anything, so it wasn't a problem.

The programme automatically checks for changes in your chosen back-up files, and saves them. The licence runs for a year, after which you have to pay to renew.
There is UNLIMITED strorage - so it doesn't matter how many files you want stored, this program can handle it.

Very good, recommended.

Great online backup tool.
This tool I guess is more for people who want the safety of recovering there important files, docs, pictures, mpegs etc to an online site, where they know the data can be kept safe and be restored easily.

Some people will argue that having an external storage is cheap and hassle free. but we all know someone (including ourselves) whereby the external storage has failed them. this would mean either getting hold of an external company to try and rescue your precious data.

This software is simple in that you sign up and then for a year you can upload all your sensitive/important data to F-Secure servers. The nice thing about this is you can then recover your data over the newtwork. F-Secure would guaranteee this data and protect it. In all honesty companies such s these have large servers on SAN with RAID and they constantly migrate data to the latest storage technology. So, I guess our files are safe.

One thing has been mentioned is the interface and to be honest it's nothing great to look at, but in all honesty you just want to backup the data on your disk in the background, so it's of no real concern.

Yes, a external usb/firwire or esata HDD drive will backup large chunks of data much quickly than over the internet. But, then again no company who sells the extranl storage drives guarantees that they will recover your data if the drive fails. This is something you have to pay for yourself.

Also, you have to remember that you get unlimited storage allowance, so for that price you do get allot. Only downside is that you need to pay every year to renew your license, but with storage prices coming down I expect the license fee will drop as well.

if you have a slow connection then as with anything it will be painfully slow. I have good upload speed, so things were pretty quick for me. I managed to get a couple of gb in 30min.

Forget the interface issues etc and you have a competent online backup tool and your data is guaranteed recoverable, with no hassle of whether you need to buy external storage.

Generous space but could have a more flexible interface
The idea of backing up your data online can seem scary at first thought, however backing up to a local external drive without encryption really is a frightening thought if your house is burgled, or worse if the drive fails.
And then even if you do use some sort of encryption the act of backing up itself can be cumbersome and neglected if you're also dealing with CD-Rs and DVD-Rs.

So, in steps F-Secure's simply named Online Backup. F-Secure aren't as well known as computer tools experts Norton, McAfee or even Kaspersky, but they have won awards and built up a significant reputation.

The first thing to bare in mind is that your data is encrypted with 3DES. The only thing you need to understand about this acronym is that it's used by banking services. So, wipe that sweat from your brow!

The software which can be installed for either Windows or Mac machines of the last decade provides one computer a one year license. Unlike a few competitors products, backup storage space is unlimited which is very impressive.

The environmentally friendly box contains a CD and quick start guide. The latter is not needed. Once you pop the software in and run the installer (which requires you to enter a code from the sticker on the guide) you're greeted with a 3 tab interface with self-explanatory labels: 'backup', 'restore' and 'settings'.
While the software looks nice and is easy to master I do have some issues with it, not least that help documentation isn't installed but remains on the CD or relies on online links.

The first one is that you (seemingly) can't actually delete anything you upload directly. Your data will only be removed immediately (automatically or within a 15-30 period in the settings tab) if it's excluded from the backup program.
Your entire data can expire around 60 days after you uninistall the program (so I assume uninstallation sends cancel data to your account), or 45 days after an unrenewed account expiration. While this is no big deal with unlimited space it would've been nice to have basic file manager type control (delete, edit, copy, paste etc.). And neither are these functions implemented in your online account area (which is also secure) or in a context menu in Explorer. But I must remember that the program was devised for minimal human intervention so I should get used to it than grumble.

Everything must be done within the program which I think given it's relatively simple interface could've been ported to the Linux environment quite easily. You can choose whether or not the program starts on boot and even pause it from 1-24hrs, which is useful say if you want to upload more in an ISP's uncounted data transfer period, usually after midnight. Needless to say I'd not bother with this on dial-up.

Of course one downside of online backing up is the usage of bandwidth. Fortunately you can specify as low as 10kb/s to unlimited to correlate with ISP restrictions. And you can also exclude what to backup which is recommended but a bit laborious, for example you probably don't want web browser cookies uploaded so you'll have to exclude this manually.
You can also get weekly email reports about backup status, setup proxy settings, view hidden files (hidden by default) and save version histories of Office documents.

I haven't yet restored data but I have viewed my data within the program and online account area and it's all there. And I'm sure restoration will be as easy as backing up.
All file types are sorted by categories so there is some ease in how you include and exclude files and folders but I do think it could be better.

The application deserves most points for the space and reliability offered compared to physical drives, while the program is good but could allow a little more user control. The price however is quite generous if you're someone who can't be sated by free online services which offer usually one 1gb and you must upload and manage everything manually.