Carbonite not there when needed.

[Mychael]

I've been a subscriber to Carbonite offline storage/backup and have been pretty happy with it, however when the time came that I actually needed it their server is down. Has been now for over 48hours, we've been on to their online support and that's all they can tell us.

They wont even send out emails to tell us when it's back on line. Very disappointed.
Defeats the whole purpose of offline backup.

 

[Core]

Defeats the purpose of a backup service, for sure.

I've been using SpiderOak, and am very happy with it. I'm only using it for free, however, since I'm using less than 2 GB of space - just backing up most crucial files with them. Their software's been impressive and they have clients for Windows, Mac, and Linux. I have all my machines, including VMs, backing up to the same account, and some folders synchronized by their system. It's really neat. They charge by the amount of space you use, however, so it may not be feasible for you, depending on your needs. Just throwing that out there.

 

[Mychael]

We tried the free trial with Carbonite and was happy with how it worked so subscribed. Not big dollars and more then enough space for our needs but pointless if you cannot access it.
We'll need to stay with them at least until we can get our data back, then I might review the situation.
I'm seriously thinking of going with a NAS at home instead but one of the reasons we went for offline in the first place was because of bushfire risk over the summer period.

 

[roban]

Very troublesome. As a Carbonite Authorized Partner I'm concerned about my irate customers.

 

[Mychael]

Very troublesome. As a Carbonite Authorized Partner I'm concerned about my irate customers.

Well the online help was 'helpful' in as much as was polite and worked out what the issue was, not at all helpful in telling me when services would resume or being able to email once they were.
Just glad I'm not in desperate need of the data right here right now.

Hardly the point though, we pay money to have secure backup available as and when needed and it's been 48 hrs now (bit over in fact) for me in any case that I cannot access it.

 

[Mychael]

Here is the error message I am getting all the time.

 

[roban]

It looks like they have resolved the problem.

 

[Mychael]

Sorry, not at my end. Still getting same error message as before.

 

[Mychael]

Tried un-installing and re-installing via carbonites site. Following their install instructions exactly. Still getting exactly the same error as before. Cant do a thing.

Could MSE have anything to do with it? That's the only new protection type software installed that I did not have previously when I was using Carbonite.

Having said that the tech help guy said it was a fault at their end. (carbonite server)

 

[Ian]

That's very disappointing to hear, especially if it has been down for 48 hours . It almost defeats the whole purpose having access to an online backup.

Do you think you'll switch to another provider after this episode?

I'm currently using a NAS for all my backups, which has some upsides - but there are also many pitfalls with having an on-site NAS. If it's important data, you could always sync your NAS with a cloud based backup service - I know that some of the current generation units can do this.

 

[CarboniteAlison]

Hi Mychael,

I work at Carbonite and came across this post. I'd like to have a member of our support staff take a look at your issue.

Could you please reach out to me with a private message and let me know the email you used for your Carbonite account, and the best way and time to reach you and I'll have a support rep contact you?

Thanks,
Alison

 

[Fire cat]

Anybody here though of Skydrive?

It' s an MSN service which gives you 25BG of free space. It doesn't have any backup features, but I suppose you could keep your backups on there.

Seriously, 25GB for FREE! That's not nothing!

http://www.skydrive.live.com

By the way, you don't need a @live.com or @hotmail.com email. Just enter your own one. Though, in that case, you will have to enter a name and some other infos before beeing able to use the services.

 

[Mychael]

Hi Mychael,

I work at Carbonite and came across this post. I'd like to have a member of our support staff take a look at your issue.

Could you please reach out to me with a private message and let me know the email you used for your Carbonite account, and the best way and time to reach you and I'll have a support rep contact you?

Thanks,
Alison

Pm sent. Remember we are on Australian time.

 

[TrainableMan]

Obama hit the internet kill switch, thats why you can't connect to that server here in the states

Contact billing too you may be able to get a partial refund or at least a weeks extension on your contract for the inconvenience (if it really is at their end and not your firewall or AV). I used to call my ISP when service was down. They are like, it would only be about $.40, I said fine credit me 40 cents, I'm not paying for service I don't receive.

Have to admit it's kinda kewl one of their support joined the forums just to help ya out ... and her nick sounds hot, "CarboniteAlison" ... with a name like that they could paint her green and put her on Star Trek:TOS.

 

[clifford_cooley]

Now that is the best Customer Help I have seen yet.

 

[Mychael]

Sad to report that Carbonite at this point in time is still a big fail. Not running anything that I did not have before when it was previously working, got home tonight still no access.

 

[Core]

Have to admit it's kinda kewl one of their support joined the forums just to help ya out ... and her nick sounds hot, "CarboniteAlison" ... with a name like that they could paint her green and put her on Star Trek:TOS.

The Carbomite Maneuver! I can't believe I failed to allude to it.

Sad to report that Carbonite at this point in time is still a big fail. Not running anything that I did not have before when it was previously working, got home tonight still no access.

Have they confirmed that the problem continues to be at their end? I mean, they still acknowledge that?

 

[roban]

My Carbonite is working. No problems.

 

[Mychael]

I'll recontact them again tonight. On the online support I sent them a copy of the error message I keep getting and from that they confirmed it was them. Ive tried stopping/disabling every firewall/antivirus I've got installed and that made no difference.

Every other internet related thing I'm doing on the computer downloads/updates/emails/browsing all working normally. Only Carbonite not working.

Installed it back on this machine exactly as instructed, cant do more then that.

 

[Mychael]

Carbonite people trying to be helpful, offered to phone me. Hopefully we can make the time thing work.

In brief I've either disabled or removed every anti-virus/security/ firewall I have to try to get Carbonite running but still no go so I'm out of ideas.