Extremely important, but often overlooked, is protecting your documents, photos, contacts, etc with proper backups. Make sure you try restoring a recently backed up file on a regular basis to ensure the backup is working.
Backup your entire network or just 1 machine.
Protect your Documents and Photos by syncronizing to the cloud. Syncronize your data, contacts and calendar between multiple computers and mobile devices. The difference between syncronization and backup is that if you delete a file, syncronization also deletes it (usually to a recycle bin), backup keeps the deleted file.
Features | *Google Calendar/Contacts/Drive | Apple iCloud | Microsoft OneDrive/Outlook |
Free Storage | 15GB Combined email, documents, original quality photos and videos. Unlimited photos/video at high quality. |
5GB. Combined email, documents, photos. | 5GB Data / 15GB Email. |
Extra Storage Cost | $2.79/month - 100GB. | $1.29/month - 50GB. | $1.99/month - 100GB. |
Recycle Bin Retention | Until out of storage. | 30 days. | 30 days |
Calendar & Contacts |
Web,
Mac,
iPhone/iPad,
Android,
CalDAV,
Server name: https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/<emailaddress>/events ,
CardDAV,
Server: google.com
App Password.
User Name: Full Gmail address Password: Your Gmail password |
iCloud,
iTunes / Finder,
CalDAV,
Server name: https://caldav.icloud.com.
CardDAV,
If you get an error, make note of the p##- and change the server name to https://p##-caldav.icloud.com:443
Server: contacts.icloud.com
App Password.
User Name: Apple id or email address (use @icloud.com even if using @me.com or @mac.com Password: Your Apple password |
Web,
iOS,
Android,
Windows 10,
Mac,
Setup using Mac Calendar in Mac Settings > Accounts. Outlook for Mac 2013 and lower require third party addons to work.
Outlook,
Sync to Web based calendar:
GO Sync Mod,
Outlook CalDav Synchronizer
App Password.
Sync to Outlook 2007 - 2019: iTunes (Now Finder on Mac), Blackberry. |
Bookmarks | Google Chrome | iCloud bookmark sync is the most flexible. You can select the browser to sync with. | Edge |
Windows | Backup and Sync. Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders. | iCloud folder. | Moves Desktop, Documents and Pictures to OneDrive folder. |
MacOS | Backup and Sync. Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders. | Moves Desktop, Documents and Pictures to iCloud folder. | OneDrive folder. |
iOS | Google Contacts, Google Photos, Google Drive. | iCloud. | OneDrive. |
Android | Google Contacts, Google Photos, Google Drive. | No support. | OneDrive |
Ad Blockers have been said to deprive sites of revenue. Without advertising, a lot of "free" content would not be available on the internet.
However, advertisments are annoying, spread viruses, slow down and otherwise interfere with your internet.
We recommend Adblock Plus or Ublock Origin. Both work quickly to block advertising and known malicious sites.
Caution: Ad blockers can interfere with some websites. When on that site, click the adblocker (usually top right) and disable it for that site. If a site demands I disable the blocker, I find an alternative site if possible.
Phone and tablet ad blockers typically require a different browser or VPN system to block app advertising. Generally if you start seeing advertising on your device, remove any apps you recently installed and find alternatives.
Phishing is when sites appear to be something they are not (ie. Bogus emails from banks, shippers, paypal, etc.). Phishing filters protect you on the internet, but they can also slow you down (they examine each website). Most internet browsers and Ad blockers now block malicious sites. As such I only use a phishing filter when people have a habit of going to questionable sites.😀 The one I currently recommend is Bitdefender Trafficlight.
AntiVirus programs protect you by constantly monitoring your device. As such you gain security at the sacrifice of performance. We recommend using the Anti-Virus program that comes into your computer or device. They tend to have the least impact on performance and fewer issues than paid or other programs.
* - Due to their design of keeping the core secure and by default only allowing apps to be installed from the store, Phones and Tablets are typically more secure against viruses than their Windows (and to some extent Mac) counterparts. Of course since you carry your phone with you, there are other risks and malicious apps have been known to sneak into the store on both Apple and Android devices. Also, if you jailbreak your device, all bets are off.😀
In our experience, no one Anti-Virus catches everything. By running a seperate scanner, it forces your regular anti-virus to scan the files at the same time. Thereby catching a lot more viruses than an Anti-Virus program alone.
If you're having problems getting programs through the firewall, we can help.