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Unplugging Your Backups
Lucas123 writes "Computerworld has an article about how consumers, home offices and company branch offices can use microwave, free space optics, WiMax, and a new Wireless USB protocol to backup and access data over short and long distances. The story says that wireless USB can be used to transmit data from one to 10 feet from a PC or laptop at up to 480Mbps, while microwave and WiMax can be used to transmit data securely over miles. Steinbach Credit Union Inc., in Canada, has been using microwave and an IP network for years to backup data to a disaster recovery site 32 miles away, the story states."
slashdot broken?
How many of you saw "microwave" and "backups" and thought "data destruction?" :)
BTW, A minute ago: "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along." Damn those newfangled invisible wireless radio waves!
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
In theory, WiMax could be used to send backups to a remote storage facility "miles away" -- providing that there is a WiMax network that is actually in operation. But outside of select areas in select cities (like in Canada), where is this WiMax network of which the author speaks?
Why do we need wireless USB when we already have bluetooth? and vice versa? and beyond that, why do we need wireless HDMI?
Figure out a protocol and stick with it. That's why regular plug-in USB works so well.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
"to backup and access data over short and long distances"
But what about medium distances?
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We provide this today in Atlanta, DC, and Boston. Its not WiMAX, but it is microwave and/or millimeter wave capable of 1Gbps.
www.oneringnetworks.com
Though can it cook popcorn correctly?
at your house and all of your neighbors. All at the same time! /. still going through upgrade, btw.
Sorry, that's the first thing I thought of when I saw the title...
I fail to see what's wrong with an ethernet cable. 1000mbps. Enlighten me.
Screw that! I want high energy gamma ray frequencies so I can backup my data anywhere around the world! Although this might suck for those poor bastards who don't have lead suits.
I want wireless USB because then I can have a USB hub attached to it, and get rid of lots of unsightly wires. E.g. it would be nice to run the USB digital TV adapter over the other side of the room where the TV socket is. Or to put the printer in a more convenient location. Or even better, have the midi interface next to my disklavier in the living room, but receive the data upstairs in my studio. And no, there are no suitable bluetooth devices for most of these things.
Actually, this might be very cool. I'm sitting here downstairs on my laptop. I just backed up today's work on an SD card in the machine (Umm, that would be Drive F: because the elves at HP put in a @#$! partition they didn't tell me about.), and then on a USB drive connected to the machine (That would be Drive G:). It would be dandy if I could set up a simple wireless USB drive upstairs and zap this stuff up there to H:\HOME as well. No fuss remote backup, not quite off-site, but Hey! I'm retired; I don't get out much. I know I could "go thru the network" on a mapped network drive" but what if the other machines aren't on? Green power and all that. And I know it might be cool to send it to Mongolia or Google, but the fact is I don't quite trust my stuff in those places. So if it were cheap and simple, I'd buy it. At least the way I'm envisioning this (which may be entirely wrong), I could see its use.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
I can see HR rubbing their hands in glee. Now sysadmins can take their lunch break and do backups at the same time.
All my computers, like the computers of everyone I know, already have devices attached to them that let them send data THOUSANDS of miles, to any other computers set up the same way.
My place of 'ork provides such services, and we have many customers that use us as a backup link and for backing up their data. www.oneringnetworks.com
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Bah! Once a week we burst 200GB to a site 2km away.
And I mean this literally - we use "sneakernet".
.
Seriously, all they're saying is that you can transmit data using data transfer protocols. All I have to say is: WELL DUH!
Why do we need all this dulipcation? Wireless USB v's Bluetooth etc etc...
Mythical WiMax or whatever they call it...
It's madness I tell you! Madness!
Bah Humbug!
Wow, I can't believe Steinbach Credit Union was mentioned on Slashdot. I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada...about an hour from Steinbach, Manitoba. The Steinbach Credit Union is so small, I think it only has like 3 branches in total. Steinbach itself only has a population of approximately 10,000. Further, Steinbach is located in rural Manitoba, known for its Hutterite colonies. Given all that... somehow they're on the bleeding edge of technology? Take that California!
how much more cpu over head does wireless USB have over USB. Fire Wire and Ethernet are better at moveing big files.
In my hometown, coincidentally in rural Manitoba, one company gets DSL-speed internet access out to farms who would normally be out of DSL/Cable range using microwave transmissions. Before that, schools in outlying communities in the area got the same treatment from the region's school division in a time when high speed wasn't available there. Hell, go back to the days of old-tyme CBC Radio. Transmissions were broadcast across the country using microwave transmissions.
It's not new tech! It's just not often used because of that whole pesky line-of-sight problem. It works in flat-flat Manitoba but in, say, San Francisco fat chance.
They must be talking about very small backups here. These days it's more common that people have a problem with Gigabit Ethernet with jumbo frames not being fast enough to do backups as quickly as desired. Using megabit speeds for terabytes of data must be a nightmare.
Just installing a Dragonwave microwave link to our DR site right now and took a break to read slashdot while the radio reloads. We'll be running backups over the link as well. Doing the same to other sites already using Free Space Optics as well as 802.11a Cisco 1410 bridge links - funny how many network engineers don't think outside the box and hence this becomes news, been using this setup for a couple of years and its actually more reliable than the local carrier (Telstra, I'm in Oz) and _much_ cheaper. We have Gigabit FSO link and several 100 Mb/s links as well as the 54Mb wireless, the wireless tops out at 20Mb/s though.
A lot depends on location we have a nice grain Silo that serves as a central site for the wirless links and have great LOS to most of Melbourne.
Guys, "backup" is a noun. You do not "backup" a computer. You
"back up" a computer.
You don't "login" either, or "logoff", or "setup". Next thing
you know "turnon" and "turnoff" will be verbs, too.
I know it's hopeless, but come on! Get a clue!
Got that right, nobody will ever see the data I transmited in the microwave, not even me.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
My WinXP setup can't even remember it has USB 2.0 speeds with a damn cable!!
XP: Please plug this device into one of the following hubs identified in bold face.
(1 hub listed, in bold face.)
Me: I'll bold face ya, alright. And your little Ballmer too.
Steinbach Credit Union is my home bank, so it was interesting to hear how they set this up back in 2003.
SCU has a second branch located in Winnipeg. Data is constantly synchronized between the two sites providing a physical disaster recovery solution and a convenience for customers, as loan information, etc is always up-to-date so it doesn't matter which branch you visit. (People from Steinbach often visit Winnipeg for shopping and movies). As opposed to paying $70,000 per month for 3rd party leased lines, or $1 million to lay their own fibre, SCU found the cost-effective solution to create their own private wireless network. SCU also uses the direct link for email, VoIP, and streaming security cameras which provides additional bandwidth and long-distance savings.
The towers are full-duplex and shoot a narrow microwave beam which is almost impossible to intercept 100 feet above ground and data is encrypted "2^48 power" and apparently not affected by the weather. <<insert Canadian weather joke>>
SCU won the silver medal in the SearchStorage.com Spring 2003 Storage Innovator awards competition for their innovative wireless SAN setup.
Here are more article links with details and diagrams of the setup and equipment used.
Host localhost (127.0.0.1) appears to be up
I hope that the Steinbach Credit Union has a level of strong encryption over and above that of their microwave provider.
If they are using the provider I'm thinking of I would hope so. I know a shop that considered a similar provider in the area for our data link several years ago but rejected them. They had an insider who explained that most of their encryption was done by frequency rotation (alla WWII) rather than anything strong.
But not the old Wireless USB protocol... Oh no, not that one...
As opposed to what??? Why specify "short and long"? Why not "ANY" distance?
But don't even TRY to use it at less than one foot...
No handhelds? No mainframes?
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
I'm wonder how wired <URL:http://www.wired.com/> is going to address this general trend to wireless tech...
wired, unwired, wireless
I was wondering where all that personal finance information I sniffed from the air and sold to some Arab dudes came from.
http://outcampaign.org/
anyone else not seeing the 'reply' buttons for any of the comments now? who's testing in production again...
Gekido's Lair
And how is running links over microwave news??????????
In my old job we've had microwave E1 links (standard 2 meg) linking CBD sites for years!!!
OK its not fantastic in terms of bandwidth etc. and specifically speaking, its used for voice channels, but you can send anything over the layer 2???? How is this news????
Is a wireless USB device still a USB device? The transmitter might be, yes, but I dont think the storage device is a USB for this setup.
I use my microwave to backup my data. It only takes 30 seconds, and there's a handy 'ping!' sound at the end to tell me when it's done. Never tried restoring anything though, mind.
User 956 Why do we need wireless USB when we already have bluetooth? and vice versa? and beyond that, why do we need wireless HDMI?
Starting out with HDMI, why does a DVD player have to be close to the TV? Why is is stacked on top of a TiVo a Satellite reciever next to a playstation and an XBox, wouldn't it be nice to have all that clutter sitting in one corner of the room and have the TV hanging on a wall somewhere else.
How many bluetooth printers and scanners are there?
I'm working on putting a scanner in the kitchen with idea that if I find a nice recipie in a magazine, I can just lob it in the scanner push the one touch scanning button and it automagically dumps the image on my archive server runs a quick OCR on the image and dumps it in a database. If I want the recipie back (OCR willing) I should be able to find it via a simple text search
Wireless USB would be great I could put the scanner almost anywhere I wanted without having to worry about running 40 ft of USB cable through the house. Equally having a wireless USB backup drive tucked away in a draw somewhere makes a great backup if my laptop gets stolen... I'd certainally worry about the security of data stored on a wireless USB drive but its no worse than having a WiFi dirve.
Figure out a protocol and stick with it. That's why regular plug-in USB works so well.
True up to a point, when did you last use a floppy disk? a protocol that does not move with the times risks extinction..
You can back up your data and get a tan and cook your steak all at the same time. I love microwave backups..
it isnt hard to change the drive letters
start>run>diskmgmt.msc
Microwaves? Those nuke boxen? I think i can still hear my cordless phone ringing.
phone rings
Honey, don't bother, that just me doing a backup.
We're on dialup?
No, we're on expensive behind-European broadband, but i'm backing up via microwave.
You're using the microwave as a backup?
No, i'm using the other computer as a backup, i'm using the microwave to make some popcorn.
Oh, i see, so when can i use the phone?
You can use the phone now.
Then why is it ringing?
That's just me doing a backup.
I thought you said we're not on dialup.
grumbles Would you like some popcorn dear?
Have you read my journal today?
I looked into using license-free microwave and radio for doing backup. It was amazingly inexpensive. You can get BOTH ends of a 48mbps link for a couple grand. There are a lot of possibilities with this technology too. You can share the cost of bringing fiber into a building with the buildings nearby. I evaluated this product a few months back, looks like the price went up just a bit so I'd shop around: FibeAir 4800.
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It's the video that never ends: neverending.tv
Is a wireless USB device still a USB device the answer is yes, except that instead of using a cable, it is a wireless conenction. The computer still utilizes the USB drivers/software stack except that at the lowest levels instead of cabling, its wireless. Existing USB devices and PCs can be retrofitted with a small USB wireless transcivever that plugs into a USB port, likewise, an existing USB device (Printer, camera, external disk, etc.) can also be adapted for use with USB Wireless. Moving forward, look for wireless USB to be built into PCs as well as other devices. In terms of performance, since wireless USB is based on USB 2.0 it has similar if not same performance and distance constraints/capabilties as cable based versions. Check out http://www.usb.org/developers/wusb for more info. Why wireless USB vs. say Bluetooth, as others have posted, bluetooth is very slow compared to USB and range limited. Why Wireless USB vs. say WiFi? The comparison should be along the lines of USB vs. Ethernet, and then, wireless USB vs. WiFi for IP. Hope that helps to fill in some of the blanks. Cheers GS
Greg Schulz The Server and StorageIO Group IT infrastructure technology advisors and consultants Twitter @storageio
I always wondered if it would someday be possible to set up a free online p2p backup solution (with encryption obviously). The scheme I envision is one where you are graded by the system on your availability for restores, and the more available you are the more often you can backup to the system. Also, the more of your HDD you set aside for other people to backup to, the more volume of data you can backup to the system.