CrashPlan Won't Backup For Me

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I've been trying to use CrashPlan for months on my iMac. I can connect from a Windows PC in my home, to my iMac's external hard drive, with no problems.



I cannot, however, connect to a Windows PC outside of my home network. I am also trying to backup to an iMac outside of my home, on a network different than the outside PC.



As far as I can tell, I have NEVER been able to backup to a computer outside of my home.



I asked tech support, but got the generic answer of checking the help info on their website.



Also, I tried opening port 4242 on my router by going into the settings and adding CrashPlan as an exception - at least I think that I did it - I'm no expert on that.



Has anyone here been able to get it working, and if so, do you have an idea as to why I cannot backup outside of my home network?



I'd sure like to get this working...

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    spotonspoton Posts: 645member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iMick View Post


    Has anyone here been able to get it working, and if so, do you have an idea as to why I cannot backup outside of my home network?



    I'd sure like to get this working...





    To explain all this to you would fill a book, you really need to read up on how networking works and should close your port until you know what your doing.



    Routers display one IP to the internet while having multiple devices with their own IP addresses tagging off of that. It's a great security barrier because hostiles don't know what the IP address is of your machine. (well websites can if they get you to run a Java program, it's a security issue of sorts)



    You could direct connect your Mac and your Windows machine directly to the modem at each location, bypassing the routers and take your chances, this would show your computers IP to the internet and everything should work as expected. But it defeats any other machine from getting online and your computer will have to work fielding off the tons of bogus requests from botnets and the like.



    I don't know about your program, but there has to be a way to find out the current IP address of the machine you want to log into from a remote machine without letting everyone else know in the process or someone posing as you.



    So hit the networking books, and be very very careful. Opening up OS X's default security can bring a host of trouble if you don't know how to properly secure your network.



    Also since your using a Windows machine to connect to a Mac's drive, your just asking for trouble.



    Windows is notoriously insecure, in fact Microsoft issued a emergency patch today.



    My advice is to subscribe to MobileMe, upload your content to that and download it later instead of trying a direct connection.



    Use on sight backups like TimeMachine, Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper, WinClone, backup software etc.
  • Reply 2 of 2
    imickimick Posts: 351member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpotOn View Post


    To explain all this to you would fill a book, you really need to read up on how networking works and should close your port until you know what your doing.



    Routers display one IP to the internet while having multiple devices with their own IP addresses tagging off of that. It's a great security barrier because hostiles don't know what the IP address is of your machine. (well websites can if they get you to run a Java program, it's a security issue of sorts)



    You could direct connect your Mac and your Windows machine directly to the modem at each location, bypassing the routers and take your chances, this would show your computers IP to the internet and everything should work as expected. But it defeats any other machine from getting online and your computer will have to work fielding off the tons of bogus requests from botnets and the like.



    I don't know about your program, but there has to be a way to find out the current IP address of the machine you want to log into from a remote machine without letting everyone else know in the process or someone posing as you.



    So hit the networking books, and be very very careful. Opening up OS X's default security can bring a host of trouble if you don't know how to properly secure your network.



    Also since your using a Windows machine to connect to a Mac's drive, your just asking for trouble.



    Windows is notoriously insecure, in fact Microsoft issued a emergency patch today.



    My advice is to subscribe to MobileMe, upload your content to that and download it later instead of trying a direct connection.



    Use on sight backups like TimeMachine, Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper, WinClone, backup software etc.





    I actually DO use SuperDuper to make an exact, bootable, image of my iMac. I also use Time Machine. I was hoping to use CrashPlan, in addition to the others, so that I'd have a backup off-site in case of fire/water/theft. Just this past weekend, I signed up for MobileMe to use the Calendar app with multiple devices. I guess that I could use iDisk for the backup. I would like an automatic way to back up a few specific directories. CrashPlan would do that for me. I must be missing something obvious but I sure can't find it.
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