I've been using Microsoft's built in Backup program and its been pretty
smooth. I notice that for the initial backup it takes forever but
afterwards usually only a few minutes to update the backup. This is
wonderful. But I was wondering if I backup online, would it be this
fast? I thought its fast because it reads it fast being its connected to
the computer directly, not even with USB or Firewire. But what about if
it was hampered with internet speeds? I wonder how fast it would be?
Doesn't it have to compare both to see what needs backing up? And
wouldn't reading the online version be rather slow, even with fast cable
modem speeds?

The performance will vary depending on your connection speed, internet
traffic and the site that you're backing up to. It may or may not be
comprable, furthermore, you may have instances where the difference isn't
noticable and times where you notice it.

"MICROSOFT" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
newsp.u6h9rjb4vjdenh@----------.wp.shawcable.net...
> I've been using Microsoft's built in Backup program and its been pretty
> smooth. I notice that for the initial backup it takes forever but
> afterwards usually only a few minutes to update the backup. This is
> wonderful. But I was wondering if I backup online, would it be this
> fast? I thought its fast because it reads it fast being its connected to
> the computer directly, not even with USB or Firewire. But what about if
> it was hampered with internet speeds? I wonder how fast it would be?
> Doesn't it have to compare both to see what needs backing up? And
> wouldn't reading the online version be rather slow, even with fast cable
> modem speeds?

MICROSOFT wrote:
> I've been using Microsoft's built in Backup program and its been pretty
> smooth. I notice that for the initial backup it takes forever but
> afterwards usually only a few minutes to update the backup. This is
> wonderful. But I was wondering if I backup online, would it be this
> fast? I thought its fast because it reads it fast being its connected to
> the computer directly, not even with USB or Firewire. But what about if
> it was hampered with internet speeds? I wonder how fast it would be?
> Doesn't it have to compare both to see what needs backing up? And
> wouldn't reading the online version be rather slow, even with fast cable
> modem speeds?

If you're MICROSOFT, surely you know the answer.

A couple of years ago, HD transfer speeds were in the order of 50 - 75
megaBYTES/sec. With SATA (Serial ATA) it is 200 - 300 megaBytes/sec.

ADSL Internet access rates are 8 megaBITS/sec (== 1megaBYTES/sec)
download if you're lucky. 500 kiloBITS/sec upload. Maybe 10 megaBITS/
sec via cable.

So transfer to HD (even via USB) is much faster than internet (or
cloud storage).

When you first archive, ALL the data has to be backed up. After that
clever backup programs archive only CHANGED files. Hence the different
times to backup you have experienced.

Alan Lloyd

MICROSOFT wrote:

> I've been using Microsoft's built in Backup program and its been pretty
> smooth. I notice that for the initial backup it takes forever but
> afterwards usually only a few minutes to update the backup.

You don't know the difference between a full and incremental backup?

> This is wonderful. But I was wondering if I backup online, would it be
> this fast? I thought its fast because it reads it fast being its
> connected to the computer directly, not even with USB or Firewire. But
> what about if it was hampered with internet speeds? I wonder how fast it
> would be? Doesn't it have to compare both to see what needs backing up?
> And wouldn't reading the online version be rather slow, even with fast
> cable modem speeds?

You could visit speedtest.net to find out your effective net speed (but
remember that the measurement is only valid at the time you made it and can
vary not only at different times but even using the same route but with
different hosts used for you to reach the target host and the load on those
hosts). Also remember that the measurement is in *bits* per seconds, not
bytes. So divide the measurement by 8 to convert from bits/second to bytes
per second. If your net speed was 16Mbits/second, that's 2MB/s. Now how
fast is the transfer rate for your local hard disk? Even an old ATA-4
(UDMA-33) IDE hard disk has 33MB/s (its burst speed measure, not its
sustained measure) would be 10 times, or more, faster to transfer bytes than
your net connection. Then add in that your net speed is NOT what you get
for transfer rate from a server host. To distribute its resources to
provide some responsiveness for the allowed multiple concurrent connections,
the server will throttle your connection to a slower speed.

Unless you have a pricey business package or are on fiber optics upload
speed on the internet is nowheres near to download speed. Your high
speed connection might download at speed of 3 to 15 Mbps (3000 to 15000
kbps) but your upload speed is probably not much more than 256-512 kbps
(.25-.5 Mbps) Nothing is faster than your local hard drives, backing up
to online locations will most likely run at turtle speed. You can check
the speed of your internet connection at sites like this one:
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

John

MICROSOFT wrote:
> I've been using Microsoft's built in Backup program and its been pretty
> smooth. I notice that for the initial backup it takes forever but
> afterwards usually only a few minutes to update the backup. This is
> wonderful. But I was wondering if I backup online, would it be this
> fast? I thought its fast because it reads it fast being its connected
> to the computer directly, not even with USB or Firewire. But what about
> if it was hampered with internet speeds? I wonder how fast it would
> be? Doesn't it have to compare both to see what needs backing up? And
> wouldn't reading the online version be rather slow, even with fast cable
> modem speeds?

VanguardLH wrote:
>
> You could visit speedtest.net to find out your effective net speed
> (but remember that the measurement is only valid at the time you made
> it and can vary not only at different times but even using the same
> route but with different hosts used for you to reach the target host
> and the load on those hosts). Also remember that the measurement is
> in *bits* per seconds, not bytes.

> So divide the measurement by 8 to
> convert from bits/second to bytes per second.

Probably more accurate to divide by ten to account for the protocol, parity,
and overhead bits added by the internet process.


> If your net speed was
> 16Mbits/second, that's 2MB/s. Now how fast is the transfer rate for
> your local hard disk? Even an old ATA-4 (UDMA-33) IDE hard disk has
> 33MB/s (its burst speed measure, not its sustained measure) would be
> 10 times, or more, faster to transfer bytes than your net connection.
> Then add in that your net speed is NOT what you get for transfer rate
> from a server host. To distribute its resources to provide some
> responsiveness for the allowed multiple concurrent connections, the
> server will throttle your connection to a slower speed.

"VanguardLH" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:himg0m$g0u$(E-Mail Removed)...
> You could visit speedtest.net to find out your effective net speed (but
> remember that the measurement is only valid at the time you made it and
> can
> vary not only at different times but even using the same route but with
> different hosts used for you to reach the target host and the load on
> those
> hosts). Also remember that the measurement is in *bits* per seconds, not
> bytes. So divide the measurement by 8 to convert from bits/second to
> bytes
> per second. If your net speed was 16Mbits/second, that's 2MB/s. Now how
> fast is the transfer rate for your local hard disk? Even an old ATA-4
> (UDMA-33) IDE hard disk has 33MB/s (its burst speed measure, not its
> sustained measure) would be 10 times, or more, faster to transfer bytes
> than
> your net connection. Then add in that your net speed is NOT what you get
> for transfer rate from a server host. To distribute its resources to
> provide some responsiveness for the allowed multiple concurrent
> connections,
> the server will throttle your connection to a slower speed.

Whooaaa... slow down cowboy. OP thinks internet connection is faster than
USB/firewire and you're telling him to count bits, bytes. Whatcha trying to
do? :-) Oh wait... OP is Microsoft... perhaps he has gigabit connection
(up/down) to the internet.

"MICROSOFT" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
newsp.u6h9rjb4vjdenh@----------.wp.shawcable.net...
> I was wondering if I backup online, would it be this fast?

If you meant backup to a server on the internet, the answer depends on your
internet connection.

> I thought its fast because it reads it fast being its connected to the
> computer directly, not even with USB or Firewire.

Can you define "connected directly"? Your computer is connected to the
internet with either a network cable or wireless. Neither is faster than
USB/firewire speed.

> But what about if it was hampered with internet speeds?

There you go. That's your bottleneck. (note: assuming that you have regular
internet speed that most internet subscribers have).

"John" <a> wrote in message news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "VanguardLH" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:himg0m$g0u$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> You could visit speedtest.net to find out your effective net speed (but
>> remember that the measurement is only valid at the time you made it and
>> can
>> vary not only at different times but even using the same route but with
>> different hosts used for you to reach the target host and the load on
>> those
>> hosts). Also remember that the measurement is in *bits* per seconds, not
>> bytes. So divide the measurement by 8 to convert from bits/second to
>> bytes
>> per second. If your net speed was 16Mbits/second, that's 2MB/s. Now how
>> fast is the transfer rate for your local hard disk? Even an old ATA-4
>> (UDMA-33) IDE hard disk has 33MB/s (its burst speed measure, not its
>> sustained measure) would be 10 times, or more, faster to transfer bytes
>> than
>> your net connection. Then add in that your net speed is NOT what you get
>> for transfer rate from a server host. To distribute its resources to
>> provide some responsiveness for the allowed multiple concurrent
>> connections,
>> the server will throttle your connection to a slower speed.
>
> Whooaaa... slow down cowboy. OP thinks internet connection is faster than
> USB/firewire and you're telling him to count bits, bytes. Whatcha trying
> to do? :-) Oh wait... OP is Microsoft... perhaps he has gigabit connection
> (up/down) to the internet.

He's Microsoft. The internet is in the back of his building in Redmond. We
poor saps have to connect to it.