Carbonite Review

Health insurance, car insurance, home insurance – we protect ourselves by making sure that we are covered in case of a disaster. But what about the contents of your computer? If your computer were destroyed, what kind of backup do you have? While health, car and home insurance policies have scarcely improved, online backups have. There is no reason for you not to have an off-site backup of your pictures, documents and other irreplaceable files.

What is Carbonite? It provides personal and business solutions that give you peace of mind at a very affordable price. The software backs up quietly in the background without interrupting your work. With internet speeds increasing and costs decreasing, Carbonite makes it easy to duplicate all of your valuable data to a secure location far away from your home or small business; even large businesses stand to improve tremendously. A memory stick is a good start but it is as safe as you keep it. Water, fire, sticky-fingered employees, pets and children can all endanger that small piece of electronics. A Carbonite backup keeps your data very secure and untouchable.

Carbonite does not rely on Amazon for its storage. In fact, the two are competitors, but Carbonite came along first and has better features. The field is crowded now.

Carbonite makes business sense because your company needs immediate reliable access to the information. An outage of several hours or days can cripple your workplace, resulting in lost revenue. For the home, Carbonite preserves your valuables, such as pictures and scanned documents, with no space limitations. Backup as much as you want. The backup program is easy to set up. A small quickly-installed program that is easily configured. It is a one and done. The program keeps track of new files that need to be backed up and does it as soon as possible. You do not have to worry about which files were and were not backed up.

When the inevitable happens, the recovery process is simple, quick and painless. You can move your files to a new device or share it with your mobile devices. Gone are the days of limited access. Carbonite minimizes your down time, whether it be at work or at home. Do you have sensitive private information? Carbonite encrypts the files on your computer so that nobody can get at them at all.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: What discounts are there?

A: There are several prominent radio personalities who offer discounts, depending on your tastes. There is Howard Stern, who is known for his outrageous humor. You will need to catch him on Sirius satellite talk radio. If XM radio is not for you, you can get the discount code from the radio program of Rush Limbaugh, who is the exact opposite of Howard Stern.

If you like Rush Limbaugh, chances are you will be familiar with Glenn Beck. Along with Limbaugh and Beck, Sean Hannity, who constitute the trio of conservative radio personalities dominating the airwaves today. Dennis Prager also combines Carbonite and politics on the conservative side. Yet another name on this side of the spectrum is Dennis Wilkow.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Thom Hartmann, who has been heralded the most popular liberal talk show host. Joining him is Stephanie Miller, a liberal radio commentator who has also promoted Carbonite. And of course, who can forget National Public Radio, better known as NPR?

Musical radio is also a great way to get these discounts, most notably through the streaming music company Pandora.

For those who shun shock jocks and politics, there are less controversial programs as well. Check out ESPN where you will find the famous Mike and Mike Show featuring all things sports.

What goes with sports? Beer, as in the Free Beer and Hot Wings morning show, a five-man entertainment program that is nationally syndicated. They are so good, you have to be a paid subscriber to access their podcasts.

With Dave Ramsey, you can save on your online backup for your home or business while listening to a financial program devoted to debt reduction.

If money is not interesting, there is always a tech guy or gal and for that, there is Kim Komando, famous for her plethora of tips for digital devices. If you cannot get enough tech talk from her, there is also Leo Laporte and his TWiT TV for double the fun. His show, Security Now, boasts the famous Steve Gibson of SpinRite fame.

Who else but GeekBeat to bring you discounts on online backup, with an innovative format about technology? One of the shows is MacBreak Weekly, which covers all things Apple. This is somewhat ironic since there are no upgrade plans for the Mac computer, only the Basic plan. This is contrasted with another computer show on TWiT, Windows Weekly, which covers all things PC. Since Carbonite has more options for Windows machines, this is a much better deal. Carbonite’s Personal Plus plan, as well as Basic, is available for the PC.

Then, there is the Mark Levin show for legal advice, which can either be boring or lifesaving, depending on your situation.

If you are looking for a laugh, look no further than Adam Carolla, who graces the podcast world with humor. Nerdist is a famous comedy channel which offers a free two month trial.

People in Los Angeles can check in with KFI AM 640 radio for a valid offer code for Carbonite.

Of course, Carbonite has been on TV, and you have seen one of their ads for sure.

• Q: What options are there?

A: The current deal is a 1 year plan, whether you are a business or family. You can try to find a 30 day trial, but nowadays, it has been reduced to a 15 day trial. On the other end, a 3 year option used to be available but that is past tense.

Various discounts expressed in percentages or numerical discounts have also been around, such as 10 percent, 50 percent or 100 hundred dollar discount, but they are not currently being offered.

In the past, there were renewal offers, but now it is a flat annual rate. Likewise, there were upgrade offers for bigger and better plans, but those have evaporated as well. Existing users, like new ones, pay the same price.

The various plans have evolved over the years. A popular one, Business Premier, has morphed into the Business Prime plan. The Home Plus plan, a top seller, is now the Personal Plus plan.

• Q: What other deals are there?

A: There are some deals for two months free including Nerdist and Security Now.

• Q: Is Carbonite available internationally?

A: There are some deals in the UK and Australia.

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