Backing Up with Mobile Internet
Storage drives and devices will inevitably fail. It is not a question of if, but when. Backing up your precious information to protect it from such failures using mobile internet however has challenges.
Phones get dropped. Tablets get stolen. Your glass of wine gets swatted over by your beloved cat... onto your laptop.
For nautical nomads, having all your computing gear lost at the bottom of the sea is an ever-present fear.
And for RVers, computers can very literally ‘crash’ headlong into another vehicle if involved in an accident.
Fires and floods are risks too. Unstable campground or marina power can fry electronics. The more you let your imagination run wild, the scarier the world starts to seem!
But in all these cases, the loss of hardware is often not nearly as catastrophic as the potential loss of stored data.
Devices can be replaced - but photographs can not.
And if your computer or device is part of your livelihood, then months' worth of work can be gone in an instant - unless you have a backup.
Backing up critical data is one of the most important chores for every responsible technology owner - don't wait until it is too late!
However if you're dealing with the variabilities of mobile internet connections, data caps, fluctuating speeds and reliability - you may need to think differently about how you approach your back-up strategy.
You could easily go through your data quickly by just backing up your data to the cloud. System updates, automatic updates, and cloud syncs can be big Data Hogs. We have a guide that helps you understand the Data Hogs and how to manage them: Minimizing Data Usage & Managing Data Hogs
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Be Prepared for a Very Bad Day
At least once a year, take some time to think through what you would do if you ever lost all your technology at once - to a fire, theft, lightning strike, meteor...
How would you recover?
Make sure you have a disaster plan for getting your tech life back together when the absolute worst happens. Perhaps have a printout of a few key passwords stored in a friend's safe, and a backup of your password database saved somewhere too.
And most importantly - make sure that your critical data actually IS backed up somewhere safe.
You really shouldn't consider any data to be truly safe unless it is backed up in at least three places - and one of those places should be physically distant and safe from theft, fire, flood, or another localized catastrophe.
This sort of best-practice behavior is hard enough to achieve when living and working in a conventional fixed-location – but for those of us on the road, living with limited data connections, this can feel downright insurmountable.
In this guide, we'll share some key tips for managing backups on the go - whether you have basic data protection needs, or terabytes of irreplaceable digital treasure.
For more on staying technologically safe and secure as a nomad:
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Check out the Topics Covered in the Member Section:
Three Tiers of Backups
The strategy of tiered backups creates a structure to protected data from accidental deletions, minor mishaps, and major catastrophic events.
Managing Backup Drives
Hard drives are mechanical devices and Solid State Drives (SSDs) have a finite number of writes. Find out the strategy to keeping your data protected from failure-prone storage devices.
Cloud Storage & Backups
Is cloud backup a reality with Mobile Internet? Find out how without breaking the cellular data caps.
Off-Site Catastrophic Backups
Catastrophic events can be painful enough but most possessions can be replaced. Can you replace family pictures and videos? Learn the steps to keep those precious moments more than just a memory.
Don’t Forget Your Gadgets
Who hasn't lost or severely damaged a phone? Were all the pictures, personal information, & contacts backed up? Where were they backed up?
Additional Reading
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Mobile Internet Resource Center (dba Two Steps Beyond LLC) is founded by Chris & Cherie of 