Offsite Backup Frequently Asked Questions

Even if you are currently backing up to tape, zip disk, CD-RW, or other form of media, more than likely, the process is not completely automated. An employee must change out the media periodically and manually verify that completed backups are successful. Our online backup system bypasses this tedious process. Backups are 100% automated, and backup reports are sent by email daily. At any time, you can retrieve or verify your files on our server from virtually any location in the world!


Onsite backup systems cannot provide adequate protection against theft, fire, or any other form of local system failure. As they say, it's best not to have all your eggs in one basket. We recommend using our services in addition to any local backup mechanisms you have in place already.

Only an internet connection is needed! This completely eliminates the need to purchase expensive backup hardware and/or media. Because the system is completely automated, you don't have to spend valuable time swapping disks or tapes.

The initial backup always takes the longest, and can vary from minutes to hours to days, depending on the volume of data being backed up. However, after the first full backup, our server compares its file store with the files on your computer and backs up only those files that have been modified since the last backup, which minimizes bandwidth overhead and can take as little as 2 minutes. Transfer speeds of course depend on the speed of your internet connection, but we can accommodate speeds ranging from old fashioned dialup all the way up to corporate LAN connections.

All communications between Intelliwire Offsite Backup Server and your computer are transported in a 128-bit SSL (Secure Socket Layer) channel. Although all your backup files travel through a public network (internet), eavesdroppers have no knowledge of what has been exchanged.

All of your files are first zipped and encrypted with a your defined encrypting key before they are sent to Intelliwire Offsite backup server. To all people but you, your files stored on Intelliwire Offsite backup server are no more than some garbage files with random content.

The encryption key used to encrypt your files resides only on your computer and is known only to you. It is never transmitted anywhere across the network. If this key is lost, all backup files can never be recovered. Therefore, although we have access to all files you stored on our backup server, we have no knowledge of the content of the files you stored.

Reminder: Please make sure you write down you encryption key in a safe place where it will never be forgotten. Otherwise, you will never be able to recover your backup files.

You can also restrict access to your backup files from the set of IP addresses you defined. If someone tries to access your data from an IP address not on your defined list, their access will be denied. This additional security ensures backup files is not open to all location, even username and password are known.

Encryption is basically a mathematical formula that scrambles a data file. The only way to decode it is with the encryption code.

In the event of a catastrophic loss of your data, locally, you will have two options to retrieve your previously backed up data with Intelliwire:
a. Restore files by downloading them through client. Your encryption key will be required.
b. Request a CD, DVD, or Hard Drive be FedExed to you with your data. Your encryption key will be required. Call 859-514-7600 to request your data be mailed to you, 24 hours a day.