How To Not Be A Douchebag at SXSW – Friday, March 12th, 5pm

Filed Under Geek, Personal | 2010-03-09, 18:28

Ok, one last warning! Our “core conversation” on How To Not Be A Douchebag at SXSW is only a few days away. Violet Blue, John Adams, and I (along with insight from Ben Metcalfe) have put together what we think will be a a great panel.

We’re scheduled for Friday, March 12th at 5pm in Courtyard Rio Grande B. Come early to grab a seat as 99 people have already said they’re coming! Official page is over here if you want to add it to your schedule on my.sxsw.com.

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Join us on the SXSW Nerd Bird Flight

Filed Under Events, Geek, SF Bay Area | 2010-01-28, 13:18

SXSW Interactive 2010 is only a few weeks away. If you’re like us, you’re still procrastinating on buying plane tickets to Austin. If that’s the case and you’re flying from either San Francisco or Los Angeles, then you’ll want to book the following flights on Southwest. We’ll all meet up in Las Vegas for the second flight to Austin. If you’re flying in from somewhere else on the west coast, look to hook up with Southwest Flight 718 from Las Vegas.

If you’re flying from San Francisco (SFO->LAS->AUS):
3/11/2010 (Flights 674/718)
Depart 10:00am     Arrive 5:25pm

If you’re flying from L.A. (LAX->LAS->AUS):
3/11/2010 (Flights 853/718)
Depart 10:30am Arrive 5:25pm

Southwest has an open seating policy (we all love ‘open’ things, right?) so all the geeks will be able to congregate on the plane, confusing other passengers by speaking in acronyms, websites, and snippets of code. Southwest does have a couple of planes that have WiFi service, but it’s not possible to know whether we’ll be lucky enough to snag one. Maybe we can get some strings pulled…

Thanks to @dotBen for starting this idea. He’s even got a Google Spreadsheet going with who will be on the plane and some FAQ. Dave McClure has also setup a Plancast.

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How Registering a Domain Can Cost Almost $2,000

Filed Under Geek, Scam | 2009-12-15, 16:46

or Why I Don’t Recommend Anyone Use Go Daddy

Go Daddy Parody Logo

I register a lot of domains. In fact so many ( around 285 286) that I have my own disease. I generally use DomainSite and recommend them (even though they don’t have an affiliate program). They’re simple, to the point and don’t have all the unnecessary bells and whistles. Plus they have bulk update tools which are essential for me. Only thing they don’t have is auto-renew, but I have domains to renew every month, so it’s just part of my monthly workflow. But this post isn’t about DomainSite, it’s about Go Daddy.

I don’t like Go Daddy. Plain and simple. I feel like they take advantage of people that perhaps don’t know much about domain registration, don’t care about customers, and have a bad reputation based on past behaviors. They’re famous for their upselling and the pushing of features you don’t need. It had been awhile since I’d actually checked out GoDaddy before swearing to never use them again, so I figured I’d give them a visit to see how they were these days. Nothing’s changed.

For the sake of this post, let’s pretend for a minute that I’m your everyday user that’s heard about this internet thing and I want to start my own website cause I heard you could make money blogging online. I’ve heard that you should have your own domain, so I’m going to go with edsinterwebsiteblog.com since everything else is already taken. I jump onto godaddy.com to register it and I’m greeted by a page with a hot chick that has nothing to do with domains and I plug in the domain name I want:

GoDaddy_Page01

Ed Note: Why in the world is this page so unbelievably busy?! GoDaddy’s use of “hot chicks” to sell domains and services just feels dirty. Wanna read a post where someone analyzes their poor UI?

After clicking “GO!” I’m greeted with the exciting news that “edsinterwebsiteblog.com is available! Just $10.69*” Great, that’s really affordable! Let’s get it. I’m smart enough to know that I don’t need all those other domains like .net, .info, etc. So I select edsinterwebsiteblog.com and add it to my cart and click to continue my registration.

GoDaddy_Page02

Oh noes, popup! Go Daddy says I could save money if I get a bunch of other domains. That’s silly, I know this trick. I click the little “No Thanks” at the bottom.

GoDaddy_Page03

Ed Note: Nice touch of making the “No Thanks” a link rather than something people are more inclined to click, like a button.

Normally at this point you’d be asked to create an account with Go Daddy and provide all your info and whatnot. For the sake of brevity and privacy I’m just using my pre-created account and skipping that part.

Great, I’m at the Registration and Checkout. I’m only seconds away from owning my own domain name! Apparently I have to pick some options first though. Let’s take a look:

GoDaddy_Page04

Registration Length: That’s great, 5 years for $10.69 sounds awesome.
Ed Note: Go Daddy conveniently baits and switches the customer with their low price which is just for 1 year, but they default to 5 years on this page

Certified Domain: I really want people to take edsinterwebsiteblog.com seriously, I should get it certified. It’s only $2.99 per year, that’s not that much.
Ed Note: What the heck is a Certified Domain? This “certification” is something that Go Daddy issues themselves. They are basically certifying that the Whois info is correct, which is a requirement of ICANN for ALL domains, not just certified ones.

Add Hosting: Oh, yes I need hosting! Deluxe is only $1.90 more than Economy? Check in the Deluxe box for $6.64.
Add Email: Go Daddy says I “will benefit tremendously” from having multiple addresses/mailboxes. Unlimited email address is only $2.50! Check.
Ed Note: Now is the time to note that there are cheaper hosting and email alternatives (we’ll get to them). But more importantly is Go Daddy’s shift from yearly pricing to monthly pricing.

Select Type of Registration: I’m being asked to choose between a Standard, Deluxe, or Protected registration. What does that even mean? All this domain stuff is sooooo confusing! Oh good, Go Daddy gives us this handy chart:
– Private registration “Helps protect yourself from spam, scams, prying eyes and more by shielding your personal information from public view” – OMG, I need protection from spam, I’m sick of all those emails about making my love machine last longer.
– Business registration – Well, I’m not a business, but it’s included in Deluxe which I’m already getting to stop the spam.
– Expiration Protection “Protects your domain against loss due to credit card expiration or failure, outdated contact information and more” – Oh man, my credit card is going to expire some day, I better get this or I might lose my domain! Guess I’m getting the Protected registration.
– Deadbolt Transfer Protection “Protects your domain against any accidental or malicious transfer” – I’m not very smart and I have accidents, so I’m glad I have this. I have no idea what this means, but accidental and malicious sounds bad. It’s probably like rental car insurance so I’m glad I’m getting it with the Protected registration.

Ed Note: I find it difficult to believe that Go Daddy charges for these features.
- A Private registration is an acceptable feature. DomainSite charges 50 cents for it.
- Expiration Protection seems like a no-brainer that should be included by domain registrars. Do you really think they’re going to let your domain expire without notifying you to renew it and pay them more money?
- Deadbolt Transfer Protection is basically locking the domain to prevent unauthorized transferring. This is a feature that all domain registrars should offer by default. DomainSite does.

Also interesting is how when you Add one of these registration types, the page changes so that you can’t switch it back.

Add SmartSpace(tm) – “Perfect for the home or business, SmartSpace™ is the fast, easy way to turn EDSINTERWEBSITEBLOG.COM into a Web site with all your favorite content.” That sounds great! I really don’t know anything about this AJAXHTMLPHPJAVAPAGE programming stuff. This sounds easy and it’s only $4.74. Added for the length of my domain!
Ed Note: SmartSpace appears to be a legit feature that Go Daddy offers. I have no idea what’s behind it, but it has a monthly cost associated with what is probably just a script that gets installed once when they setup your account? Also want to point out how they don’t show the price to “Match domain length”. Come on guys, it’s a little bit of javascript to check the registration length field and do some math to show the user what they’re going to be billed.

I click Continue and get excited that I’m almost done registering my new domain. Oh wait, I have more customizing to do? *sigh* Ok, what else do I need to do?

GoDaddy_Page05

Make your domain registration private! – Oh yes, this is easy, my sister’s boyfriend’s uncle had his identity stolen on the Internet so I don’t want my personal information out there. I definitely want private registration. I also want the Deluxe Registration because it “boosts traffic” to my site and I want everyone to read my site! I thought I had added privacy when I selected the Protected Registration, but I guess not. Adding Deluxe Registration for $9.99.
Ed Note: Why is this being asked again? Shouldn’t this be included in the Protected Registration we already selected for $14.99?

Clicking Add & Continue! Oh boy, even more customizing of my order! Let’s see, what do I want?

Customize - SSL Certificates

SSL Certificates – “Guarantee protection of your customers’ information!” – Well I don’t have any customers and this is expensive, so I guess I don’t need this. Whew, saved a lot of money.

Customize - Drive Traffic

Drive traffic to your Web site and increase online visibility! – I really want people to visit my website! I should Add Search Engine Visibility, it’s only $25.49 per year if I add it for all 5 years that I’ll have the domain. Oh wait, I can also get 12 months of Site Analytics if I go with Search Engine Visibility Premium. Let’s do that. It’s pricey, but you’ve got to spend money to make money online, right?
Ed Note: WTF is “Search Engine Visibility”?! Try this: Post a tweet with a link to your website, watch your logs and I almost guarantee you that within minutes you’ll have a search engine crawling your site. Better yet, get your friends to post links to your website on their sites. Boom, you’re indexed within days. And as far as analytics, if you’re not aware that Google Analytics is 100% free, well… [REDACTED]

Another interesting thing I noticed when getting screenshots for this post. If you scroll down and add Site Analytics before you choose Search Engine Visibility Premium, you’ll get charged for both when Site Analytics should be included in the former. (screenshot)

Customize - Quick Shopping Cart

Quick Shopping Cart – I’m not going to be selling anything on my site, so I don’t need this.

Customize - Join the Go Daddy Savings Network

Join the Go Daddy Savings Network – Hmm, I enroll for $9.99 and I get a $10 Go Daddy Gift Card in return? Sounds great! Let me just plug in my email address.
Ed Note: What is this? There’s no additional information on exactly what the Go Daddy Saving Network is. Do people really just blindly give their email addresses away like this? Oh, if you click on Help Me Choose it takes you to some additional pages where from what I can gather it’s an online coupon code site for members only. go Daddy says: “We’ve used our reputation as the world’s #1 domain name registrar to negotiate deep discounts for Savings Network members.” Huh, I didn’t know domain name registrar reputation had any pull with merchants. Oh wait, if by reputation you mean “ability to send customers” then it makes sense.

Customize - Blog or podcast

Blog or Podcast your news online with Quick Blogcast! – Oh, I want to blog, I guess I need this! I plan on being very popular so I should get Quick Blogcast Premium since my harddrive is 500GB. Hmm, I can’t get it for 5 years like my domain, so I guess I’m just doing 36 months for $16 a month.
Ed Note: Not sure exactly what this is, but I imagine it’s a combination of some scripts (probably Wordpress for blogging) that setup a blog and/or podcast for you. Plus this appears to be where you are specifying the amount of space and bandwidth you’d like for your site. To give some sort of indication, Dreamhost (a web hosting company) gives you unlimited space and bandwidth for $9-11 a month depending on length of contract.

Customize - Go Daddy Site Surveys

Go Daddy Site Surveys – Oh I love surveys! I do them all the time on Facebook to see what kind of Buffy character I am. I definitely want to be able to make my own. Nuts, no 5 year option, guess I’m going with 36 months again. It’s only $2.84, that’s like half a cup of coffee that I get every day!
Ed Note: I imagine this is just a script install and database setup that should be a 1 time fee since there’s not really any upkeep to it.
One really interesting thing to note on this page is that after you click “Add to Cart” for each option, it disappears! You’re not giving an option to modify your choice on this page.

Ok, whew got those decisions made. I can’t wait to get started blogging and podcasting! Let’s click Add & Continue and pay for this baby.

HOLY SWEET MOTHER OF !#$(*#%!#$)%&*$@^*$#!% $1,855.10?!?!?!

Total: $1,855.10

Total: $1,855.10

On top of the simple used salesman sort of techniques, there are even more serious things to be concerned about with GoDaddy. Gordon Lyon setup NoDaddy.com to expose the behaviors of Go Daddy that should not be tolerated. Everything from holding domains for ransom, exposing personal information, and more.

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Degraded Network Performance Mystery

Filed Under Geek | 2009-11-24, 13:46

I bought a gigabit switch awhile back when I needed to replace an existing switch with something with more ports. I bought the DLink DGS-2208 8-port 10/100/1000mbps switch as it had great reviews for its price point.

Here’s my current network topology:
Internet comes in from Comcast to a Linksys WRT54g v4 (10/100) wireless router running the Tomato Firmware v1.25.
Connected to that Linksys router is an ethernet cable that runs the length of my apartment to a DLink DGS-2208 gigabit switch.
Connected to the DLink:
– Macbook Pro (10/100/1000)
– Xbox 360 (10/100)
– Media Server box running Windows XP (10/100/1000)
Previously the Media Server box was connected to the Linksys router and was doing just fine on all file transfers. When I moved the Media Server to the gigabit switch I started having problems.

The first problem was streaming video to the Xbox 360 through Windows Media Player 11 Media Sharing. Previously I was able to stream 1080p video across the network without any problems whatsoever. After moving to the gigabit switch I was having trouble streaming anything. It would lag, freeze up, and even sometimes the Xbox would tell me that it had lost the network connection to that machine. I found this article which addresses an issue with Windows Media Extender and Windows Vista and resulting poor video quality. Not exactly my issue, but the suggestion of clocking the Media Server NIC down to 100mbps instantly cleared up the video streaming problem. (I tried enabling flow control, but that didn’t work.)

So great, streaming to the Xbox problems solved. Then I tried to move files from my Macbook Pro to my Media Server. Horrendous speeds. Significantly slower than previously when the Media Server was on the 100mbps router. We’re talking 30kB/s. It’s painful. I tried enabling Flow Control (both Rx and Tx) on the Media Server box, no luck. Something’s not right.

I’m at a loss. Anyone have any ideas?

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Flickr Blog This to a Wordpress Draft Post

Filed Under Geek, Hacks and Mods, Wordpress | 2009-11-19, 00:10

This is a boring geeky entry, but if you’re looking for this info it might be helpful. I’ve started a new blog (yes, another one) called My Cat Is Broken. It’s a collection of pics and videos of cats being, well broken. Usually it’s our cats. Everyone knows that Flickr is a great place to find cat pics, and I’ve started keeping my eye out for pictures of cats being dumb. When I find one, a quick click of the Blog This button, some title and text and it’s instantly on my site.

But I don’t necessarily want these pics to be published instantly, I’d rather they be saved as drafts for manual publishing later. I found links to an old plugin that’s not even available in the Wordpress plugin database called Flickr Blog This To Draft, but the site was down, the plugin unavailable, and I was impatient. I took matters into my own hands.

A quick hack of the xmlrpc.php (in the root directory of my Wordpress install) and I was in business. The line to change (as of Wordpress 2.8.6) is line 2097 which has the following code:

$post_status = $publish ? ‘publish’ : ‘draft’;

There are multiple ways to change this, but I just commented out that line and hardcoded $post_status to draft.

// $post_status = $publish ? ‘publish’ : ‘draft’;
$post_status = ‘draft’;

The thing to remember here though is that when you upgrade Wordpress to the next version for yet another security issue, you’ll have to redo this modification. If you make a copy of your xmlrpc.php file then you can just run a command line diff against the upgraded version after every upgrade. If that’s the only line that changed, copy it back, otherwise jump in manually and re-find that line and fix it. Note though that this means all of your posts will be automatically set to draft. In my case that’s perfectly alright, but you may want to toss some code in there to determine this based on your title or something (i.e. titles that start with “DRAFT” go to drafts, but anything else gets published).

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Cell Phones at Burning Man

Filed Under Burning Man, Events, Geek, Twitter | 2009-08-25, 14:17

Burning Man Iphone

While thousands are counting down the days until they arrive in Black Rock Desert for Burning Man this year, there’s already a number of people out there on the playa getting things ready….. and they’re calling and tweeting back to us looking for someone to bring the things they forgot. Yes, that’s right there is cell service on the playa this year. How do I know? I got a call from Rubin while he was sitting at the space reserved for our camp (Ardent Heavy Industries). In addition several others are tweeting up a storm: @SFSlim, @steve23, @Rubin110, @TKimball, @JosephPred, and more. And of course foursquare had to get in on the action and quickly added Black Rock City to their database so people could check in. As of this writing, SFSlim is the Mayor of The Man but we predict this to change once Steve23 hears wind of it.

The cell service appears to be limited to AT&T and Verizon, but from what we hear people are getting 5 bars inside Black Rock City. Apparently the service is mostly coming from a temporary tower that was installed on some leased land near Frog Pond, which is less than a mile from the trash fence that marks the border of Black Rock City. How are they doing it? According to @ChrisPetrell it’s a combination of solar/wind powered tower with a satellite uplink. It’s not official Burning Man cell coverage and the Burning Man Org has nothing to do with it, but DPW and other volunteers already on the playa are using it. In addition to this temporary tower, there are also permanent AT&T and Verizon towers south of Empire that people are reporting service from. And finally, there is a theme camp that is providing a GSM->VOIP gateway. I’m assuming this rumored theme camp is the same as the OpenBTS project I posted about last year.

But before you get your hopes up, know that the chance of this service making it through Burning Man without melting down is slim to none. Joseph Pred notes:

Important cell phone update: Temp site only supports 23 Verizon/CDMA users and no SMS. AT&T/GSM supports 35 users with SMS but limited EDGE.

This means you’ll have quite the battle with 40-50,000 other attendees if you need to make a call home. Rubin mentioned that he was already having trouble and the event is not due to start for almost a week. I think it’s still appropriate to tell your boss/significant other/etc that you are not contactable while out on the playa. Besides, do you really want to get that call about the firewall going down while you’re in the middle of 2pir surrounded by an actual wall of fire?

What do you guys think about cell phones on the playa? Good, bad, who cares?

original Man image from Dan Garcia

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How To Not Be A Douchebag at SXSW

Filed Under Events, Geek | 2009-08-20, 14:19

Vote for my PanelPicker Idea!

Last year I had a blast at SXSW Interactive. It was both enjoyable and informative. However I quickly noticed that there are a lot of.. well douchebags at SXSW. It quickly became quite humorous to pick them out in a crowd and discuss what made them douchey. While it was all a lot of snarky fun, I realized that some of these people probably didn’t even realize how douchey they were being! So I decided that this year I should hold a panel to help those in need. The panel is aptly titled “How To Not Be A Douchebag at SXSW”. Here is the the proposal that was submitted:

Description:
Aimed at both first-time and long-time attendees to SXSW Interactive, this biting and humorous, yet useful panel takes a look at the common actions and behaviors to avoid if you don’t want to be described as “doing it wrong.”

Questions that will be answered:
Who is “that guy” and how do I avoid being him?
How do I self-promote without being a douchebag? (i.e — when should I give out my business card?)
What words instantly make me sound like I don’t know what I’m talking about? (i.e. — what are douchey buzzwords?)
How do I not come off looking like an obnoxious PR flack?
How do I pitch my product/service/technology? (i.e. — to schwag or not to schwag?)
How do I handle an open bar?
How should I ask questions at panels and presentations?
What is the proper Twitter/Foursquare etiquette at SXSW?
How can I treat the locals graciously?
How can I make a connection with someone I’m attracted to and not come across like a marketing dweeb? (i.e. — hooking up, the undouche way)

Joining me on this panel will be the lovely Violet Blue of sex blogger fame and the experienced John Adams from Twitter. There’s a good chance we’ll pick up a fourth member before SXSW so if you’re interested in joining us, let me know. But in the meantime we have to convince SXSW that this is a panel the people want to see! In order to do this we need your votes. If you’ve got a minute, please head over to our proposal on the SXSW Panel PIcker and give us a thumbs up! But hurry, voting ends on September 4th.

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Coder Girl: An ode to female programmers

Filed Under Funny, Geek, Video | 2009-07-24, 22:22

This song by Dale Chase is spot-on:

The first hint that my own “coder girl” and I would be good together? Seeing O’Reilly books on her bedroom shelf.

Of course I’d be remiss to not point you to the Girl at the Video Game store video from G4’s Attack of the Show to supplement the above:

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Fallout 3 LARPers = awesome

Filed Under Geek, Video Games | 2009-07-10, 16:12

fallout3-larp-helmet

Anyone that checks my Xbox Live stats (Gamer Tag: edrabbit) will see that I’ve spent a bit of time playing Fallout 3.  And the love for the expansive world that Fallout 3 weaves is probably why I enjoy these photos of a bunch of Russian LARPers (Live Action RolePlaying).  I don’t read (or speak) Russian, so I have no idea what the post is about, but the time and attention that they’ve put into their costumes and environment are impressive.  And come on.. hot Russian girls with guns, need I say more?

Check out the full gallery of pics over on the LiveJournal post. If anyone can translate and fill us in on the story, that would be appreciated!
via Wonderland

fallout3-larp-girl_with_gunfallout3-larp-ghoulfallout3-larp

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Mozy Backup + Reinstalling Windows = FAIL

Filed Under Geek | 2009-07-07, 02:12

Mozy Failboat
So I need to reinstall Windows. It happens, Windows gets “dirty” and sometimes I just need a format and reinstall to feel clean again. The same way one might feel on Sunday morning after a weekend bender. But like a good computer user, I’ve got offsite backups (in addition to that RAID array) that go to Mozy.com. But before I jumped into a “nuke and pave” I figured I should check and make sure you don’t need to do anything special with Mozy because I remember that it took months to originally backup my 400gb of files. So I jumped onto Mozy.com’s support chat and quickly found out that I would have to re-upload the 400gb of files. There is apparently no way to tell Mozy that a fresh install of windows should be treated as the same backup set. I can’t imagine what they’re using to uniquely identify machines, but apparently it’s not a harddrive serial number + your user account, which would make sense in my book. So I guess it’s time to start hunting for a new offsite backup solution.

If you want to read the ridiculous conversation I had with support, I’ve included it in full below for your amusement:

You are now chatting with ‘Sunil’

Sunil: Welcome to Mozy Live Support. May I have your account email address please?

Ed: Hi Sunil, my email address is [REDACTED]

Sunil: Thanks. Are you dealing with an issue you’ve previously talked to us about or is this a new issue?

Ed: this is a new issue

Sunil: Could please explain me in detail the issue so that I can help you?

Ed: I have a computer that I need to reinstall windows on

Sunil: Ok.

Ed: this computer has a secondary drive that I use to store important files. This drive is backed up to Mozy

Sunil: Ok.

Ed: I want to make sure I don’t have to reupload all of the files after reinstalling windows
Ed: what do I need to do to make sure Mozy recognizes that this is a pre-existing backup when it’s running on a new install of Windows?

Sunil: Ed, unfortunately it is not possible but you need to restore the files after reassociating Mozy to your newly installed operating system.
Sunil: Mozy will consider this computer as a new computer if you upgrade or reinstall operating system.
Sunil: There is a method to replace the machine or to re associate Mozy after reinstallation of operating system.
Sunil: http://support.mozy.com/docs/en-user-home-win/guide/tasks/home_replace_machine_c.html
Sunil: You may refer this link given above to know how to perform a replacement of machine to associate Mozy again.

Ed: so I have to reupload the 400gbs of data I have backed up to Mozy?

Sunil: Yes. You may have to restore the files and then re upload the files in this case.

Ed: so I have to download 400gb of files to replace the original files on my local drive, and then reupload the 400gb files I just downloaded from Mozy back to MOzy?

Sunil: Yes. You may have to replace the machine and associate Mozy to your newly installed Operating system computer and then Restore the old files doing a web restore logging in your account.
Sunil: After retrieving the old files you may start a new fresh backup to upload files.
Sunil: Is there any thing else I could assist you with Mozy?

Ed: Do you realize how ridiculous this is?
Sunil: I can understand your frustration Ed. It is because at any time of reinstallation of operating Mozy will cant detect your machine as the old.
Sunil: It’s security feature is set like that way.

Ed: and there is no functionality to tell Mozy that this is in fact the same backup set?

Sunil: If you really want to retrieve the old backup set, it is possible.
Sunil: You may just login to your Mozy home account.
Sunil: and then click on restore files.
Sunil: Then, click choose file to restore.
Sunil: Now select the date of your last backup by choosing bold color dates.
Sunil: Here you will get the option to view your old back up sets.

Ed: I have all of my backed up data on my local drive, you guys have all of my backed up data on your servers. I shouldn’t have to download my own data and then give it back to you when it already exists in both places.

Sunil: Since you are reinstalling your operating system your old data and backup data can remain in our server for only 30 days. However, when you reassociate Mozy you can restore only the important files uploaded before.

Ed: I don’t need to restore any files since I already have all of them on my drive

Sunil: Ok.

Ed: I am reinstalling my operating system on a harddrive that is not backed up by Mozy
Ed: I am not changing the secondary (slave) harddrive that is backed up to Mozy
Ed: I don’t need to upload those files to Mozy because they already exist there
Ed: I should just be able to change a config file or setting somewhere that tells mozy this is the same backup set, just on a fresh install of windows

Sunil: At any time you are installing or upgrading your windows Operating system you are loosing the old backup set and Mozy installed config files.

Ed: I can save the mozy installed config files, just tell me which ones I need to save

Sunil: http://support.mozy.com/docs/en-user-home-win/faq/tasks/common_issue_reinstall_backupsets_c.html

Ed: will this work if I put the conf.dat file back in the MozyHome folder on a fresh install of windows?

Sunil: Ed, if you are reinstalling the operating system Mozy will not be able to detect your machine as the old computer. It will consider it as a new computer. Please refer the link given below to know more about this:
Sunil: http://support.mozy.com/docs/en-user-home-win/guide/tasks/home_replace_machine_c.html

Ed: how can I force it to recognize it as the same computer? What information does it use to uniquely identify the computer?

Sunil: It is not possible and Mozy will not have that feature if you are upgrading your operating system or using a new computer etc.,
Sunil: Please refer the link mentioned above to replace the machine after reinstalling your operating system.

Ed: Thanks for the information, I’ll start looking for alternative backup solutions

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