These FAQs relate to the Small Business Offerings - if you are a Home Office or Small Office User click here for your FAQs.
Internet Connections
Modem, Cable, DSL, LAN Connections
Each type of connection has its own characteristics. When our software is first installed it will identify the type of connection that you have and auto-configure itself to use it.
Standard modems have been in use for a long time and are consistently reliable. They open and close a connection as needed, using a dialer, unlike other methods of connecting. Our software supports the standard Windows Dial-Up-Networking for these modems.
Cable modems have certain limitations that could affect your connectivity. For example:
Cable service can be either one-way or two-way, depending on the provider. One-way service relies on an analog modem and phone line for uploads. This limits upload speed to 33.3 Kbps. The more people on a node, the slower each connection could be.
Service providers can tie a specific data rate or percentage of total bandwidth to each user. Providers do move bandwidth around among users selectively.
Since most users don't need constant-megabit-per-second connections — they need high speeds for loading a Web page but not for viewing it — cable operators will take advantage of this burst of usage and divide bandwidth among multiple users.
DSL service comes in several flavors, with varying throughput rates, technical limitations, and prices.
Speed: The most common form for businesses and home users — the one we refer to simply as DSL — is asymmetric DSL, or ADSL, which supports peak downstream speeds of 144 Kbps to 2.2 Mbps but upstream rates only from 90 Kbps to 640 Kbps. Your backups will run at the upstream rate.
Distance: The line's performance degrades with distance from the central office. All else being equal, users 5,000 feet from the central office will get better throughput than those 15,000 feet away. Beyond 18,000 feet service is generally unavailable.
ISP: One advantage of ADSL service is a dedicated connection that won't degrade as more users in your area sign on (as cable will). Still, performance not only varies depending on how far you are from the central office but also on the efficiency of your ISP's network. Even the fastest DSL connections can't cure bottlenecks at an ISP, such as slowdowns during peak hours.
Generally, DSL upload transmission speed is rated at an average of 256K. Therefore, a data stream of 100MB would upload in 54.50 minutes.
LAN connections, including DSL and cable, provide a continuously open channel to the Internet. Like DSL and cable, LANs do not necessarily assure a high rate of transmission. You still have to go through an Internet gateway and through several routers, so the variables that create bottlenecks still exist and can affect throughput.
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AOL, Prodigy, CompuServe, Juno, and similar ISP connections
If you will be connecting to us via ISPs who provide their own dialer instead of using the standard dialer, it will be necessary to open your Internet connection before running our software. You will not be able to use scheduled backups that run automatically, but all other features are unaffected.
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Transmission Times/Backup Tips
Some suggestions for successful backups:
Avoid peak hours. We recommend using automatic backups that are scheduled to run in the earliest morning hours, between midnight and dawn.
Close applications that aren't essential during the backup. There may be one or more background applications running at the same time. Use Task Manager to verify that you have closed all nonessential background applications.
Monitor several transmissions to see the speed at which your ISP has connected you. Bandwidth is not usually guaranteed and will vary with the amount of traffic at any given time. Try to backup when conditions are favorable.
Reduce the size of your backup sessions — at least until you complete an initial backup of everything that you want. It may be that your ISP's available capacity is being taxed by sheer volume or that your own network is.
Firewall Information
Firewalls can be implemented in several ways. If you have a firewall, you will need to configure it to allow inbound and outbound transmission. How you do that depends on the type of firewall that you have.
SOCKS proxy firewall: The Connected Backup for PC and Mac software must be configured to use a SOCKS proxy firewall. Contact Support for assistance with this task...
Non-SOCKS-compliant firewall: You will need to configure your firewall. Contact your firewall administrator for assistance. Read our detailed firewall information.
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Detailed Firewall Information: Overview
Detailed Firewall Information: Overview
The Connected Backup for PC and Mac software communicates with the Iron Mountain secure Data Centers using the standard TCP/IP protocol.
Connections are initiated from the backup software on your computer or inside the firewall. Connections are NEVER initiated from the outside.
The program can work with all types of firewalls, including packet-filtering, circuit-filtering, SOCKS-compliant Proxy or Mapped Proxy firewalls. For most firewalls, some configuration of the firewall is needed. If your network requires explicit connection to the firewall to initiate outgoing connections, the Connected Backup for PC and Mac software must be configured for your firewall. Contact Support for assistance with this task...
The requirements for running the Connected Backup for PC and Mac service are consistent with security best practices. They do not create an opening for incoming connections, and outgoing connections can be limited to specific ports at specific known IP addresses. As an added security measure, all data is Triple-DES encrypted before leaving your computer; it remains encrypted though transmission, and is stored encrypted at the Iron Mountain secure Data Centers.
The following information is useful for configuring a firewall to permit outgoing connections to the Iron Mountain Data Center servers.
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Protocols
TCP/IP is used. There is no use of UDP or ICMP.
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Server Subnets
Each user's Connected Backup for PC and Mac agent connects to a primary and an alternate server in order to provide high availability. Currently, all servers reside in the subnet 216.229.146.0/24 and in the subnet 216.229.150.0/24. The Connected Backup for PC and Mac software must have access to both these subnets. Should these addresses change in the future, notice will be given to allow firewall changes and the Connected Backup for PC and Mac software can be automatically updated with the new addresses.
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Port Numbers
All Connected Backup for PC and Mac servers listen for client requests on a well-known port number: 16384. The Connected Backup for PC and Mac software always establishes a TCP/IP session with port 16384 on the server.
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DNS
The Connected Backup for PC and Mac software connects to a server using the server's IP address, not its name. Therefore, name resolution and access to a name server are not required.
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Registration vs. subsequent connections
The Connected Backup for PC and Mac software is configured to connect to one of a pair of registration server addresses (primary and alternate) when it is used for the first time. The registration process assigns a server address pair (primary and alternate) for all subsequent uses.
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SOCKS-Compliant Proxy Servers
The IP address (or the DNS) of the proxy server and the port number on which it listens for connections must be known in order to configure the backup software. SOCKS is designed to allow outgoing connections and responses back to those connections, but to prevent other incoming packets. This is consistent with the Connected Backup for PC and Mac software. If your SOCKS proxy server has been set up with additional restrictions on outgoing connections, it is necessary to include Iron Mountain's subnets in the permitted destinations.
It may be necessary to configure the Agent software to use your SOCKS proxy server. Contact Support for assistance with this task.
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Other Proxy Firewalls
In order for the Connected Backup for PC and Mac software to be used with an application-based proxy firewall server, the firewall must be set to permit outbound TCP connections for a generic application. Mapped firewalls require a separate port on the firewall for each different destination address.
You may also need to change the configuration for the Connected Backup for PC and Mac software. Contact Support for assistance with this task.
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Packet filtering firewalls
The following is a summary of rules that must be applied to the firewall software or hardware in order to enable the Connected Backup for PC and Mac client-server protocol. (All the rules are described from the 'firewall's point of view.')
Permit TCP/IP outbound to port 16384 to subnets 12.159.133.0-63 (12.159.133.0/26) and 66.151.228.0-255 (66.151.228.0/24).
If your firewall requires you to explicitly permit the response packets to come back, do so by permitting TCP/IP inbound to ports 1024-5000 from the subnets listed above, for an already-established connection. It is NOT necessary to permit a connection originating from outside the firewall.
We do not utilize UDP or ICMP.
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IMPORTANT: If your question is not answered in the FAQs, please complete a Support Request.
