We offer a free 14 day trial of our software with 1GB of backup space online. All you have to do is download our software (below), install it and set up an account.

When you choose to become a paying customer, be sure to let us know your user account ID to avoid deletion of your backup files at the end of the trial.

You can request support anytime from us by emailing cs@offsitedatabackup.com.

Offsite Data Backup Installation files:

1. ODB Advanced and Deluxe for Windows
2. ODB Advanced and Deluxe for Mac OS X
3. ODB Basic for Windows
4. ODB Basic for Mac OS X
5. ODB Advanced for Unix / Linux
6. ODB Advanced for Novell Netware

First, download the latest version of the ODB Advanced backup software. If you’re an ODB Deluxe subscriber, you should also use this version of the ODB software. You can always grab the latest version from HERE.

Hint: you can enlarge any image displayed in this post by clicking on it.

Next, all the instructions for installing ODB Advanced on your Mac OS X machine are fairly straightforward, you can read more about it, after the jump, below.

Save the downloaded (obm-mac.zip) file to a location on your computer that you’ll remember.

After the download completes, launch the installation program.

You will be prompted to save your work before proceeding. It is highly recommended that you follow this step rather than racing through the installation process. Better yet, close all open programs except for Finder and the installation program.

Choose your language and be sure to review the software license agreement. English is selected by default.

In order to proceed with the installation, you’ll have to accept our software license agreement.

You can then choose the location to install the software. We recommend that you have at least 150mb of space free for the installation of the software. Backing up files does require disk space and you will need some free space on your system in order to create backup sets, etc.

Press the continue button to proceed.

The installation screen will appear. If you need to change the installation destination, you can do so easily from this page. Click on Install to get started.

You’ll need an administrator username and password to proceed with the installation.

The installation should run and will eventually complete.

Once the installation has completed, you’ll be notified with an unmissable green checkmark.

Next, the software splash screen will appear and a connection to our primary backup server will be made.

If you’d like to change servers (for any reason, whether your account is on a different server or you have more up-to-date information), you can do so on the initial Trial Registration page.

Enter in your username and password. If you already have an account on our system, click on the bottom left hand side black area of the Trial Registration. Strange, yes, we know – we’re working on this.

Otherwise, just fill out the form with your username, password and email address. We can’t stress how important this password is. It’s your encrypting key – without it, there’s no way to recover your backups. You can change your password but your encrypting key doesn’t change.

Give your backup set a name.  The more descriptive, the better.

For file-based backups, if you don’t see what you’re looking for in the initial selections, there’s the ‘Advanced’ button that will give you more granular control of what files to back up.

With ODB Advanced and Deluxe you can backup almost anything on your file system.

After you’ve chosen what you want to backup, set up a backup schedule, or two.. or four or as many as you need to get the job done. Usually one works but you may want to set up a grandfather-father-son backup routine which requires weekly, monthly and quarterly scheduling considerations.

You can also choose how long the backup will run for.

The most critical part of this excercise is to remember your encryption settings.

If you specify an encrypting key, make sure to keep it in a safe place. If you choose default settings, keep your original password in a safe place – this is your encrypting key. Passwords change, encrypting keys don’t.

With ODB Advanced and Deluxe, there are a myriad of encryption options.

Once you’ve completed setting up your backup sets, you will be presented with the ODB Advanced main user interface.

You can choose to run an initial backup. If you’re loading your initial data to a hard drive, this must be performed while the user interface is open. All other backup procedures can occur as scheduled when the user interface is closed.

At your option, you can skip the initial backup, if you want to close the ODB software.

Otherwise, clicking on Backup will start the backup.

Once the backup completes, you can review the logs. Within the hour, you should also receive a backup report by email.

Once you’re done configuring the software, don’t forget to save the settings to the server. All settings are centralized on the server and need to be saved to become permanent.

Congratulations! You’re done. If you have any questions, feel free to post them here or contact our Technical Support group.

First, download the latest version of ODB Basic from our site, HERE.

Hint: you can enlarge any image displayed in this post by clicking on it.

Next, all the instructions for installing ODB Advanced on your Mac-based machine are fairly straightforward. You can read more about it after the jump, below.

The file, acb-mac.zip should automatically open with StuffIt Expander.

Once opened, the installation program will launch.

Click continue to start the installation process.

Save your work and be sure your computer is plugged into the outlet and/or it has ample battery life to complete the installation. If you have less than 30 minutes of battery life, we recommend that you not install the software until your computer is plugged in.

You’ll have to agree to our software license agreement in order to continue with the installation of this software.

Once you’ve agreed to the licensing terms of the software, choose where you’d like to install the software and click continue.

The installation requires approx. 20MB of free space on your computer. Staging of files before they’re sent over the internet also takes space, we recommend that you have at least 100MB of space free on your hard drive to proceed with the installation.

To commence the installation the software, you’ll need to enter an administrative username and password for the computer in question.

After entering the password, the installation will run.

… and should complete successfully.

After the install completes, an icon will be installed on your desktop and the program should launch.

Next, the Trial Registration wizard will pop up. If you are already a user of our service and have been assigned a backup server, you can enter it here. In most cases, the address which is already filled in is true and correct. Hit the ‘next’ button.

If you’re already a user of the service, you can click the ‘Already a user?’ button. If not, proceed with entering your vitals and keep note of the password as this is your default encrypting key. You can change your password as much as you like but IF YOU LOSE YOUR DEFAULT ENCRYPTING KEY, you will not be able to restore your backups.

For already existent users of the system, you will be asked to provide your current username and password.

Advanced options will allow you to change proxy settings, backup server, connection type and interface language.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, new users can enter their credentials as outlined above.

… then you’re off to the races. You can select what files you want backed up.

If you don’t see what you’re looking for, click the Advanced button for more granular control of what you want backed up.

Next step, choose when you’d like to run the backup – what days, what time and how long you’d like to run the backup for.

As the last step, decide if you would like to use the default encrypting key (your initial password) or if you’d like to specify one. Be sure to keep this key on file as it will be required to recover your files.

After entering all the specifications for the backup, you will be presented with the main ODB Basic user interface.

Click on the Backup button and you’ll be able to start the backup immediately. If your backup is large and you’d prefer to have this run as scheduled and in the background, youc an skip this set.

The backup speed depends on your network connection. A large initial backup can take days to complete. After this, incremental backups should take much less time. In most cases just a few hours.

After the initial backup completes, you’ll have the option to view the backup log. Failing that, a backup summary will be emailed to you.

Congratulations!. You’re set up. You can now close the ODB Basic program and rest assured that your critical files are being backed up.

Don’t forget to save your settings to the backup server. The server controls all backups so this is important.

You’re done. If you have any questions, feel free to post them here or ask our Technical Support group.

First, download the latest version of our ODB Advanced software. This client is also the client you download if you’re an ODB Deluxe subcriber. You can always grab the latest from HERE.

Hint: you can enlarge any image displayed in this post by clicking on it.

Next, all the instructions for installing ODB Advanced on your Windows-based machine are fairly straightforward, you can read more about it, after the jump, below.

Save the downloaded file to somewhere you’ll remember on your computer (like the My Documents or Downloads folder.)

Depending on your Internet speed, it may take a few minutes to complete the download.

Double click the executable obm-win.exe to start installing the software.

Select your language, English is selected by default.

The splash screen will then appear.

The installation screen will appear thereafter, click NEXT to get started.

In order to proceed with the installation, you’ll have to review and accept our software license agreement.

You can then choose the location to install the software. We recommend that you have at least 150mb of space free for the installation of the software.

Backing up files does require disk space (to stage files) and you will need some free space on your system in order to create backup sets, etc.

You can choose who will have access to the program shortcut, yourself or anyone who uses this computer.

Note, this does prevent other users on the computer system from launching the program via the computer’s filesystem. Consult our support group if you have any special security needs relating to our product.

Once you have completed the above step, you can review your settings and proceed to the actual install where files are written to your hard drive.

After the setup has completed (this process may take a few minutes), you will be given the option to launch the backup software. We strongly recommend that you configure your backups right away.

The software splash screen will appear and it will connect to our primary backup server.

At this point, you can run through our trial registration. If you have been an ODB Advanced or Deluxe customer for some time, you may have received an alternate backup server to connect to and a username / password to use. You can enter the alternate backup server to use at this point then click next.

If you’re a new user, enter a login name and password that you’ll remember. You’ll also need to enter your email address (you’ll receive your backup reports to this address) into the provided field.

If you’re already registered on the server, click the ‘Already a user?’ link.

* note (12/5/2009) – some users have complained tha this link may be missing. The bottom left hand side of the ‘Trial Registration’ box is enabled with a hidden link which will allow you to enter your credentials. This issue will be rectified in the next software release.

At this point (for registered users) you can enter in your username and password.

Next, you’ll be presented with backup selections – what files and/or data you may want to back up.

You can also choose from a wide variety of backup types (dependent on the options you’ve subscribed to) from Lotus Notes / Domino to Microsoft Exchange, MySQL and even Oracle.

If you’re backing up files and you don’t see a folder you want to back up, click the Advanced button to select it manually. If you have Outlook and/or Outlook Express installed on your computer, these selections will be available to you.

After selecting what files you want to back up, you can choose your scheduling options – what day you’d like to run the backup, what time you’d like to start the backup, and how long you’d like to run the backup for.

By default, your backups are encrypted before being placed on our servers. Initially, your password is your default encrypting key. You can choose to leave this the same, specify a different encrypting key or not use encryption at all.

If you are using the default encryption key, it is very important to remember/save your initial password. If you change your password, the encrypting key DOES NOT change. Also, if you lose this key, it will be impossible to restore your files.

PLEASE SAVE YOUR INITIAL PASSWORD AND ENCRYPTING KEY. You will need this if you ever need to restore data.

Once the initial setup options are complete, you will see the main ODB Advanced program screen. This is the interface you will use to manage your backups from now on.

From this screen, you can choose to start your backup. If your backup is large, or if you want the backup to occur in the background, you may want to skip this step. If you are creating seed data media to send to us via courier, you cannot skip this set.

When you choose your backup set through the user interface, you are given an opportunity to choose where to back up to as well as the type of file backup. If it’s your first backup, we recommend you use the ‘full’ backup option.

Your initial backup may take some time, dependant on your network speed. Our ODB Advanced and ODB Deluxe customers have the option of sending us seed data to place on the server, if your backup is extremely large.

Once your initial backup completes, you will can either close the dialog or view the log. This dialog only comes up if you have launched the backup from the user interface.

Once you’re done, don’t forget to save your changes to the server.

In all cases, you will receive a backup report when the report scheduler runs (on the hour.)

Reports are available both through the backup software user interface and are emailed to you in ZIP format after the backup completes.

Congratulations, you’re done. Once you choose to quit ODB Basic’s user interface, you’ll be asked if you want to save your backup settings to the backup server.

As the backup server dictates what files are backed up at the start of each backup, we highly recommend this.

If you skipped the above steps, a backup can be initiated from the system tray or via the web on your assigned backup server.

To start your backup from the system tray, simply right-click on it and choose the option which best suits you.

Good luck! If you have any questions, feel free to post them here or ask our Technical Support group.

First, download the latest version of ODB Basic. You can always grab the latest from HERE.

Hint: you can enlarge any image displayed in this post by clicking on it.

Next, all the instructions for installing ODB Basic on your Windows-based machine are fairly straightforward, you can read more about it, after the jump, below.

Save the downloaded file to somewhere you’ll remember on your computer (like the My Documents or Downloads folder.)

Double click the executable acb-win.exe to start installing the software.

Select your language, English is selected by default.

The splash screen will then appear.

And then, the installation screen will appear, click NEXT to get started.

In order to proceed with the installation, you’ll have to review and accept our software license agreement.

You can then choose the location to install the software. We recommend that you have at least 150mb of space free for the installation of the software.

Backing up files does require disk space and you will need some free space on your system in order to create backup sets, etc.

You can choose who will have access to the program shortcut, yourself or anyone who uses this computer.

Note, this does prevent other users on the computer system from launching the program via the computer’s filesystem. Consult our support group if you have any special security needs relating to our product.

Once you have completed the above step, you can review your settings and proceed to the actual install where files are written to your hard drive.

After the setup has completed (this process may take a few minutes), you will be given the option to launch the backup software. We strongly recommend that you configure your backups right away.

The software splash screen will appear and it will connect to our primary backup server.

At this point, you can run through our trial registration. If you have been an ODB Basic customer for some time, you may have received an alternate backup server to connect to and a username / password to use. You can enter the alternate backup server to use at this point then click next.

If you’re a new user, enter in the login name, password and email address (you’ll receive your backup reports to this address) into the provided fields.

If you’re already registered on the server, click the ‘Already a user?’ link.

At this point (for registered users) you can enter in your username and password.

Next, you’ll be presented with backup selections – what files you may want to back up. If you have Outlook and/or Outlook Express installed on your computer, these selections will be available to you.

If you don’t see a folder you want to back up, click the Advanced button to select it manually.

After selecting what files you want to back up, you can choose your scheduling options – what day you’d like to run the backup, what time you’d like to start the backup, and how long you’d like to run the backup for.

By default, your backups are encrypted before being placed on our servers. Initially, your password is your default encrypting key. You can choose to leave this the same, specify a different encrypting key or not use encryption at all.

If you are using the default encryption key, it is very important to remember/save your initial password. If you change your password, the encrypting key DOES NOT change. Also, if you lose this key, it will be impossible to restore files.

PLEASE SAVE YOUR INITIAL PASSWORD AND ENCRYPTING KEY. You will need this if you ever need to restore data.

Once the initial setup options are complete, you will see the main ODB Basic program screen. This is the interface you will work with from now on.

To launch your very first backup, click on the Backup button on the top left of the program user interface.

If your backup is exceptionally large, you may want to skip this step and run the backup in the background – this way you can log off the machine and conduct other business while the backup completes.

The server will calculate how much space is needed on the server before it starts uploading. If you’re out of space on our servers, contact our support department and we’ll increase your quota immediately.

ODB Basic clients are initially allocated 15GB of disk space on our servers but can be changed as needed.

Your initial backup may take some time, dependant on your network speed. Our ODB Advanced and ODB Deluxe customers have the option of sending us seed data to place on the server, if your backup is extremely large.

Once your initial backup completes, you will can either close the dialog or view the log. This dialog only comes up if you have launched the backup from the user interface. Backups that are scheduled and/or run in the background will not show you this option.

In all cases, you will receive a backup report when the report scheduler runs (on the hour.)

Reports are available both through the backup software user interface and are emailed to you in ZIP format after the backup completes.

Congratulations, you’re done. Once you choose to quit ODB Basic’s user interface, you’ll be asked if you want to save your backup settings to the backup server.

As the backup server dictates what files are backed up at the start of each backup, we highly recommend this.

For those seeking to run the backup software in the background, hover your mouse over the ODB symbol in the tray on the bottom right of your screen.

You can right click on this icon and choose what type of backup you want to run in the background.

Good luck! If you have any questions, feel free to post them here or ask our Technical Support group.