Do you get your Internet service from Comcast? If so, do you know if you’re renting your cable modem or own it out-right? If a Comcast tech set it up then there’s a good chance that you’re paying a monthly rental fee of about $7. If this is the case, you might want to buy your own cable modem and return the one you are renting. A new cable modem costs between $60-$130 depending upon which model you buy. You recover the cost of this new modem in 9-18 months through eliminating the rental fee.

Here are instructions on how to set up and register a new cable modem. These instructions are also helpful if you’re replacing a cable modem which has stopped working.

1. Disconnect your current cable modem. Specifically, unplug the ethernet cable that connects it to your router or Macintosh computer. Also, unplug the coax cable that connects it to the wall jack and finally, disconnect its power cord.

2. Plug in your new cable modem. Specifically, plug in the coax cable coming from the wall, then run the ethernet cable from the cable modem directly to your Mac (even if you have a router). Lastly, plug in its power cord. The cable modem will start up and try to connect to Comcast, but it won’t be able to do so since it’s not yet registered with Comcast.

3. Call Comcast Tech Support. Their phone number should be on a recent invoice. Have a copy of your invoice handy because you’ll likely be prompted for either your Comcast account number or the phone number associated with your account. Once you get a person on the line, tell him or her that you’re setting up a new cable modem and you’d like him or her to guide you through it. The tech will ask you to read the MAC address which is printed on a sticker on the cable modem. The tech might also want the make and model of cable modem. Note: A MAC address has nothing to do with Macintosh computers. MAC stands for Media Access Control and is a unique identifying number.

The tech will then register the cable modem on their end and soon more and more lights on the cable modem will come on. This is a good thing, it’s progress. Soon your laptop will be connected to the Internet. Yay, things are working!

Note: I’ve had you bypass the your router temporarily because Comcast won’t support the configuring of routers. They only support cable modems and 1 computer.  Now that you have your new cable modem working, you can hang up with Comcast and do the following.

A. Unplug the power cord from the Comcast cable modem. This is very important: make sure that all lights on the cable modem are off. If they aren’t off then your cable modem also provides your home with phone service. If this is the case then your cable modem has a battery in it and you’ll have to find the door and open it to pop out the battery. Once you have all of the lights off, then you’re good. Now proceed to the next step.

B. Move the ethernet cable from your laptop back to your router.

C. Re-insert the battery and power cord into the cable modem. The cable modem will start up, then it will see the router and pair with it. This is very important to understand. The cable modem can only pair with one device at a time. When it pairs it then permits that device to connect to the Internet. When the cable modem is off (i.e. has no lights lit up), it forgets the device that it last paired with and it’s ready to pair with a new device on start up.

D. Wait about two minutes for the cable modem to startup and all of its lights to turn on.

E. Make sure your laptop is connected to your router either wirelessly or using an ethernet cable. Open Safari and you should be able to view web sites. Yay, you’re done!

If you have problems getting all of this to work then you can go back to having your laptop plugged directly into the cable modem. However, to get this to work you’ll need to turn off the cable modem so it forgets its pairing with the router and will thus be ready to pair with your laptop when you connect your laptop using the ethernet cable to the cable modem.

When you’re on vacation or out of the office for a day-long meeting, would you like to send an auto-reply to email messages that you receive? If your email provider uses cPanel then follow these instructions.

Login to your email account using webmail. Typically, the web address you would use to do this will follow this pattern, http://www.yourcompany.com/webmail.

You’ll then see cPanel’s main screen, which will look similar to the photo below. Click the Auto Responders button near the bottom of the main screen.

You’ll then see a screen that looks similar to this:

Fill in the form that appears, using the image above and the following details as a guide.

• I recommend leaving the Character Set on utf-8.

• Set the interval to 8 hours. This interval controls how often a sender will receive your auto-reply. You don’t want your colleagues to get an auto-reply every time they email you if they send you a handful of messages throughout the day.

• Enter your full name in the From field.

• Enter something like Auto Reply or Out of the Office in the Subject field.

• Leave the HTML box unchecked.

• Enter the message you’d like to auto-send as a reply to incoming emails.

• Use the Start and Stop options to set start and end dates and times.

• Finally, click “Create/Modify”.

• Click the Log Out button in the upper right corner. That’s it.

If you configured it to start immediately, you can now send a test message from another email accounts to make sure it’s working.

Here are instructions on how to share a file or folder inside your Dropbox folder with another person. In previous Tech Tips, I gave an overview of Dropbox and give instructions on how to share files that are too large to send as an email attachment, even with people who don’t have Dropbox accounts, using the Public folder in your Dropbox folder. This week, I cover two more features of Dropbox:

Feature 1. How to share any file, in any folder, inside your Dropbox folder, with another person even if that person doesn’t have their own Dropbox account.

Feature 2. How to setup a shared folder with another person so the two of you can easily exchange files on an on-going basis.

The instructions below assume that you’ve already signed up for your Dropbox account and have installed the Dropbox application on your Mac.

Feature 1 – If you have a one-time need to share a file with a person who doesn’t have their own Dropbox account then you can use Dropbox’s Copy Public Link feature. Here’s how:

• Click once on a file in your Dropbox folder to select it. Then right-click (or control-click) on this file. A menu will appear, select Dropbox and then select Copy Public Link from the sub-menu. (See photo below as a reference.)
• Your web browser will open and a preview of your document will appear. Copy the address which appears in the address field, (https://www.dropbox.com/….)
• Go to your email application, compose a new email message and then paste this address (aka link) into the email message and send the message.
• The recipient can click on the link to be taken to a web page which will let them download the file. Here’s a sample link to one of my files in my Dropbox folder. https://www.dropbox.com/s/skifcwwnajlzn77/Darts-Practice.rtf

I want to emphasize that the recipient is able to download and then edit the file, but this feature doesn’t give them a way to easily send the file back to you. So, this is more of a file distribution capability. It doesn’t offer two-way file exchange. This feature is very similar to sharing a file using the Public folder. In fact, I see only one primary difference. This Copy Public Link feature allows you to leave a file inside of a shared folder while also sharing it with a person who typically can’t access files in that shared folder. Additionally, the

Dropbox has their own article about using this feature.

Feature 2 – If you regularly want to be able to do two-way file exchanges with another person then you’ll want to setup a dedicated shared folder with that person in your Dropbox account. Here’s how:

• Create a folder in your Dropbox folder. For this example, I want to share a folder with a friend named Tom so I created a new folder named Tim-Tom
• Right-click (or control-click) on this folder. A menu will appear, select Dropbox and then Share This Folder… from the sub-menu. (See photo below as a reference.)
• Your web browser will open and you’ll be taken to the Dropbox web site. Login to your Dropbox account if you aren’t already logged in.
• In the field named “Invite collaborators to this folder” type in the email address of another person. I entered Tom’s email address.
• Type in an optional personal invitation message and then click the “Share Folder” button. This will send an email that includes the invite.
• The email recipient can click on a link in the invite email to accept the invitation which grants them access to this folder. If the recipient doesn’t already have their own Dropbox account then they’ll be prompted to create a free account.
• If your invitee accepts your invite then you’re notified via email.

At this point, you’re ready to easily share files with your invitee via this folder. Every time a file is adding, edited or deleted then a notification will pop-up on your screen. This invitee can’t see any other folders that you have in your Dropbox account. Happy file sharing.

Dropbox has their own article about this feature.

Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about this folder sharing feature. This information is taken from Dropbox’s help article.

• You can’t share a folder from within your Public folder. You can share a folder within the Photos folder
• You can’t share a folder inside another shared folder. Attempting to share a folder within a shared folder will automatically send you to the sharing options of the top level shared folder
• Anyone you’ve invited to a folder can then add, delete or change files within that folder
• Anyone you’ve invited to a folder can also invite others to join the folder
• Only the creator of the shared folder can remove people from the folder
• If two people both open and edit a file in a shared folder at the same time, Dropbox will save both of their changes, but in separate files. It does not try to automatically combine or merge changes. Read our help article on conflicting copies to learn more about how this works

If you chose to sign-up for Dropbox please consider using this link to do so, since I’ll earn a referral bonus. Thanks.

This Tech Tip covers provides you with instructions on how to setup and monitor Time Machine. It also explains some basic concepts behind Time Machine’s operation. Monitoring your backup system is incredibly important to do. A backup system that isn’t working is useless. Don’t simply trust or believe that your backup system is working. Check on it regularly.

Time Machine is Apple’s backup application which comes bundled with Mac OS X. It was introduced in 2007 as part of Mac OS X 10.5, Leopard. I have other Tech Tips that talk about encrypting Time Machine backups, swapping between two hard drives when using Time Machine and restoring a file from Time Machine.

Setup – Time Machine is the easiest backup application to setup. For many users it can be as easy as connecting a brand new external USB or Firewire hard drive to your Mac and turn it on. When you turn it on it’ll mount (appear) on the Desktop. Time Machine will detect this hard drive and present an on-screen message asking if you’d like to use this hard drive for storing Time Machine backups, click the “Use as backup disk” button and you’re done.

While it can be this easy, there can be complicating factors, including these:

If Time Machine has previously been configured to use some other hard drive then you’ll need to manually configure it to use this new hard drive. To accomplish this, go to the Apple menu, select System Preferences and click on Time Machine, then click the “Select Disk” button. Select the new hard drive from the list.

If the new hard drive is formatted as a PC hard drive using FAT32 or NTFS formats then Time Machine will prompt you to re-format the hard drive. I tend to buy my hard drives from Other World Computing or some other Mac-oriented vendor since their hard drives always come pre-formatted as a Mac hard drive using Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I also tend to buy hard drives with FireWire ports as opposed to only USB ports since there are often a lot of USB devices vying for the relatively few USB ports on a Mac.

Initial Backup – Once Time Machine is configured to use a particular hard drive, backups will automatically occur every hour as long as the Mac is on and awake and the selected hard drive is available. The first backup will start within two minutes of you selecting it. The first backup can take many hours but you can continue to use the computer while the backup is running. I typically start the initial Time Machine backup near the end of the day. This way it can run all night as needed.

Which files are backed up? Time Machine backs up nearly all files on your Mac. It backups all of your data files (music, email, bookmarks, photos, etc) as well as applications (Word, Safari, iTunes, etc) and Mac OS X itself. It’s useful to know that it does not backup files in the Trash. It also does not backup most cache files, log files and the iPod photo cache. You also have the ability to manually exclude a file or folder by going back to System Preferences and clicking on Time Machine, then clicking the “Options” button and adding an item to the list.

Backup Retention – After the initial backup is complete, subsequent backups only add new and/or modified files. Subsequent backups run automatically every hour, however not every backup is kept for ever. If every hourly backup was kept forever your backup hard drive would fill up very quickly. Instead, Time Machine automatically does some pruning of old backup files. Hourly backups are kept for the past 24 hours. Beyond 24 hours, daily backups are kept for one month. Beyond that, weekly backups are kept until the backup hard drive is full. Once the backup hard drive becomes full, Time Machine will notify you that it needs to delete the oldest backups in order to make room for the newest backups. I typically recommend using a backup hard drive which has at least twice the amount of storage space as you have files. For example, my laptop has about 150 GB of stuff on it. Thus, I should use a backup drive that is at least 300 GB in storage capacity.

Day-to-Day Monitoring – After you’ve setup Time Machine, the next most important task you can do is monitor Time Machine to ensure that it’s operating properly. A backup system that isn’t working is useless. To monitor Time Machine simply click on the Time Machine icon located in the upper right corner of your screen near the clock. The Time Machine icon looks like an arrow curving around in a circle with clock hands inside the circle. Click on this icon and read the first line. It should read  ”Latest Backup: Today 2:15 pm” or something similar. If your most recent backup wasn’t today then you should select “Back Up Now” from the Time Machine menu. The Time Machine menu icon should begin to spin backwards. You can then click on it to monitor the status of the backup. Commonly seen messages are Preparing, Backing up X Megabytes of XYZ Megabytes, and Cleaning Up.

If your Time Machine backup system is not working properly, the most common cause is that your backup hard drive has become disconnected or is turned off. Do you see your backup drive’s icon on the Desktop? If not, check for loose cables and to make sure that it’s turned on. Also, disconnect and then reconnect the cable which connects the hard drive to your Mac.  If you’re still not able to get the backup drive to show up then restart your Mac. Afterwards, manually start Time Machine to see if it works now. If it’s still not working, you could refer to either of the web sites I list below or contact your Mac support person for assistance.

Restore – It’s best to know how to restore a file from your Time Machine backup before a crisis hits. Thus, you should practice performing a restore in order to get comfortable with the procedure. This way you can remain calm should a crisis arise. I’ve written a separate Tech Tip about how to restore files from Time Machine.

Apple’s introduction to setting up, restoring from and troubleshooting Time Machine.

Mr. Pondini has created a very thorough web site about Time Machine, including extensive Frequently Asked Questions and Troubleshooting sections.

The focus of this article is to describe the essential components of a comprehensive backup system for your Macintosh computer. This article’s recommendations are appropriate for anybody with between one and a few Macs which they would like to backup. If you have a larger network of Macs, then other applications and approaches would be more appropriate.

I believe that there are two types of people in this world. Those who have lost data and those who will lose data. Thus, I feel strongly about the importance of backing up your computer. A comprehensive backup system will help you minimize the amount of data that you could ever lose.

We all store valuable files on our computer, though what is valuable varies by person. For some it is email messages, calendar data and address book information. For others it is their Quicken or QuickBooks information. For others still it is their digital pictures, home movies and music. For some it is all of these kinds of files. We increasingly rely on computers, so minimizing downtime and recovering quickly from problems need to be incorporated into a comprehensive backup system.

In some ways, a backup system is analogous to an insurance policy. We hope we never need to rely on it, but we’re very glad that we have it if it is needed. Just as different types of insurance policies provide different amounts of coverage, not all backup systems provide the same levels of protection. However, any level of protection is better then no protection at all. Here is a list of the essential components in a comprehensive backup system.

• It should backup all files on your computer
• It should run frequently and automatically
• It should produce multiple backup copies of your files. The old rule of thumb is that if it’s important enough to backup once then it’s important enough to backup twice.
  
• The multiple copies should be kept on multiple disks which are securely stored in multiple locations. One of these locations should be off-site or, if on-site, in a Class 125 fireproof safe.
  
• You need to monitor the backup system at least weekly to ensure that it is making backup copies of your data.
  
• You need to test your backup system a few times each year to ensure that it’s working properly and so you’ll know how to use it to restore a file under pressure when a problem arises.

The Tao of Backup web site does a very good job of describing the importance of each of these components in an entertaining and educational way.

Backup systems allow us to recover from a range of problems that can occur. The most common type of problem is accidentally deleting a file and needing to get it back. Another all to common problem is hard drive failure, in which case we’d need to recover all files. Although rare, burglaries, fire, flood and theft all occur and would require us to recover all of our files too. To recover an accidentally deleted file or to recover from a hard drive failure all one needs is a local, on-site backup copy of their files. However, to recover from a burglary, fire or flood can often require having an off-site backup copy of your data.

While I encourage everybody to setup a comprehensive backup system, I understand that not everybody has the time or money to commit to such a system. I’ll re-iterate that any level of protection is better than none at all and a pretty good backup can be surprisingly affordable.

In more practical terms, here is a simple, comprehensive backup system for one Mac. Start by purchasing two external hard drives. Partition each drive into two parts. Configure Carbon Copy Cloner (donations requested) to make a full bootable backup of your Mac to one of the partitions on each of the external drives. Carbon Copy Cloner can be scheduled to perform automatic backups whenever the hard drive is connected. Configure Time Machine, which comes included in Mac OS X 10.5 and higher, to perform automated hourly backups of all files on your Mac to the other partition on each of the external drives. On a designated day each week you can switch between the two hard drives. The idle drive should be stored off-site at a secure location across the street or across town. If you’re not inclined to buy two backup hard drives then you could supplement your one on-site hard drive with off-site backups made by CrashPlan. CrashPlan is an online backup system. They have different pricing for personal and business use. (I’ve now written Tech Tip articles about using CrashPlan for either personal or business use.)

The reason to use both Carbon Copy Cloner and Time Machine is that even though Time Machine backs up all files on a hard drive, it does not do so in a manner which lets one start (boot) their Mac from the Time Machine backup drive. Thus, Carbon Copy Cloner is a nice supplement to Time Machine since it’s focus is making a bootable backup drive. Having another hard drive from which one can boot their Mac can minimize downtime and can be helpful in the event of problem with the internal hard drive.

Monitoring the system is easy. To monitor Time Machine simply click on its Menu Bar icon to see when it last ran and/or look for its Menu Bar icon to spin while it is performing a backup. When you swap the backup drives you should see Carbon Copy Cloner automatically start.

Apple has an article which provides instructions on how to restore files from a Time Machine backup. Practice this a few times so you have confidence that Time Machine is working and so you’ll be calm if you need to rely on Time Machine for real. An important test of the Carbon Copy Cloner backup is to go to the Startup Disk System Preference, select this disk and then restart your Mac to ensure that you can boot from this backup. To determine which drive was used to startup your Mac, go to the Apple menu, select About This Mac and see which disk is listed as the startup disk or use Disk Utility.

A few final notes. Archives are different from backups and I think you should archive your more important data as well. I’ll talk about archives in a future article.

TidBits’ has written a couple of excellent Take Control PDF books about backing up Macs. Check them out:

Take Control of Mac Backups and Take Control of Easy Mac Backups

This article is the first in a series of articles that talk about Macintosh backup systems including specific products. Check my Tech Tip blog regularly for more articles in my Backup category.