DESKER  I have now heard back from CrashPlan and the response was quick (within a couple of hours). So that's good and a major point in the company's favor and makes me optimistic.

They say my troubles probably are on my end, likely a firewall acting up. This has not been the case with my other two backup providers, but you never know.

If my problems now cease (in fact I had a spontaneous reconnection without doing anything) and things stay stable over the next few days I will be happy to return to give CrashPlan a glowing five star review and sign on for actual dollars with them.

  
(Version 10.19.2009)

DESKER  Just to modify what I said previously, I have sent an e-mail to CrashPlan support (I just wasn't looking carefully enough) and I'm waiting for a reply.

I'm still hoping everything works out.  
(Version 10.19.2009)

DESKER  My experience has been the exact opposite.

I, too, was enticed into trying CrashPlan by the reviews. I have used a couple of other backups, but I thought, since the opinions about CrashPlan were so glowing that I'd give it a shot. The software was at least easy to understand and use (as opposed to SpiderOak).

So two days ago I started uploading all my photo files in the hope of getting them all up there before my free month ran out. Then I planned to sign up for a year to give it a full test.

But, today my connection was dropped four separate time for up to two hours at a stretch, something I've never had happen with either JungleDisk or SpiderOak (which seems to get a terrifically bad press, probably because its software is so confusing to use.

At the moment I can't connect in any way and the notation beside CrashPlan Central says "destination unavailable." My last connection was 2.4 hours ago.

And I'd love to know how you get in touch with anyone at CrashPlan support without having paid for a year in advance. Perhaps I'm just not seeing it but I can't find any way to get in touch with them to tell them that I'd love to use their service, but I can't.  
(Version 10.19.2009)