I read your post about hackeres and making sure to back up one’s web site.  It was very timely as I have been in the process of trying to find out how to back up my site and databases.

My host does not provide CP back-ups.  I do have a copy of my site in my web site program (FP 2003).  I backup my phpbb with the database and my membership site database frequently (but not every day).  I can also back up mySQL database.

I would like to know if I am already doing enough or if I should do more.  Should I do it daily since I have a membership site?  Have I covered all that I need to backup from my website?

I have the option to upgrade my site’s package to include SSH.  Before I do this, can you suggest another way to do backups without a C-panel backup option that is 1) safe, 2) ecconomical and 3) easy like using that SiteSaver software?

Blair

Hi Blair. Good for you! You’re taking steps many website owners neglect. I too own membership sites and for those, I back them up daily. If you have a busy forum, I’d suggest doing it every day. If you get lots of members joining every day, you might even want to consider twice a day.

For example we run aMember a lot. If the site goes down tonight and my last backup was last night, then I’d lose all those who joined today. Not a big deal if you have a handful of signups but problematic if you sign people up every hour.

I think you’re doing good. Generally, you want to copy all the files from your public_html folder, your www folder or your website.com folder – depending on your host. And the full database itself.

You can backup automatically using other methods. For the technically adventurous, you can do this via SSH but be warned it can be very technical. Utterly confusing if you don’t know Linux systems very well. Which is why I don’t normally recommend that route because most reading my blog and emails are business people. Not techies, and we usually want something simple.

Here’s another method you could use – and this will again depend on your web host. If your web host generates the backups and stores them in your account, you can software like SyncBackSE to automatically login via secure FTP and download the backups for you. Finally, you could simply outsource it. Let someone else backup for you.

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