Re: backing up off of web host

Matthew Perry wrote:

The MySQL database on my web host has only non-sensitive information. How bad an idea is it to have a backup copy emailed to me at a designated time so I don't have to depend on myself and the host for backups? To qunatify how "bad of an idea" depends on how valuable your data is. If you say it's non-sensitive, then you shouldn't have anything to worry about. If your database contains credit card info, then that would be a security concern if sent via e-mail unencrypted.

Is this the only problem? What other solutions do I have that do not depend on my web host?

Encrypt the mysqldump file. Use FTP to fetch it. Then you don't have to worry about e-mailing large files. If you weren't on a hosting plan and maybe if you had more control over the server, I might've suggested the crontab job that I wrote you about yesterday so a script could be run and everything happens on a schedule. It's possible that if you ask their sysadmin nicely, he can do it for you.