mysql backup solution

I've got a large mysql database (~400 megs) on a host that I need to backup regularly. If I use phpMyAdmin's dump features, it just freezes. I've currently got a php script that goes thru each table and backs up about 10,000 records iteratively (for example accounts1.txt, accounts2.txt). But it just backs them up to the host itself. (a) I need it to zip up the files to make them smaller, (b) I would like the script to save the zipped files to a designated folder on my local harddrive via ftp download (without me having to say where, or giving it an okay). Is that possible? Does someone have a better backup method? Thanks, John