Adam,

<< My users don't have a massive internet connection, but they do have a
fairly massive DB (several 100s of mb). Even zipped by your excellent back
up facility (because there is compression on the larger fields anyway) it is
still too big to send the whole thing over the internet. >>

I understand, but my point was that the built-in backup should be the
cornerstone of the operation because it is the only way to really backup the
database without coming away with an incomplete backup.

<< Overall, I was just wondering whether anyone else has done this (probably
better!) >>

You've got a pretty good idea of what is involved.  I would recommend the
following:

1) Backup using built-in DBISAM backup to a local file, using a scheduled
event.
2) As part of the same scheduled event, restore the backup to a separate
directory where you can then run your "diff" logic on the desired tables to
determine which records need to be moved off-site via the Internet
connection.  Copy these records to an empty set of tables in another
directory, and then backup these tables using the backup facilities again.
3) Send the resultant backup over the connection to the remote location.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

>>1) Backup using built-in DBISAM backup to a local file, using a scheduled
>>event.

>>2) As part of the same scheduled event, restore the backup to a separate
>>directory where you can then run your "diff" logic on the desired tables to
>>determine which records need to be moved off-site via the Internet
>>connection.  Copy these records to an empty set of tables in another
>>directory, and then backup these tables using the backup facilities again.

Thank you very much for this suggestion:

Holding TodaysData + YesterdaysData (in backup / zip format) on the local machine separate
from CurrentData makes the whole process easier.

Otherwise I was scratching my head to figure out how to figure out the DIFF if
YesterdaysData was only available on the remote machine.



>>3) Send the resultant backup over the connection to the remote location.