Web Site Back up

[Rock]

OK, I am sort of a newbie. I have in the last 4 years built 3 web sites, which I depend on to make a little extra money from. I am really getting concerned about backing up my web builder program with all the files intact for each web site which are all different. I have downloaded Fbackup4 and it seems to be working perfectly, but I don't have the knowledge or experience to put my Yahoo site builder into it . I know I am missing something but am not quite sure what that would be. Anyone out there with a little experience doing this ? Thanks ahead of time Rock

[chris.p]

There is a simple way to back up small sites: get the web files and the database/s and you're done.

1. Get a good FTP app like FileZilla or Core FTP Lite. Then download every file and folder in the webroot. This is the folder (or directory to be precise) one level below the root directory. The webroot directory is normally called public_html, or http_docs, or var/www/html. It's the location of all web files. Get these and you've got the site.

2. Dump the database and get that, via phpMyAdmin thru cPanel (if you are using a DB-driven webapp like a CMS, blog, ecommerce etc).

If you've got the web files and the DB, you've got the site. There are some odds 'n sods like logs or whatever but none of those are critical.

The main difference is if you are using a dynamic app (one that runs off a database) or not. Either way you don't need any backup software, just FTP, unless you want to get complex or your webapp has an integral backup facility (as many CMS do). Another way to get the web files is to use Dreamweaver, for a plain HTML website, as that has an excellent sync & link facility that creates a local copy of the site. Even old versions of DW are good for this.

What you can do after that is to check that your backups are OK. This is the perennial problem because you don't know if they work until you load them up again and they either work or fail.

So to avoid tears at bedtime, install XAMPP on a spare PC. It's a LAN server setup that will run websites locally, even CMS and ecommerce. If you google 'xampp manual' you will find a most excellent website at Google #1 that will assist you in this regard

Then you can run all your websites on a local PC and test them out, including backups.

If you are using a CMS like Joomla or micro-cms like WordPress, you can get plugins that create a one-click backup of all files + DB. That's the modern way, no messing about.

[inapaler]

Nice to know..
I have been all dependent on my webhost about making backup of my site.

thanks a lot. i have to try it.

[smallhagrid]

What I notice is that even though there's a zillion websites in the world, there seems to be ZERO around for simple - easy - quick website backup software !!!

All the voodoo that a person has to do just to get a copy of their personal website and make sure it works too...is ANYTHING -but- simple, easy or quick.

Supposing you are a person like myself with a domain and a small site on a free host...and we all know that EVEN the best free hosting will go away after a while, so:
Why not get some other free hosting someplace else and 'just' make a copy of the site's contents there - and use their free subdomain so it has a place to live ?
Not easy - not simple - not quick. (Not even close to it.)

There should be a whole BUNCH of programs that run locally-> take your credentials, and BANG-ZOOM! backup and/or transfer ALL your data - pics, pages, guestbook, whatever - and maybe even updating the links (how cool would THAT be ?!) so it all works on another host.
Easy as that.

No such animal though.
FTP ? Sure. phpMyAdmin ? Yup. Etc., etc., etc...

Why hasn't anyone made such a great software ?
Backing up is SO important. This is really needed.