Backup your Mac to DreamHost

James, it would all depend your connection as well as your hosts'. You could always try secure copying a file if your host allows ssh access, time that and compare to WebDav speeds. Heck you could probably install FUSE and sshFS http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/downloads/list and compare speeds with WebDav that way as well.

I've had slow performance using WebDav drives in general. Am I doing something wrong or it's slow...

Uncanny, I just put this in my blog a few days ago:

http://www.latestintech.com/2007/03/23/macfuse/

"Dreamhost.com would give you an even better value than Amazon’s S3 and JungleDisk. If you pay up-front a year of of hosting, 200Gigs of storage space and 2 terabytes of bandwidth Dreamhost will cost you $120."

This does look like a more complete tutorial, rather than just an idea.

You can also do this with a Windows computer, my tutorial can be found here:

http://www.latestintech.com/2007/03/20/sync-windows-directories-with-linux/

Great way to use my DreamHost account...

Those who don't have an account yet, can get one cheap by using one of the promo codes from http://www.dreamhost-promo-code.com/

If you're (quite righty IMO) worried about security when backing up to shared hosting, create an AES encrypted Sparse Image using Disk Utility big enough for your backup, save it to your DreamHost (or whoever) WebDav space, mount the image in Finder then backup to the image... bingo - only you can access the stuff on it. Job's a good'un!

Can any one comment on this...
what about doing a local "Backup.app" backup and then syncing the files via your FTP client such as "Cyberduck.app"(Free). this could then be done to any web hosting company. The only downside i see here is that cyberduck has no "automater.app" integration but i am sure that someone who was good with apple script could cut a script for the whole process and then use ical to launch it when the user wants it done. This would solve 2 backup solutions. the local copy and the off site copy. Please comment on this i want to know what the community thinks of this solution. and if any one knows how you could applescript this kind of thing could you tell me how?

re: Security

I think this is a valid concern, and I don't upload any particularly sensitive information to my DreamHost account. On the other hand, you might say something similar about the other online backup systems. If you're really freaked out about that, then you should encrypt stuff before uploading it.

I guess you guys don't care that the Dreamhost employees can get a free copy of all your personal data.

I'm with Eli - this is a very insecure system. I jumped from them to Media Temple (yes, I know overpriced, but has been great quality and support so far) not only because of their lackluster security but because of their flaky uptime. You get what you pay for, don't expect anything more.

With Dreamhost's history of lackluster security and server administration*, is it really a good idea to keep an unencrypted copy of all your personal files on a shared server with 100+ other people that have SSH access?

*Hey, I'm not complaining, I am a Dreamhost customer too, I just don't have high expectations for ~$10 a month.