WebMail 
Support 
Thinking Of Using Your Hosting Account For Backup? Think Again
Keeping your data backups onsite can be risky. If there’s ever a fire or a robbery, you could lose both – your backup copy and your master copy. Of course, shipping your backup tapes or DVDs to an off-site location every day can also be inconvenient.
That’s why so many people today are choosing to send their backup data, over the internet, to an off-site storage facility.
Given that Web Hosting prices are so cheap, it can be tempting to use your web hosting account as an online file storage or backup device for your home computer. After all, you can now get unlimited disk space and bandwidth for as little as four dollars per month.
But before you start uploading the entire contents of your hard drive, there are a few things you need to keep in mind…
Check the fine print in your hosting contract. Most Web Hosts have explicit clauses prohibiting the use of your web server as an online backup device.
If you upload copyrighted materials to your web server, you face the risk of having your account suddenly terminated without notice.
Is privacy important to you? Then you need to consider that files stored on your server can also be potentially accessed by nosy strangers online. This exposes you to the possibility of identity theft and privacy breaches.
Because FTP doesn’t support block-level incremental uploads like an online backup service would, your backups will take forever to transmit. This could also slow down your internet connection and cause problems with your ISP.
This method of backup only supports a single “point-in-time†file version. If you accidentally save over an important file or get a virus, you’ll have no way of recovering your data.
In recent years, a lot of new specialized online backup companies have appeared on the market. There’s such a wide range of price points and feature sets that you’re bound to find something that’s just right for your particular requirements.
In fact, many web hosts today also offer online backup solutions in addition to their regular website hosting services. If you do a bit of research, you might even be able to get a special deal by bundling this software with your web hosting subscription.
This is a much better and safer alternative to the do-it-yourself approach.
Article Provided by Storagepipe Solutions. They provide email archiving and online backup software for businesses of all sizes. Storagepipe also offers reseller programs that allow web hosts to offer their own white-label online backup solutions.
For a complete list of suitable online backup and web hosting providers, please visit FindMyHost.com, an online research and review panel that objectively grades all web hosting companies. Only approved hosts are allowed in to the database. Search consumer web hosting reviews and much more.
