The Auto Backup/FTP program was originally written to copy working copies of software being developed to a safe drive and directory on another computer in the network. Like many programmers, James Miller is not good at security of source code!

This program does it automatically every night at a time when the network is quiet!

The first improvement to the program was the allowing of weekly, date and time-based directories, so that cyclic copies could be made.

As time progressed the program has increased significantly in features and application :-

• James has installed the Auto Backup/FTP in his Windows Start folder, so that the backup is institutionalised into his computer.

• A few years ago, James was programming a management system for a company. The basis of their computer system at the time, was an old dBase-based system, that was unable to be modified.
  
  The Auto Backup/FTP was used to copy all of the dBase files to another computer every time they were detected to have changed. Not only did this provide a very secure backup, but it enabled another program to reprocess the data and produce the required on-line management reports.
  
  It may not have been a totally elegant system, but it was totally safe and very reliable. It also meant that a new and powerful management system could be created, without altering a fragile and very out-of-date system.

• As the backup mode of the program had proved successful, it was extended to perform FTP transfers on the same basis.
  
  These can be performed by checking a cache first. If the file to be uploaded matches the one in the cache then no uploading is performed.

• The FTP transfer has been used successfully by several companies to store their important files on the Internet.

• The FTP features of the program have now been extended, so that it can check directories and perform all transfers from the very simple to the most complex.

• A full help system is now available if you have a large screen.

• To save space on the backup computer or drive, a date can be set which limits the number of files copied. No files older than this date will be copied. Usually, this would be a date a few months before you did your last major backup to something secure like a CD-ROM.

• Compression or zipping of files has been added.

• Individual sub-directories can also be controlled more closely. Thus a directory, which contains nothing but temporary work files can be set so that it is not copied.

• Individual profiles can also be run using a Windows scheduled task. This enables transfers to be performed once a day, once a week, once a month etc. in addition to those defined in the program.