I've been having people do work for my website a lot recently and I've realized I've been giving out my FTP details a lot, not even knowing if the person is trustworthy. As far as I know, its possible for someone to delete files off your server or mess up your site badly. Correct me if I'm wrong. Before I give out my FTP details anymore to have anyone do work for me, how can I back up these files in case someone decides to screw me? I'm using filezilla if that helps. Thanks guys.
When giving out details to someone, if you are unable to create them their own account, make sure to change the password on the account at the end of each job. Immediately. Also, check your logs. Make sure they weren't snooping around, etc. Just download them. If your connection isn't fast enough, you could alsways ftp them directly from your server to another server. Also drop box has a unix version, but I've never used it. https://www.dropbox.com/install?os=lnx
There are several ways to backup files. It's even easier if your hosting comes with cPanel. Option 1 : Use cPanel's Backup Wizard to backup both files and databases. Option 2 : Manually backup files and folders by archiving it into a .zip and download it to a safe location. You'll have to use phpmyadmin to export the database(s). Step 1 Step 2 If you're running Wordpress, you could use backup plugins like backupbuddy to backup both files and folders and save it to Google Drive/ Dropbox/ S3.
