> > FTP? don't think about just copying the database file direct under
> ftp.
> > you'll very likely corrupt both the real version and the copied
> version.
> > Especially if the DB is large and even more especially if there is
> current
> > traffic on the website in question.
>
> What if I shut the database down before I ftp the file. Would this
> work ok?
>
> David

in theory yes. In practise? your web application - what user are you using
to connect? if SYSDBA or the DB owner, shutting down will have no effect at
all since they can still connect after shutdown. Not sure what your exact
setup is but if you can shutdown the database you must have pretty good
access to the box, i.e. you need gfix to shutdown the database,.. so you
have the full path to the db...which begs the question why you don't run
gbak and do the proper thing of getting a transportable backup to your local
system. If your hoser is shutting down for you, then timing will be hard to
co-ordinate without bringing the site down for an unwarranted length of time
(assuming a non-SYSDBA and non-DBOWNER user is being used to run the
application.
Alan