Backup Remote MS SQL Database

I have a MS SQL database hosted on a remote server.

I need to be able to back it up and restore it if it ever goes down.

I downloaded the free evaluation version of SQL server and installed it on my home computer and right now backup the database using the Enterprise Manager export function (wizard).

This works fine but my free evaluation version of SQL is only good for 90-120 days and I'm not spending that kind of money to get a SQL license just for this one task.

I think the long term solution is to write an ASP that connects to the remote database and backs it up in a text file form on my home computer. In fact, the software that uses the database, which is a discussion forum, does this very thing in the Unix environment, but the backup feature won't work in Windows.

So, I am pretty sure it's feasible to do this but is it practical? Probably, once I upload the archive from the previous forum database software my new SQL database will be about 80 megs. Assuming the backup script can append new information and not have to back up the whole thing everytime. But, even if the backup script works is it practical to expect to be able to restore an 80 meg database (in a shared server environment) via that method.

And, finally, I can probably figure out the ASP code to do this eventually, but my SQL knowledge is limited. Are there already scripts available that do this?

Any comments and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.

Check your host to see what their back plan is...they should have backups of your database.

They do backup the SQL databases but those are for server crashes. Those backups are not generally available for the users.

Nor do they allow backups of SQL databases on the shared server even if you have the Enterprise Manager, or other tools which utilize that option.

Their recommendation is to use ASPs or DTS.

You could get the developer version of SQL Server maybe.