"Jem Berkes" <jb@users.pc9.org> wrote in message
news:Xns93A462C01600Bjbuserspc9org@205.200.16.73.. .

> I'm currently using rsync over ssh to do incremental backups several times
> a day from three Windows (NT) machines to a central Linux server.
>
> But I've encountered enough problems that now I'm thinking this isn't a
> good long term solution. First, the rsync and ssh ports (part of cygwin)
> seem to hang on occasion, severely crippling the Windows machines.

You can work around this in two ways until someone fixes the Cygwin
sshd/rsync combo. Running in rsync daemon mode will work, or you
can use 'rsync -essh ...' from the windows side, letting the Linux
sshd complete the connection.

> The
> other problem is that whenever daylight savings time switches on or off,
> the timestamps on all files become invalid and EVERYTHING gets transferred
> to the linux server, instead of an incremental backup.

Even when the timestamps don't match, rsync should not transfer existing
data (although it may copy the file on the target file). It does log the
filename
if you are in verbose mode when it changes any attributes (timestamp, owner,
etc.).

> These problems make rsync unattractive for Windows use. Is anyone anywhere
> of any other similar backup solution that will let me incrementally backup
> data from several Windows hosts to a single Linux box?

Look at backuppc at http://backuppc.sourceforge.net. It can use several
methods
including rsync to make the backups and then uses compression and merging of
duplicate file to keep more data on line, and it has a handy web interface
to view
and retrieve files.

---
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@attbi.com