I'm putting into place a multi-server geographically separated backup system to protect my data (mainly my email, photos and mp3 files).

My choosen tool is rsync over ssh, I am backing up one Linux box and one Win2k box onto a remote server. At the moment the remote server is in fact just sitting by my desk, I'm still busy doing the initial sync of 30Gb of data before moving the server to the remote location.

I'm having problems with rsync on Win2k. I'm using the version that comes as part of the cygwin tools.

If I drive things from the Linux box the sync starts fine and runs for a couple of minutes. After a couple of minutes though the sync always stops, no error messages from rsync, it just freezes.

If I drive things from the Win2k box there are no freezes. However the transfer is many times slower that when driving it from the Linux box (or between two Linux boxes). It is so painfully slow that it makes it essentially unusable. I worked out I would still be doing my initial sync sometime next week !

I've found a work round for the moment. I am exporting the data on the Win2k box to the local Linux box via smbclient and then using rsync between the two Linux boxes. This doesn't freeze and runs nice and fast.

It will work for now, but it would be nice to do things "properly" :-(