>The technical support at my ISP is clueless about SQL Server (at least the person I talked to) and I'm sure there are some of you who are using MSSQL/ASP combination on a remote ISP so...
>
>First, I need to upload the DB to my site. Do I backup the DB and post the .BAK file or upload the MDF/LDF files?
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>Second, how can I do backups and to general administration of the DB over the Internet? I can't simply connect and use EM?
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>Last, is there a way to replicate the DB back to our local MSSQL Server in a "scheduled" time bases?
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>I've never worked on MSSQL over the Internet so I'm basically also clueless. TIA.

John,
If you use the TCPIP protocol to connect in house, there really is no difference. You need to use that protocol over the internet.

1. As Wayne said, whatever format your ISP can accept is what you need to provide them.

2. Actually, you can connect using SEM. It will obviously be slower because the connection via the internet will be slower than you local network but there is nothing stopping you from doing it. If you can connect using QA or something else (e.g. ADO) then you can connect to use SEM.

Your ISP will need to give you an account and access to that DB but that should be no problem as it is your database. They simply will not give you access to any other databases.

3. Replication can be done in a number of ways. Because of security issues at the ISP, I would recommend using a Pull replication job configured on your local server. You could configure the job to run anytime you wanted. It would go out and connect with the database at the ISP and pull all the changes down. There is also a push but you need access rights at the ISP to configure that kind of job and you may not get that.

HTH.