We have sampled TalkTalk's Online Backup service (£3.99 pcm for 20Gb) and found it to be a disaster. The automatic backup software is so buggy that it could only be stopped by killing the processes in Windows Task Manager. No-one at TalkTalk knew anything about the service - either the billing or the technical operation - which is clearly a re-brand of something they have bought in. Support is non-existent.

We have also trialled the BT Digital Vault Plus service at £4.99 a month (20Gb - no mimimum term). At least it's clear where account cancellation can be made. Fortunately, since we have now cancelled. Much the same as TalkTalk - the automatic back up just didn't, support either didn't reply or didn't answer the question. Very clunky interface which took ages to respond to commands.

 You should be aware that all the services we have tried are very slow at uploading files, so the initial upload can take many hours.

So we are nearer the conclusion that the solution may lie in purchasing a web hosting service in the US (you can get 300Gb for $6.95/month paid 2 years in advance) and FTP-ing files up. We need to investigate FTP software that would automate the process. Comodo have a free offering that we will try when we have time. Meanwhile we have purchased 300Gb and started uploading our photos! We noticed that Bluehost.com's shared hosting comes with a "web drive" which allows you to drag and drop files for uploading without out the complication of FTP software.

Another service we have used for several years is Swapdrive Backup (www.swapdrive.com). This has proved to be an excellent service for our mission-critical files (financial and  customer records etc) but it is comparatively expensive at  $4.95/month for 250Mb or $50/month for 2Gb. We can recommend this service wholeheartedly, and for peace of mind it's well worth it. It's generally accepted that 4 out of 5 businesses that lose their financial data never recover.

Don't be one of them!