RSync Folks... Question

[TexUs]

So basically, I've got family I'm kindof responsible for backing their stuff up.

What I'd like to do is stick a second HDD in their machine, and backup to that (local copy). But I'd also like to backup to a location (my house) over the internet. My questions to this...
Can I use RSync for both?
Can I manually transport the initial backup to my house, and then just subsequent diff/incr backups be done online?
How's the connection between the two established? What do you guys use?

I might even do this vice-versa as well (backup mine to theirs). Uploads suck in both instances, the big thing is I wonder if I could do the manual RSync to save me weeks of upload time.

 

[akirarat]

Yes, you can do rsync to multiple places. Just run a script and put down the rsync commands: rsync <opts> <source> <destination1>; rsync <opts> <source> <destination2>

Yes, you can do incremental backups. Use the parameters: --backup --backup-dir

Yes, you can plug in a hard drive into the source computer over usb/sata and copy with rsync or cp and it will go super fast. Disconnect the hard drive and take it to your remote location. The incremental backup will pick up changes from the time you did your last full backup.

Connection to remote site is done via tcp port ssh (22). You need the host name or ip of course. If you're using a dynamic ip, you need to get a free hostname through dyndns.org.