Support

Your are using the PHP CGI (Common Gateway Interface) binary instead of the PHP CLI (Command Line Interface) binary. The CGI binary is not supported by our CLI scripts. Please ask your host for the correct location of the PHP CLI binary and replace your CRON command line's /web/cgi-bin/php5 with the path they give you. If they tell you that the CLI and CGI binaries are the same, ask to speak to a level 2 technician (level 1 technicians often can't tell their noses from their... you get the idea).

I will just say one phrase: GoDaddy is trying to screw you, big time!

No, you DO NOT need to enable SSH to use the CLI binary in a CRON job! For crying out loud, are GoDaddy's support people so ignorant?! As far as the operating system is concerned, it makes no difference to the CRON service if you give it the path to the PHP CGI binary, PHP CLI binary, or any other binary; it will run it just the same. Even an 8 year old with minimal Linux experience can tell you as much. All you need is the uneducated imbecile who answered your support request to give you the path to the PHP CLI binary, so that you don't have to look at a crystal ball to guess it. In other words, your host is trying to screw you. Do yourself a favour, don't get fooled into buying a much more expensive hosting package that you obviously don't need. And since we're talking about GoDaddy, the place where customer service and performance come to die, do yourself a huge favour and buy 10x faster, 100x better supported hosting service for the same money. Where? Oh, several places. Like CloudAccess.net, SiteGround, iRedHost or Rochen (I've used all of the above hosts myself, obviously there are many more good hosts out there).

I am using Rochen, but I am a bad example to begin with. I am using the expensive MVS package. You most likely need shared hosting. I don't recommend Rochen's shared hosting. I'd rather tell you to try SiteGround instead.

Ah, GoDaddy... In the developer community we refer to them as NoDaddy. I guess you can imagine why. *sigh*

You're welcome and don't hesitate to post back once you move hosts!

If you get no warnings or errors during backup, it is 99% possible that you have a perfectly working backup. However, my mantra is "an untested backup is as good as no backup". It's a good idea testing that backup. You can do that with a local server environment, e.g. using XAMPP (cross-platform), Zend Server CE (cross-platform), MAMP (Mac OS X) or WAMPServer (Windows). Just download all parts of the backup archive and restore them on your local server. That's a great exercise, too, as it will familiarise you with the restoration procedure.