I recently read an article in Mac Format talking about turning PERL scripts into Automator tasks. This got me thinking. I use a shell script to make a compressed tape archives of my user settings on my laptop so I decided to have a play with Automator. Automator is a program that comes as part of OSX that can be used to make the computer do common tasks for you. I have made a workflow, as they are called, that connects to the server, makes the tape achieves, compresses them, copies them and the rest of my user area to the server, and then disconnects from the server.The whole process took about 2 and a half hours which was much longer than I was expecting. I can setup my laptop to turn itself on and off and set a specific schedule; all I need to work out is how to get the program to run at a scheduled time without having to manually log in. I will be looking at getting a Gigabit ethernet switch and card that should greatly improve the network speed when backing up.