[lug] Off-site backup

[Ben]

I'm trying to figure out the best way to set up an off-site data backup.
Is there a standard media/method used for this?

We have ~20 gigs of data and maybe upwards of 500mb - 1gb that could
change per week. Our internet connection is not very reliable, nor very
fast, so I'm wary of a network backup to a remote server. We are looking
for a weekly (full) backup where last week's and 2 weeks ago's data is
stored off-site. The idea is make the backup require as little user
intervention as possible. All the data is sitting in a directory on a
linux server, so copying the data should be straight-forward.

We could do this with a tape backup system and 3 tapes. How reliable are
tapes? The data is a little large for dvd's without it becoming cumbersome
with all the different dvd's. Plus, burning a set of dvd usually takes a
good amount of user-intervention. A set of external hard drives might
work. I've heard about removable hard drives (as opposed to external?),
but not sure how they differ from external drives. Anything I'm missing?

Any suggestions? Any comparison of the reliabilty of different methods
would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Ben