Patent ID: 7310736

Claim:
A software application comprising computer executable instructions stored on a tangible computer readable storage medium to be executed by a first computer connected to the Internet for transferring back-up copies of files from the first computer to a second computer connected to the Internet, wherein said first and second computers are linked via the Internet, said software application comprising: designating instructions executed by the first computer for designating files from the first computer for which back-up copies will be transferred to the second computer, said the first computer and said second computer being Internet-enabled; identifying instructions executed by the first computer for identifying the the Internet address of the second computer; and transferring instructions executed by the first computer for transferring back-up copies of the designated files from the first computer to the second computer at the identified location via the Internet wherein the designated files are directly transferred via the Internet; wherein the designating instructions include instructions for designating the one or more files to be transferred to the second computer; instructions for designating a destination identifier associated with the second computer; instructions for designating storage schedule data for back-up copies; and instructions for storing back-up copies of the designated one or more files, the designated destination identifier, and/or the designated storage schedule data in an originating database; wherein the transferring instructions include retrieving storage schedule data to identify one or more back-up times for transferring back-up copies of the designated files from the first computer to the second computer via the Internet, wherein the identifying instructions include: instructions for retrieving the destination identifier for querying a server database to identify an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the second computer, said server database being located on a server linked to the first and second computer via the Internet, and wherein the transferring instructions as executed by the first computer use the identified IP address to initiate a communication session with the second computer via the Internet and to transfer the designated files at the designated back-up times.