I managed to back up using a PHP script I found on hotscripts.com [thanks nitro, hadn't through of that]... You can find the script named backupDB
here - it is very nicely done and has protection against server timeouts.
Here is the dimela though...
My database on the server is 215mb.
When I gzip, it goes down to 61mb.
When I gunzup - it goes to 600mb!?!?
Anyone have any idea why?