like to backup some logging, mail, and configuration information sometimes on hosts across the network and Internet, and here is a way I have found to do it. You'll need these packages installed:

rsync
openssh
cron (or vixie-cron)

Please note these instructions may be specific to Red Hat Linux versions 7.3, 9, and Fedora Core 3, but I hope they won't be too hard to adapt to almost any *NIX type OS. The man pages for 'ssh' and 'rsync' should be helpful to you if you need to change some things (use the "man ssh" and "man rsync" commands).
First, I'll define some variables. In my explanation, I will be synchronizing files (copying only new or changed files) one way, and I will be starting this process from the host I want to copy things to. In other words, I will be syncing files from /remote/dir/ on remotehost, as remoteuser, to /this/dir/ on thishost, as thisuser.