Thanks for the reply, Ray. At this point in time I have no problem making the local copy of the file read only but I can't manage it with the remote copy. My ISP is looking into this problem for me as they say it should be possible.
Now as to your other suggestion about a backup. I've no problem backing up the local site but - and I know this is going to sound pathetic - how do I back up the remote site? I've looked in DW and FileZilla and there doesn't seem to be a way in either of these programmes to copy the files on the remote server. So, any help with this will be greatly appreciated.