vm1, I just saw your post on your final initial (??) setup. That's bascially what I set up for Dr. C and what we have now. Except we have 3 laptops and 2 desktops. My desktop is used as the server. Its all a peer-to-peer network though.
On backup, you can use an inexpensive program like SmartSync to automatically back up your database folder daily (and other folders if you like) to either 1) your laptop or 2) an external HD or 3) both. Smartsync can be downloaded, it cheap, and easy to use. You could probably also set it to back up to a thumbdrive or flash drive. Currently I have 2 backups-- the one on the computer which is generated whenever I backup the database in Admin Options,and my daily backup to the other desktop. I plan on either getting a removable drive or an external HD also. Unless we get the Windows Server. Then I'm not sure.
On encryption, I've been using a free version of a program called Cryptainer to send encrypted messages to our biller. It can create a self-extracting file if the recipient just knows the password. You can create an encrypted portion of a hard drive (internal or external) also, on which you could store a backup.
