Hi
I only joined so i could post some answers here for you as you seem somewhat confused with backups etc
I stumbled across this site by accident and started reading the backups thread, I used to run a fairly large phpbb forum site and was sole admin running backups etc etc so i thought id post some info here........
When you get a backup of your board from phpbber this will be in the format of a
MySQL backup
It will probably be in the form of a
.gzip file although this is not always the case
The backup is a database backup of your entire board this is all members, posts pm's etc etc
This can then be restored to a similar phpbb forum if you change websites etc
In most cases a backup is done with the phpMYADMIN utility although on this (phpbber) site i guess its not as their database probably contains more than one forum/group which is why they charge for your own personnel backup
For your board i would guess they will post a link to you for an ftp upload of your backup, if you havent got broadband then this may take a while.
For info on php Bulletin Board and all tech support which is free and if you set up your own site then take a look at
www.phpbb.com this is where the phpbb board was developed and is being supported
for info on the database then google
MySQL and
phpMyAdmin
Although both MySQL and phpMyAdmin can be heavy going