Mysql – Managing Remote MySQL DB using local phptheadmin

Changing max_execution_time and max_input_time in the php.ini file plus modifying $cfg['ExecTimeLimit'] = 0; in config.inc.php for phpMyAdmin should do the trick.

I can't think of a much better way other than potentially skipping the ftp part. Instead just using a straight POST using wget (though I'd check to see what happens if the POST fails i.e. data is too large for the PHP min upload size). This would skip some of the complexity from the script as you are just doing mysqldump followed by an wget auth then POST (unless I've missed something).

However, the more important question is why are you using a host that only allows PHP access? You already have a dev system working locally so you know how to handle the admin side of things. You really should be keeping production and development environments as close as possible to avoid the annoying niggles that arise from troubleshooting disparate systems (not to mention avoiding this particular admin hassle).

My VDS provider do a hosting package for £48 for the year which gives 1GB of space, 100GB traffic and a database (this is inc. VAT so knock more off that price if you can claim it back). And you get full shell access. I'm sure there are loads of hosting providers like this as well so why hamper future development? It will only kick you in the arse further down the line.