Years ago I was told that Microsoft set up a Publisher on one side of the Atlantic and the Distributor/Subscriber at the other.

When they got their first phone bill it was rather high because the only communication you could control was between the distributor and the subscriber.

I have found that occassionaly I have to stop replication (back ups, busy periods etc).

sp_replicationdboption '<<dbname>>','sync with backup' true.

stops the publisher sending any transactions to the distributor unless they have been backed up.

For back up purposes I back up the Distributor, then the publishing database.

Then issue the

sp_replicationdboption '<<dbname>>','sync with backup' false.

to let normal service resume.