[plug] Fastest way to transfer files over Internet.

[James Devenish]

In message <1052656385.3027.81.camel at virgo>
on Sun, May 11, 2003 at 08:33:05PM +0800, Scott Middleton wrote:
> What would you use?
> 1 to transfer 1x600MB file.
> 2 to transfer 600x1MB files.
> 3 to transfer 1200x512k files.

Maybe someone else has a single favourite. I don't. Consider that:

 - if I wanted to get a CD-ROM image from one computer to several
   others, I would put it in an FTP/HTTP directory and use wget/ncftp on
   the destination computers. Alternatively, if it is sensitive, I would
   use scp with an ssh agent running (unless the transport between the
   hosts was already encrypted with a fast cipher, in which case I would
   just use FTP/HTTP in preference to scp).
 - if I wanted to transfer a 600Mb tar of my personal files, I would use
   scp to send it out using a command line on the source computer, using
   the default cipher, regardless of whether I had an agent set up.
 - if I wanted to repeatedly transfer a 600Mb file which is changing
   regularly I would leave an sftp session open with a fast cipher on
   either one of the computers OR have it in a web directory and leave a
   browser window open on the destination computer.