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Introduction

I am experimenting with transferring files over ssh by using the scp command from a terminal. The transfer rate I am achieving is poor and far below what I have seen around the internet. I would like some assistance in speeding things up.

Hardware

  • Dell Latitude D830
  • Dell XPS 15
  • Experia Box V8 router

Software

  • Chakra Linux (both)
  • Linux kernel 3.12.6-1 (both)
  • KDE 4.12.1 (XPS)
  • KDE 4.12.0 (Latitude)
  • OpenSSH_6.2p2 (both)
  • OpenSSL 1.0.1e (both)

Network

  • Laptops are connected to WiFi (no Ethernet connection)
  • Laptops are 5 cm apart and 50 cm away from the router
  • Laptops are in the same LAN

Test

I transfer the movie Mud (Mud.mp4 = 690 MB) from the Latitude to the XPS laptop using:

scp 192.168.2.3:~/Videos/Mud.mp4 ~/

transfer rate: ~1.6 MB/s

scp -c arcfour 192.168.2.3:~/Videos/Mud.mp4 ~/

transfer rate: ~1.6 MB/s

scp -C -c arcfour 192.168.2.3:~/Videos/Mud.mp4 ~/

transfer rate: starts at ~4.5 MB/s drops to ~1.6 MB/s in ~55 seconds

Results for blowfish are almost similar.

Question

Using torrents I normally have a download rate of ~3.5 MB/s. Of course, torrents use a totally different protocol and method than scp but I would think that a small local setup as I presented should perform better than downloading a file from who knows where. Furthermore I have seen results on the internet close to 10 MB/s using scp, even without the high-performance variant of ssh: hpn-ssh.

What can I do to speed up file transfer using scp?

Aeronaelius
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  • i see, these are mp4 files, which are already compressed. So even active -C (compress) in scp, it will no help to speed the copy. – BMW Jan 23 '14 at 01:27
  • Which wireless protocol is each of the laptops using to connect to the access point? Wireless-B? Wireless-G? Wireless-N? – mti2935 Jan 27 '14 at 00:22
  • Both laptops have the exact same install. The wireless icon in the tray states: `Band: b/g` – Aeronaelius Jan 27 '14 at 18:42
  • Link quality: 70/70, Bit rate 72.2 Mbit/s, Signal level: ~-28 dBm – Aeronaelius Jan 27 '14 at 18:58
  • @Aeronaelius, let's gather further information to find a solution today. (Is your CPU maxed out on the sender or receiver during transfer? How about disk I/O, is that maxed out? etc.) Or, perhaps you found a solution to this old question already. Please post the solution as an answer. Otherwise, if we can't troubleshoot the problem anymore, please delete the question. (Anyway, this question would fit better on [Unix&Linux.SE](https://unix.stackexchange.com/).) – daveloyall Nov 14 '19 at 21:05

0 Answers0