The lightweight netcat utility can be used to copy large files quickly bewteen machines when encryption is not a concern… and say the nfs gods are not smiling on you today and you don’t want to wait for a ~3 MB/s copy with scp.

On the machine that has the file to copy:

netcat -v 192.168.15.12 9999 < some_big_file.tgz

• -v Be verbose about what it is doing (gives helpful hints if it isn’t working for some reason).
• 192.168.15.12 The name or address of the destination machine.
• 9999 Any unused port number.
• < some_big_file.tgz Redirect the content of the file into netcat.

On the destination machine:

netcat -v -l -p 9999 > some_big_file.tgz

• -v Be verbose about what it is doing (gives helpful hints if it isn’t working for some reason).
• -l Listen mode of netcat
• -p 9999 The port to listen on - the same port as used above.
• > some_big_file.tgz Create a new file from the data that arrives from netcat.

Run the destination machine command first, then the source machine.

The two netcat-s remain running after the file is transfered. You need to type control-c on the sending side to turn off netcat after the copy is done. You can use another terminal to verify that the file is complete.

Whole directories can also be moved:

On the machine that has the file to copy:

tar -cv some_directory/* | netcat -v 192.168.15.12 9999

• tar -cv some_directory/* Bundle up the directory and all the files in it
• | Send that into…
• netcat just like before

On the destination machine:

netcat -v -l -p 9999 | tar -xv

• netcat Take the data that arrives from netcat
• | send that into…
• tar -xv To unbundle the directory and files again into the current directory

Update:

I found a Java version of netcat here .