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File transfer speeds via SFTP

Mon, 2009.01.26 - 15:44 — müzso
I've googled for others' experiences on SFTP transfer speeds and found that many could not go over a few (3-4) MB/s. Not even if testing between servers on the same LAN. I've run my own tests now and got 50MB/s sustainable speed between two PCs. Both have the same architecture:
  • Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 (2.4GHz) CPU
  • 4GB RAM
  • 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Marvel Technology Group Ltd.)
The sshd on the target server pushed one of the cores of the CPU to 75%. However the speed was far beyond 3-4 MB/s that many others experienced.

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Mon, 2009.01.26 - 16:29 — airwin

SFTP Acknowledgement Packets

Try "scp". The sftp protocol includes acknowledgement packets which block the transfer and effectively reduce the speed. Ref

Mon, 2009.01.26 - 16:37 — müzso

Re: SFTP Acknowledgement Packets

Thanks, I already knew that scp can be a lot faster than sftp. Actually I was not looking for a way to get even more speed (50 MB/s is more than enough for me Smile ). I wrote this post so others looking for an answer to their problem (why they cannot reach higher speeds with sftp) can see that pretty high speed transfers can be reached even with SFTP.