Quickest way to upload to a server?

Question

I am looking for a way to upload a large file (1gb) to a server. So far I have used scp, nc and sftp. Initially I start with a nice upload speed of around 2 mbps, but this quickly slows down to around 100kpbs.

Is there another way I can try?

Answer 1

The "slows down" issue is not a function of the method you are using. None of SCP, NC, SFTP, etc will have any issues with large files vs. small ones and they won't naturally slow down over time.

This is likely a function of your ISP throttling your connection. They likely provide you with bursty bandwidth so that you can do little things quickly, but if you start loading up your line you will get throttled back so you don't hold up their system. No protocol you use is likely to change this behavior.¹

In the off chance that your local network is configured with QoS settings, you could disable them. Otherwise you have no hope for it but to wait for it. 1Gig is a big payload to be sending out over a home internet connection.

If you really must have something faster, get a different service plan or provider. Your only other hope would be to aggregate several connections. You could do this with something like BitTorrent Sync. Set your computer syncing away, but also make yourself a copy of the sync target on a flash drive and go over to the neighbors and setup the sync from there too. The peer to peer nature of BitTorrent Sync will basically turn this sort of setup into and upload with aggregate speed as each link will only send parts that have not been sent by other peers.

_{¹ It's a bit of a long shot but you could try BitTorrent sync even with one client uploading. It might make a difference if your ISP is filtering on a per-connection basis instead of a per-customer basis. By switching to making lots of small connections instead of sending all the data over one long-running one, you might increase the total throughput. On the other hand they might be filtering for torrent traffic and specifically penalizing it so this might be a net-loss for you, but it's worth a try.}