Copying files under SSH faster than SCP

you can use your own compression algorithm when copying files over SSH

tar -jcp *  | ssh user@host "tar -jxp -C /path/at/server/destination/"

here I used tar -j for bzip2, but you can also use gzip through tar -z

example:

tar -zcp *  | ssh user@host "tar -zxp -C /path/at/server/destination/"