Sepoe
Level 2 (168 points)
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Q: How can I speed up finder on slow ssh connections?

Hey there,

 

I have a NAS in my office to which I connect trough a SSH tunnel. This setup is very useful to download/upload files when not in the office. The only drawback is the slow connection (<100kbps upload on the server side since it is only a really slow ADSL line).

As long as I use the terminal to navigate on the server it is ok but as soon as I try to use the finder, It drastically slows down everything. If I open a folder with many files it can take minutes until Finder unfreezes again… I think this is due to the fact, that the Finder tries to determin which filetypes are in a folder and it loads previews and stuff.

I already tried several changes in my finder setup to speed things up but nothing helped.


So my question is:

Is there an alternative app that is able to connect to SMB-Servers and navigate on them on a GUI like finder or similar? I can even live with terminal but copying is a bit a hassel since you always have to type the whole paths of the target...

 

By the way: I use OS X 10.8.5 and OS X 10.9 on the client side… the NAS runs some kind of Linux… therefore the SMB protocol...

 

Thank you, best Regards,

Sebastian

Posted on Sep 21, 2015 8:02 AM

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Sepoe

Q: How can I speed up finder on slow ssh connections?

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  • by BobHarris,

    BobHarris BobHarris Sep 21, 2015 4:14 PM in response to Sepoe
    Level 6 (19,553 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 21, 2015 4:14 PM in response to Sepoe

    If you have ssh access, you also have sftp access.


    There are dozens of sftp GUI clients available for the Mac that provide a GUI navigation interface.  The sftp client is going to be doing the equivalent of 'ls' commands on the server side, so it will be much less network bandwidth.

     

    NOTE:  I'm actually very happy using ssh sessions and then the 'scp' command to transfer files, so I have not really needed an sftp client.  But years ago I did pay with CyberDuck (when it was free; it is a paid app today).  But checking the App Store for 'sftp' turns up a bunch of clients.