How to copy files across computers using SSH and MAC OS X Terminal

You can do this with the scp command, which uses the ssh protocol to copy files across machines. It extends the syntax of cp to allow references to other systems:

scp username1@hostname1:/path/to/file username2@hostname2:/path/to/other/file

Copy something from this machine to some other machine:

scp /path/to/local/file username@hostname:/path/to/remote/file

Copy something from another machine to this machine:

scp username@hostname:/path/to/remote/file /path/to/local/file

Copy with a port number specified:

scp -P 1234 username@hostname:/path/to/remote/file /path/to/local/file

First zip or gzip the folders:
Use the following command:

zip -r NameYouWantForZipFile.zip foldertozip/

or

tar -pvczf BackUpDirectory.tar.gz /path/to/directory

for gzip compression use SCP:

scp [email protected]:~/serverpath/public_html ~/Desktop