Nc

From Wsms

netcat

You can copy a file across a network with /usr/share/doc/netcat/examples/scripts/ncp

Or you can use Gus Wirth's suggestion from http://www.kernel-panic.org/pipermail/kplug-list/2009-April/107179.html

On the server (desktop) do the following:
$ nc -l -p 8000 > laptop.img

On the laptop, do the following:
$ sudo dd if=/dev/hda | nc desk.top.ip.addr 8000

If your network is slow and/or you have limited space on the server, add compression on the laptop side:

On the server (desktop) do the following:
$ nc -l -p 8000 > laptop.img.bz2

On the laptop, do the following:
$ sudo dd if=/dev/hda | bzip2 | nc desk.top.ip.addr 8000

see also

man nc