[13] WHY DOES SFTP / SCP STOP WORKING FOR ME? To use SFTP or SCP you must first be an ARPA member. If you are an ARPA member, then please continue reading. What did you change? Both sftp and scp use 'sftp-server' via the ssh session you establish. Any output from the /etc/motd and your ENV setup files (.login, .profile .. et cetera) are read into a buffer and not output to your SFTP / SCP client. Because of this, the server may exit abruptly citing: Received message too long 778199659 /etc/motd is always kept to just a few lines to accomodate users who like to have 'fortune' or the output of other programs displayed when they login. The result can be sporatic use of SFTP/SCP. The best bet is to just not display a large amount of data when you login (such as the process table, who is logged in or who has logged in for the past 6 months).