Sometimes when attempting to copy a file ( of size x ) over the network using scp, you may get an error like the following:

filename stalled

or it may just sit there and display:

--:-- ETA

This usually happens because scp is trying to grab as much bandwidth as possible, and a delay in grabbing this bandwidth (say on a busy network or by firewall rules, etc.) can stall it. In this situation, limiting the bandwidth (with -l option) will fix it.

For example, you might want to limit the bandwidth to 1 MB/s:
 
scp -l 8192 <filename> <destination>

(Please note that the -l flag takes it's size in Mb, not MB).