Index: src/main/java/hudson/plugins/sshslaves/SSHLauncher.java
===================================================================
--- src/main/java/hudson/plugins/sshslaves/SSHLauncher.java	(revision 30747)
+++ src/main/java/hudson/plugins/sshslaves/SSHLauncher.java	(working copy)
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.io.PrintStream;
 import java.io.StringWriter;
@@ -51,6 +52,7 @@
 import org.kohsuke.stapler.DataBoundConstructor;
 
 import com.trilead.ssh2.Connection;
+import com.trilead.ssh2.SCPClient;
 import com.trilead.ssh2.SFTPv3Client;
 import com.trilead.ssh2.SFTPv3FileAttributes;
 import com.trilead.ssh2.Session;
@@ -345,11 +347,11 @@
      * Method copies the slave jar to the remote system.
      *
      * @param listener         The listener.
-     * @param workingDirectory The directory into whihc the slave jar will be copied.
+     * @param workingDirectory The directory into which the slave jar will be copied.
      *
      * @throws IOException If something goes wrong.
      */
-    private void copySlaveJar(TaskListener listener, String workingDirectory) throws IOException {
+    private void copySlaveJar(TaskListener listener, String workingDirectory) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
         String fileName = workingDirectory + "/slave.jar";
 
         listener.getLogger().println(Messages.SSHLauncher_StartingSFTPClient(getTimestamp()));
@@ -389,6 +391,15 @@
             } catch (Exception e) {
                 throw new IOException2(Messages.SSHLauncher_ErrorCopyingSlaveJar(), e);
             }
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            listener.getLogger().println(Messages.SSHLauncher_SFTPFailure(getTimestamp()));
+            // lets try to recover if the slave doesn't have an SFTP server running
+            if (sftpClient == null) {
+                copySlaveJarUsingSCP(listener, workingDirectory);
+            } else
+            {
+                throw e;
+            }
         } finally {
             if (sftpClient != null) {
                 sftpClient.close();
@@ -396,6 +407,73 @@
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Method copies the slave jar to the remote system using scp.
+     *
+     * @param listener         The listener.
+     * @param workingDirectory The directory into which the slave jar will be copied.
+     *
+     * @throws IOException If something goes wrong.
+     * @throws InterruptedException If something goes wrong.
+     */
+    private void copySlaveJarUsingSCP(TaskListener listener, String workingDirectory) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+        listener.getLogger().println(Messages.SSHLauncher_StartingSCPClient(getTimestamp()));
+        SCPClient scp = new SCPClient(connection);
+        try
+        {
+            // check if the working directory exists
+            StringWriter output = new StringWriter();
+            ByteArrayOutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+            connection.exec("! " + workingDirectory ,out);
+            BufferedReader r = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new ByteArrayInputStream(out.toByteArray())));
+            final boolean exists = checkIfDirectoryExists(listener.getLogger(), r, output);
+            listener.getLogger().println(output);
+            if (!exists) {
+                listener.getLogger().println(Messages.SSHLauncher_RemoteFSDoesNotExist(getTimestamp(),
+                    workingDirectory));
+                // working directory doesn't exist, lets make it.
+                connection.exec("mkdir " + workingDirectory, listener.getLogger());
+            } // TODO check if the working directory is a file
+            
+            // delete the slave jar as we do with SFTP
+            connection.exec("rm " + workingDirectory + "/slave.jar", listener.getLogger());
+            // SCP it to the slave. hudson.Util.ByteArrayOutputStream2 doesn't work for this. It pads the byte array.
+            InputStream is = Hudson.getInstance().servletContext.getResourceAsStream("/WEB-INF/slave.jar");
+            ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+            int size=0;
+            byte[] chunk = new byte[4096];
+            while ( (size = is.read(chunk)) > 0)
+            {
+                baos.write(chunk,0,size);  
+            }
+            byte[] result = baos.toByteArray();
+            listener.getLogger().println(Messages.SSHLauncher_CopyingSlaveJar(getTimestamp()));
+            scp.put(result, "slave.jar", workingDirectory, "0700");
+        }
+        catch (IOException e)
+        {
+            throw new IOException2(Messages.SSHLauncher_ErrorCopyingSlaveJar(), e);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Given the output of "! /some/directory" in <code>r</code>, determine if the directory exists. 
+     * 
+     */
+    private boolean checkIfDirectoryExists(final PrintStream logger,
+            final BufferedReader r, final StringWriter output) throws IOException {
+        String line;
+        while (null != (line = r.readLine())) {
+            output.write(line);
+            output.write("\n");
+            line = line.toLowerCase();
+            if (line.indexOf("No such file or directory") != -1) {
+                return false;
+            }
+        }
+        return true;
+    }
+
     private void reportEnvironment(TaskListener listener) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
         listener.getLogger().println(Messages._SSHLauncher_RemoteUserEnvironment(getTimestamp()));
         connection.exec("set",listener.getLogger());
Index: src/main/resources/hudson/plugins/sshslaves/Messages.properties
===================================================================
--- src/main/resources/hudson/plugins/sshslaves/Messages.properties	(revision 30273)
+++ src/main/resources/hudson/plugins/sshslaves/Messages.properties	(working copy)
@@ -24,3 +24,7 @@
 SSHLauncher.UnexpectedError=Unexpected error in launching a slave. This is probably a bug in Hudson.
 SSHLauncher.StartingSlaveProcess={0} [SSH] Starting slave process: {1}
 SSHLauncher.RemoteUserEnvironment={0} [SSH] The remote user's environment is:
+SSHLauncher.SFTPFailure={0} [SSH] Could not copy slave.jar via SFTP.
+SSHLauncher_StartingSCPClient={0} [SSH] Starting scp client.
+        
+