ssh username@yoursite.com log in to your site and start working on the command line!
wget (URL) a fast way to transfer between hosts and download packages
cd / go to root directory
tar -cvzf archive.tgz subdir create a "tar", which is kind of like a zip file. It's nice to use them to download files to your localhost because it's one big file to download instead of hundreds of little ones, which is usually quicker.
tar xf archive.tar unzip a tar