Rsync is a great tool but can be a pain if you have to jump through hoops to connect via ssh such as connecting via a different port.
A simple solution is to use the -e flag (also knows as –rsh=COMMAND). This flag allows you manually define the ssh command to use when connecting
rsync -e 'ssh -p2020' -rav ./* user@server:
Will allow me to connect to a server with SSH listening on port 2020