diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
                python3-all,
                python3-arrow,
                python3-requests,
+               python3-requests-mock,
                python3-pytest,
                python3-setuptools,
                python3-swh.core (>= 0.0.46~),
diff --git a/requirements-test.txt b/requirements-test.txt
--- a/requirements-test.txt
+++ b/requirements-test.txt
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 pytest
+requests-mock
diff --git a/swh/loader/tar/loader.py b/swh/loader/tar/loader.py
--- a/swh/loader/tar/loader.py
+++ b/swh/loader/tar/loader.py
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 
 TEMPORARY_DIR_PREFIX_PATTERN = 'swh.loader.tar.'
 DEBUG_MODE = '** DEBUG MODE **'
+CHUNK_SIZE = 4096
 
 
 class LocalResponse:
@@ -92,7 +93,7 @@
 
         h = MultiHash(length=length)
         with open(filepath, 'wb') as f:
-            for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=None):
+            for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=CHUNK_SIZE):
                 h.update(chunk)
                 f.write(chunk)
 
diff --git a/swh/loader/tar/tests/test_loader.py b/swh/loader/tar/tests/test_loader.py
--- a/swh/loader/tar/tests/test_loader.py
+++ b/swh/loader/tar/tests/test_loader.py
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
 import os
-
 import pytest
+import requests_mock
 
 from swh.model import hashutil
 
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@
         self.tarpath = self.destination_path
 
 
-class TestTarLoader1(PrepareDataForTestLoader):
+class TestBaseRemoteTarLoader(PrepareDataForTestLoader):
     """Test the remote loader
 
     """
@@ -62,9 +62,11 @@
         self.loader = RemoteTarLoaderForTest()
         self.storage = self.loader.storage
 
+
+class TestRemoteTarLoader(TestBaseRemoteTarLoader):
     @pytest.mark.fs
-    def test_load(self):
-        """Process a new tarball should be ok
+    def test_load_local(self):
+        """Load a local tarball should result in persisted swh data
 
         """
         # given
@@ -113,6 +115,67 @@
         self.assertCountSnapshots(1)
 
 
+class TestRemoteTarLoader2(TestBaseRemoteTarLoader):
+    @pytest.mark.fs
+    @requests_mock.Mocker()
+    def test_load_remote(self, mock_requests):
+        """Load a remote tarball should result in persisted swh data
+
+        """
+        # setup the mock to stream the content of the tarball
+        url = 'https://nowhere.org/%s' % self.repo_url
+        with open(self.repo_url.replace('file:///', '/'), 'rb') as f:
+            data = f.read()
+            mock_requests.get(url, content=data, headers={
+                'content-length': str(len(data))
+            })
+
+        # given
+        origin = {
+            'url': url,
+            'type': 'tar'
+        }
+
+        visit_date = 'Tue, 3 May 2016 17:16:32 +0200'
+
+        last_modified = '2018-12-05T12:35:23+00:00'
+
+        # when
+        self.loader.load(
+            origin=origin, visit_date=visit_date, last_modified=last_modified)
+
+        # then
+        self.assertCountContents(8, "3 files + 5 links")
+        self.assertCountDirectories(6, "4 subdirs + 1 empty + 1 main dir")
+        self.assertCountRevisions(1, "synthetic revision")
+
+        rev_id = hashutil.hash_to_bytes(
+            '67a7d7dda748f9a86b56a13d9218d16f5cc9ab3d')
+        actual_revision = next(self.storage.revision_get([rev_id]))
+        self.assertTrue(actual_revision['synthetic'])
+        self.assertEqual(actual_revision['parents'], [])
+        self.assertEqual(actual_revision['type'], 'tar')
+        self.assertEqual(actual_revision['message'],
+                         b'swh-loader-tar: synthetic revision message')
+        self.assertEqual(actual_revision['directory'],
+                         b'\xa7A\xfcM\x96\x8c{\x8e<\x94\xff\x86\xe7\x04\x80\xc5\xc7\xe5r\xa9')  # noqa
+
+        self.assertEqual(
+            actual_revision['metadata']['original_artifact'][0],
+            {
+                'sha1_git': 'cc848944a0d3e71d287027347e25467e61b07428',
+                'archive_type': 'tar',
+                'blake2s256': '5d70923443ad36377cd58e993aff0e3c1b9ef14f796c69569105d3a99c64f075',  # noqa
+                'name': 'sample-folder.tgz',
+                'sha1': '3ca0d0a5c6833113bd532dc5c99d9648d618f65a',
+                'length': 555,
+                'sha256': '307ebda0071ca5975f618e192c8417161e19b6c8bf581a26061b76dc8e85321d'  # noqa
+            })
+
+        self.assertCountReleases(0)
+        self.assertCountSnapshots(1)
+
+
 class TarLoaderForTest(TarLoader):
     def parse_config_file(self, *args, **kwargs):
         return TEST_CONFIG