In essence CHPA is a good, old FTP server. There are pros and cons of using FTP server but we believe it suits project goals better than anything else. As a media storage and distribution infrastructure FTP server allows us to have solid foundation upon which various protocol type access models can be built and more importantly will work jointly. For instance, a HTTP torrent tracker software can be set up which will use same content and its layout served through FTP or as simply as providing direct URLs to particular files on a web-page all while offering FTP access. We believe it is a flexible enough model and will prove both convenient and successfull in the long run.
Let's talk about various ways you can access the archive. Basically, there are few main ways to access CHPA using:
- FTP client software;
- a web-browser;
- CHPA forum and/or web-site.
We'll disccuss all of them in a moment. Sit comfortable we start right now.
Accessing Crucial Hardcore Punk Archive via FTP is easy and convenient if you know how to work with FTP protocol using some FTP client software. In order to access CHPA FTP server you need to know host name/address, port number, login account information. All of those are stated below:
host c-h-p-a.org
port 21
login ftp or anonymous
Use this information to connect to FTP server and browse, download or upload data.
If you don't know how to do that you will need some sort of FTP client software and basically you will need first to decide on which FTP client to use. There are plenty around and which implementation would be more to your liking is a mystery for us so we won't even try to guess. Instead we recommend that you follow this link and pick one that you think is the best for you.
For the sake of illustration of the concept and giving you a point of reference we decided to stick in this example with free, open-source project Filezilla. It is a sophisticated, multiplatform FTP client that runs everywhere - on your Windows, Linux and Mac OS X box. Try it it's fairly good. So, what follows is an example of setup of Filezilla to work with CHPA FTP server.
- First, go grab it off the project web-site
- Then install it on your system. We assume that you know how to install software on your OS so this step isn't outlined here.
- Start up your copy of Filezilla. When it is finished starting you should be looking at the main window of Filezilla that will look something
like this. - Click File->Site Manager... or Ctrl+S to open Site Manager window. Click New Site button in this window, name new site as CHPA, fill in Host, Port as c-h-p-a.org and 21 (you may leave Port field blank since the default behaviour is to assume port 21 if none specified) then click OK or Connect to connect immediately to CHPA. Your Ste Manager dialog window should look like this when you're done.
- That is all to it. Easy isn't it? Now connect to CHPA. The content of the archive will be displayed on the right side pane and your local drive on the left side pane. You can use drag and drop to copy folders from CHPA FTP server to your local drive, you can also select all folders at once or only those you're particularly interested in and either drag and drop them or press right mouse button and choose Download to enqueue files and start your download.
As you see it's fairly easy to start using FTP the "true" way. One of the huge benefits this way offers you is convenient mass download/upload.
Now what if you can't or don't want to use FTP client for whatever reason? Are there any alternatives? The answer is "Yes, there are" and I'm glad you asked.
Your favorite web-browser can open CHPA FTP server.
Just type into address bar:
ftp://c-h-p-a.org or ftp://ftp@c-h-p-a.org or ftp://anonymous@c-h-p-a.org
Simple as that. If it asks for login and password enter ftp or anonymous as login/username and leave password blank.
The downside of this approach is that not all web-browsers out there will let you upload files to the server and/or mass download/upload, perform folders mirroring, manage queues, throttle bandwidth usage, resume your transfers and some other functionality.
There are other ways to access the archive.
There is a Spotlights sub-forum on our message board created solely for the purpose of sharing great records found in archive. If you don't feel like diving into archive and trying your luck at finding cool records you might want to consider this forum section. Hand selected records by our community members is what you get from this deal.
We might create other ways to access archive's content so stay tuned in and check out our news regularly.