--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                           FTP SERVERS - A DYING SOURCE?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Surely you  checked out that there are  more and more ftp sites  that are filled
with Atari software closed down, not only the huge demo related sites like lip6,
cnam or demon.uk, but also a lot of the german university servers now too! As it
seems those servers  are closing their  Atari areas because  of the  smaller and
seldom uploads. In the  past those ftp servers  were THE source for new stuff if
you hadn't the  possibility to access a mailbox. Ohhh, I remember those evenings
in the computer centers of the  university in  Leipzig, back in 1994 or 1995, as
we had running several PCs to crawl through the ftp sites of the universities of
Karlsruhe, Erlangen  and so on. We filled up a  load of disx there  and it was a
cool feeling to stumble here and  there over new food for  our ST and Falcon. We
were always very anxious to check out the stuff we leeched at home...

Now those times seem to  be nearly over, at least for the  Atarians but maybe it
is their (our) own  fault since the  incoming/upload  folders were  always quite
empty as the  most people prefered it  to download only and so it seems as it is
the same reason as on the  BBS scene... There the sysops  had at least installed
some download ratios depending of the stuff you uploaded and so the users always
tried  to bring in  some stuff  to get others  from the BBS... On  the ftp sites
there weren't such things, at least of my knowledge.

Several german servers, esp. the one  from Karlsruhe, got big support from Atari
sceners that studied  on this university but as those people left the university
and the  Atari scene, the  support broke down  completely and  in the last years
there wasn't a big reason to  connect to those servers since they didn't offered
much new stuff anymore.

Another reason could be that several of the ftp sites had quite slow connections
and so it was sometimes a pain in the ass  to leech something from  there, I can
remember download ratios of about 5oo bytes  per second and less... and last but
not least the growing Atari related homepage scene... Even if there is something
like a  small move  backwards nowadays, you can  say that nearly anyone who does
something on the ST or Falcon has  his own homepage with a download area to make
his software  available  for anyone. So there  seems to be  nobody interested in
uploading his stuff to several ftp servers as well, as we did so many years back
as we spreaded some productions by my old band .tnb.

But here  comes a problem that makes  the ftp servers interesting, just remember
how many homepages, from the  demo and games developing  scene disappeared again
over the last years, with all the downloadable stuff...

Anyway, I want to  stop here  and go over  to the  core of this  article. On the
hunt for some  goodies I jumped over  a lot of pages and  since I checked that a
lot of them aren't up and running anymore, I created  an own servers list for my
use. Then I've red a question by  DEFJAM on the DHS board as he asked for a list
of FTP servers. So I thought, why not spread  your own  list with UCM then? So I
wrote some  small descriptions  about the things you can find on those serves as
well... All those  servers were up  and running in  the middle of September so I
hope they're still online  when this issue of  UCM will hit the streets in a few
days (weeks?).

Ok, let's go for the list!

ftp://chapelie.rma.ac.be/atari/

  This server offers a big and mixed download area and you can find new software
  on it from time to  time, unfortunately some areas are very chaotic sorted and
  demos are left out completely.

ftp://ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de/pub/atari/

  Yes, one of  the few running  german  university  servers  dealing  with atari
  software... It offers a quite huge download  area with all topics but the only
  things that got updated are the empty "new last month" - files :/

ftp://ftp.fishpool.com/pub/

  Aggressions' ftp server, featuring group oriented  stuff as  well as  very few
  other things, such as some demos, mags and games, but really only few things.

ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/atari/

  One of the biggest running  Atari ftp sites, huge  downloads but after all not
  very up-to-date anymore, big demo/games/Falcon archives!

ftp://ftp.gcr.jussieu.fr/Public/Bad_Mood/

  Just a site  that offers  a lot around  the Bad Mood project  including  a few
  downloads of other  games, but very very specialised  and nothing  more except
  Bad Mood...

ftp://ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/comp/Atari/

  Quite small ftp site, no new  items  since 1996 (!), mainly utilities, coding,
  hardware... no games/demos/Falcon stuff!

ftp://ftp.inf.tu-dresden.de/software/atari/

  This is ESCAPEs homeserver, featuring all releases by Escape and Checkpoint as
  well as a few other releases. The  old archive  offers also a  bigger range of
  mixed downloads.

ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/os/atari/

  This is a quite big ftp site, offering downloads of all ranges  but it is very
  outdated, too...

ftp://ftp.mayn.de/pub/atari/

  This is a small site, no demos, no Falcon area, nearly no games stuff and also
  quite outdated...

ftp://ftp.nocrew.org/pub/nocrew/

  Very small server, featuring NoCrews Atari released (a few demos, mp2 stuff)

ftp://ftp.uni-giessen.de/pub/atari/

  This server offers a quite big range of Atari software, also one of the bigger
  collection of demos and  games, but no special  Falcon area, so all this stuff
  is mixed together after all the server isn't very up to date.

ftp://ftp.uni-muenster.de/pub/atari/

  Another still  running university  ftp server, but  also  totally  outdated...
  features a big mix of downloads, incl. some demos/games and stuff.

ftp://llama.yi.org/pub/tSCc/ATARI/

  Our (.tSCc.) own ftp server, featuring all works from .tSCc., Propaganda! ;)

http://atari.sh.cvut.cz/ftp/pub/ST/

  Maybe the best czech Atari  related ftp site, download  area isn't big and not
  very up to date but  features some czech goodies  too, like games and a bigger
  range of the Narsil disk magazines.

http://ftp.fi.muni.cz/pub/atari/

  This is a small czech server, not much stuff to find there, but therefore some
  czech Atari software antics (mainly older games).

http://ftp.linux.cz/pub/atari/

  This site seems to  be some mirror of  the site above... the same downloads at
  all...

http://www.umich.edu/~archive/atari/

  Very huge  download area... but (as always?) not  very up to date... big demo/
  game/Falcon areas...

Yeps... that's it so far. I will try to update this list if there  is a need and
I would like to know if you know of servers that aren't listed here and always a
need to surf by... I really would like  to know if  there are  still some french
and uk ftp sites covering Atari stuff since all of them seem to be vanished atm.
and I didn't found even only one single one...

Ok, so please get in touch if you  know the one or other thing and I will add it
and spread  it with the next issue. Ofcourse you  can use this list as real link
list over the online version of UCM.

Mail me at... moondog@atari.org

_.tSCc._________________________________________________________moondog_o9/2k2__