How to use IRC?
What is IRC?
IRC stands for “Internet Relay Chat”. It was originally written by Jarkko Oikarinen in 1988. Since starting in Finland, it has been used in over 60 countries around the world. IRC is a multi-user chat system, where people meet on “channels” (rooms, virtual places, usually with a certain topic of conversation) to talk in groups, or privately. There is no restriction to the number of people that can participate in a given discussion, or the number of channels that can be formed on IRC.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRC
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of real-time Internet text messaging (chat) or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfers via Direct Client-to-Client.
As of May 2009, the top 100 IRC networks served more than half a million users at a time, with hundreds of thousands of channels (the vast majority of which stand mostly vacant), operating on a total of roughly 1,500 servers world-wide.
1. How can I use IRC on my machine.?
You need an IRC Client ( A program that connects to the IRC Servers). Every client follows guidelines form RFC2812 (basic rules that define how to communicate between client and server) if you are interested go through it, you will understand irc clients better.
- Select the IRC server from the list
- Decide your nick name ( just like your username for an email id )
- [optional] register your nick
- Connect
- Select / Join your channel
These are most popular clients available for IRC,
Xchat – gtk+ gui available in most platforms (http://www.xchat.org/download)
Irssi – tui ncurses based not a good one for noobies. Available in most platforms (http://irssi.org/download)
Pidgin – multi protocol chat client. Available in most platforms (http://www.pidgin.im/download/)
Konversation – Available for KDE
Mibbit – Web based available online (no installation )- – WebChatWeb based FreeNode Client available online (no installation )
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1.1 Instructions for using IRC with various clients.
1.1.1 Xchat
The screenshots below will guide to using the particular client for IRC communication.
From the next window in the [join channel] type #ilugkochi then [OK] well now your in #ilugkochi channel. You can type in messages in the Main Window, so whoever is present can see it.
Xchat Registering you nick name (optional)
You will need a :
- Unique NickName
- A password
- Valid email id
Now at the bottom of the xchat client there is typing space a kind of long bar.
Here is where the IRC Servers accept commands from you.
Type the following
[/msg nickserv nickname password foo@foo.com ]
eg: /msg nickserv lovely 1244556 lovely@foo.com
Caution must be taken that there is no space before “/msg”.
Here you are telling the nick name server ( the guy who takes care of all the nicknames ) that
you want to register lovely as a nickname with 124456 as the password and you have an email
id with lovely@foo.com. In IRC you interact with the servers through commands. Just think of it as
an online command line.
if you have done it properly you will get a message like this
>nickserv< register 1244556 lovely@foo.com
-NickServ- An email containing nickname activation instructions has been sent to lovely@foo.com
-NickServ- If you do not complete registration within one day, your nickname will expire.
-NickServ- lovely is now registered to lovely@foo.com, with the password 1244556.
-NickServ-
-NickServ- freenode is a service of Peer-Directed Projects Center, a
-NickServ- not-for-profit organisation registered in England and Wales.
-NickServ- For frequently-asked questions about the network, please see the
-NickServ- FAQ page (http://freenode.net/faq.shtml). Should you wish to
-NickServ- support the PDPC you can contribute to our current fundraiser at
-NickServ- http://freenode.net/pdpc_donations.shtml.
[/msg nickserv identify yournick password]
eg: /msg nickserv identify lovely 1244556
well this is bit inconvenient always identify with the above sequence of command, each time you join the
channel,in order to automate this process follow the steps below.
click [Edit]
in the nickserv password provide your password and click the check box auto connect to this network at startup.
Now you are ready for action in the channel.
1.1.2 Pidgin
Setting up Pidgin for the first time (this all only needs to be done once):
1. Open up the Pidgin accounts window.
2. Click add account
3. Enter nickname & click save
4. Set you status to online
5. From Buddies menu select “Join a chat”
6. Select your IRC account and type channel name. (Eg: #ilugkochi) and click join.
‘ACCOUNTS‘ in the title bar at the top. If you have a ‘BUDDY LIST‘? window and cannot find an ‘Accounts‘ window, go to the ‘ACCOUNTS‘ menu? and select ‘ADD/EDIT‘.
- In the ‘Accounts’ drop down menu there would be “younick@irc.freenode.net“ ,there will be a checkbox activate it.
- Press the ‘CLOSE’ button, the Accounts window will close.
- In the ‘BUDDY LIST’ window, go to the ‘Tools’ menu and select? ‘ROOM LIST’
- If the ‘@IRC.FREENODE.NET’ name is not already showing as chosen? in the ‘Account’ drop down list, select it from the drop down list.
- Press the ‘GET LIST’ button at the bottom of the screen.
- Click on ‘#ilugkochi’ from the window that appears, and then click the ‘Join’ button at the bottom.
- A new window will pop up,this is our channel type your messages into the lbox at the bottom,on the right side you will see list of online users.
The procedure for registering is the same as in Xchat (the same commands of course ).
Warning: Never use IRC, Browse the Web or do anything in the Graphical Environment as the SuperUser or “root”!
More info regarding IRC, IRC practises, ettiquette
www.irc-help.org.
IRC Resources
http://irchelp.org/irchelp/irctutorial.html
Authors:
Althaf Backer (althafkbacker [at] gmail [dot] com)
Sameer Mohamed Thahir (sameer.thahir [at] gmail [dot] com)
Harikrishnan (hari.jain2000 [at] gmail [dot] com )
Sreenadh H (sreenadh1987 [at] gmail [dot] com)