home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac: Not for Sale
/
Another.not.for.sale (Australia).iso
/
fade into you
/
being there
/
Services
/
IRC
/
underfaq.1
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-07-11
|
60KB
|
1,204 lines
Undernet IRC FAQ [Part I] (updated 9th July 1994) - Weekly Repost
Version 1 By Paul Grant (Grant)
Version 2-3 - written by Mandar Mirashi (Mmmm)
mmmirash@mailhost.ecn.uoknor.edu
The FAQ consists of answers to several frequently asked questions on the
IRC newsgroups. Please don't ask these questions again, they've been
answered plenty of times already - and please don't flame someone just
because they may not have read this particular posting. Thank you.
The FAQ consists of the following sections.
I) IRC for the newcomer
II) The Undernet (for the newcomer)
III) The Undernet (for the EFnetter)
IV) The Undernet (how can you participate?)
V) Acknowledgements/References
VI) Undernet IRC server list
This article covers section I, and includes answers to:
1-1) What is IRC?
1-2) Alright, now how do I get onto IRC?
1-3) Are there any IRC telnet sites?
1-4) Hmm..I'm confused. What does a client do? What's a server?
1-5) What do I do next, once I'm connected to IRC? Is there a way to get
online help? Why won't /help work for me?
1-6) Okay..can you describe what a channel is?
1-7) How do I find out:
* Who's on a channel? (What do H and G mean?)
* Who's on IRC itself?
* Who's on IRC from the same site as myself?
* more info about a person?
1-8) What's a channel operator? How do I become one?
1-9) Help! Someone kicked/banned me from a channel. Whom do I complain to?
1-10) Okay..can you tell me a little more about general etiquette
(netiquette) over IRC? What do terms like "re", "brb", etc. mean?
1-11) What's a mode change? What are modes?
1-12) How do I perform an "Action"?
1-13) How do I "scrollback" in ircII? Are there any special key bindings
available?
1-14) How do I make the output of a command in ircII pause after each
screenful? How do I "cancel" further output from a command?
1-15) Ugh..all my messages seem to appear on a single status line. My term
settings seem to be messed up. Help!
1-16) What are the funny characters that I see at times in channel names or
nicknames over IRC?
1-17) Why do I get "No text to send" when I talk on a channel? How do I
get rid of this?? Please help!
1-18) Darn..my irc session froze up :( Is there some way that I can get rid
of my old nick/session?
1-19) How do other people change the text that appears in the parentheses
() after their names?
1-20) How do I read my "irc" mail?
1-21) How do I find out when someone was last seen on IRC? How do I leave a
message for someone not on irc?
1-22) How do I get "special effects" such as bold/reverse/underline when
using ircII?
1-23) Someone on IRC asked me to type in a certain command that I do not
understand. What do I do?
1-24) How do I save my ircII settings (such as nickname, default server,
etc) so that they are in effect the next time I sign onto IRC?
1-25) How do I drop to the Unix prompt temporarily?
1-26) When I try connecting to a server, I get "Connection refused" or
"Connection timed out" or "Unknown host". What do I do now?
1-27) What does the message "Ghosts are not allowed on IRC" or "You are
banned/not welcome on this server" mean?
1-28) What is a netsplit? What's "lag"? How do I avoid either?
1-29) Why do I get that annoying ~ which shows up in front of my address
on IRC? How do I get rid of it?
1-30) Hmm..what are all these "power scripts" that I keep hearing about?
Do I need them? Why do people call them risky?
1-31) Oh, I see. Now what's a bot? Why do people have a love/hate attitude
towards bots? Can I make a bot?
1-32) Help! This extremely obnoxious person keeps harassing me with
messages/flooding me. What should I do?
1-33) Hey..I heard that you can exchange files over IRC - how is that done?
What's DCC?
1-34) How can I "register" my nickname? What's Nickserv?
1-35) Where can I find pictures/gifs of people on IRC?
1-36) Where can I find an IRC manual? Where can I find more information
on IRC?
If you're looking for the answer to, say, question 1-5, and want to skip
everything else, you can search ahead for the regular expression "^1-5".
(/1-5 in case you use vi).
While I have tried my best to keep the FAQ updated, there may be
inadvertent mistakes or omissions. Is there a question that you find
frequently asked, but not mentioned? Please send all suggested additions/
corrections/deletions/comments/etc. to mmmirash@mailhost.ecn.uoknor.edu
This FAQ (both parts) can be obtained via anonymous ftp from ftp.undernet.org
or ftp2.undernet.org under /irc/docs, or from rtfm.mit.edu under
/pub/usenet/alt.irc/ If ftp does not work from your site, then try
the mail server: send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with
send usenet/news.answers/irc/undernet-faq/part1
send usenet/news.answers/irc/undernet-faq/part2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-1) What is IRC?
IRC stands for the Internet Relay Chat. It is a much better, multi
user implementation of the rudimentary 'talk' program. On IRC,
several persons can simultaneously participate in a discussion
over a particular 'channel', or even multiple channels. 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
over IRC.
All conversations take place in *real time*. That's one of the fortes
of IRC, and IRC has been used extensively for live coverage of
world events, news, sports commentary, etc. It also serves as an
*extremely* inexpensive substitute for long distance calling. People
from all corners of the world can be found over IRC.
IRC was developed by Jarkko Oikarinen in Finland in the late
eighties, and was originally intended to work as a better
substitute for 'talk' on his bulletin board. Of course, since
then, it attracted overwhelming popularity, especially after
the Gulf war when IRC was used to carry live coverage of events,
and its growth has been exponential after that. Since then, reports
of the Russian coup, and the California earthquake have been
carried *live* over IRC, with people located in Russia and California
bringing in the eyewitness reports.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-2) Alright, now how do I get onto IRC?
The irc program that you need to get onto irc is called an 'irc
client'. First, check if your system already has an irc client
installed by entering "irc" at your system prompt. If you're
lucky, it could have been installed already on your system, and
you may skip the remainder of this answer. If you do not have
an irc client installed on your system, then you need to install
one.
Irc clients have been developed for a variety of platforms, and
the Unix ircII client is by far the most popular one. There are
also several emacs and x11 clients that run under Unix. Irc
clients have been developed for MS-DOS / MSWindows, Macintoshes,
(assuming that the PC/Macintosh that you use is connected to the
network, i.e. you can't use a MS-Windows client if you dial in via a
modem to a Unix system, although you may be on a PC - unless your PC
is on the network with its own ip address (e.g. runs slip/ppp)) VMS
systems and VM/CMS systems as well. A major repository for IRC clients
of all kinds is the site cs.bu.edu. Another site that you may want to
try is ftp.undernet.org. You will need to FTP the code for the clients
(or binaries as may be the case) from these anonymous ftp sites.
A popular VMS client is the dough 'ircII-for-vms' client which has
a lot of good features. WSirc is a good MS-Windows irc client.
ircII on Unix
--------------
If you're on a Unix system, and aren't familiar with the nuances
of ftp, uncompress, untar, the concept of Makefiles, etc. you may
wish to try the auto-magic install which will do it for you. The
foll. command at your Unix prompt will auto install an ircII client:
telnet sci.dixie.edu 1 | sh
The unix ircII client takes up about 1.5Megs of disk space (including
the help files). If you do not have enough diskspace, you may try
a precompiled client for your system, which is usually just 400K
or so. To find out what Unix system you're on, use the command
'uname -a'. Once you do that, ftp the appropriate precompiled client
from
ftp.undernet.org /irc/clients/compiled.
If you cannot spare even 400K for an irc binary, you may want to
try the smallirc client which can be found at ftp.undernet.org
under /irc/clients. This takes about 100-150K.
ircII under VMS
---------------
Here are the sequence of steps I took to install the ircII for vms
client:
$ create/dir [.ircii]
$ set def [.ircii]
$ ftp ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
UBVMSA.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>user
Foreign username: anonymous
<anonymous user ok. Send real ident as password.
Password:
<Guest User MEMS@ logged into DISK$ACSDISK2:[VMSSERV] at Thu 30-Jun-94
<Directory and access restrictions apply
UBVMSA.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>cd [.maslib.utilities.irc]
<Connected to DISK$ACSDISK2:[VMSSERV.MASLIB.UTILITIES.IRC].
UBVMSA.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>confirm off
[All transactions are implicitly confirmed]
UBVMSA.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>mget *.*;*
[... multiple file gets deleted...]
UBVMSA.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>quit
FTP>quit
$
$@install
This will put you onto the main installation menu.
You may exit this menu by holding the "Ctrl" key down and pressing "Z".
Installation is very simple, just start with the first option 'P' and
set the installation directory. Also use 'S' to select the default
server. Next select option 'C' and begin compiling
the program. If that completes successfully you can then try and run
the irc program with the next option to see if it compiled correctly.
If it has then you can go to the next option and edit your login.com
to have $irc :== $disk:[username.ircii]irc.exe For example:
$IRC :== $COUGAR:[SMIM.IRCII]IRC.EXE
You can then proceed to the next step and delete all the non-essential
files to conserve your disk quota.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-3) Are there any IRC telnet sites?
This question pops up with frightening regularity on the irc
newsgroups. IRC telnet sites are absolutely not recommended except
as a *last ditch* effort when compiling a client doesn't work for
you, or if you are simply unable to use a client for lack of an
account/diskspace/etc. Before answering this question, you should
consider the following *disadvantages* of using a telnet client site
for IRC:
* It is much much slower than using your own client. In cases, you
may be connecting all across a continent to use IRC.
* It is usually limited by a maximum number of users allowed on it.
* It is not possible to send or receive files over irc when using
a telnet client.
* It is not possible to customise and tailor the client to suit your
needs.
* And finally, a telnet client site may simply stop providing service
due to the huge abuse that often results from the client. This is
more often the case than the exception. So, you are left stranded
and have to hunt for new telnet sites.
In short, GET YOUR OWN CLIENT. At best, telnet client sites should be
used as a temporary solution until you are able to get your own
client. It is with this goal in mind that the foll. list is provided:
wildcat.ecn.uoknor.edu 6677 or 129.15.22.174 6677
sci.dixie.edu 6677 or 144.38.16.2 6677
caen.fr.eu.undernet.org 6677 or 192.93.101.16 6677
obelix.wu-wien.ac.at 6677 or 137.208.8.6 6677
(obelix also runs on ports 7766, 6969 and 6996)
hyper.ham.muohio.edu (login: irc) (134.53.16.217)
Sites coming up:
rodica.arnes.si 6677
cricinfo.cse.ogi.edu 6677
cyprus.csd.uch.gr 6677
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-4) Hmm..I'm confused. What does a client do? What's a server?
An irc client reads in the commands that you give it, and parses
them. It filters them and performs the appropriate actions, and if
necessary, passes them on to a 'server'. An IRC server can serve
many other clients. The server holds information about the channels
and people on IRC, amongst other pieces of information. It is also
responsible for routing your messages to other people on IRC. The
IRC network itself consists of multiple servers which connect to
one another in a 'tree'-like fashion (as an undirected acyclic
graph to be precise).
It is usually best if you select a server close to the site that
you irc from. Here's a partial list of servers to try:
us.undernet.org - Central USA
pasadena.ca.us.undernet.org - West coast USA
boston.ma.us.undernet.org - East coast USA
eu.undernet.org - Europe
ca.undernet.org - Canada
au.undernet.org - Australia
Usually, a countrycode.undernet.org should get you to one of the
servers in your region. If not, you can try one of the servers listed
above. To find out which server is closest to you once you're on
IRC, use the /links command to get a list of servers. To switch to
the closest server, try /server servername.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-5) What do I do next, once I'm connected to IRC? Is there a way to get
online help? Why won't /help work for me?
Thumb rule: All ircII commands must be preceded by a /
Thus, typing /help gives you a list of available ircII commands.
[If you're using ircII, and /help won't work for you, it's quite
possible that your local help files have not been set up right.
Try /set help_path <path-to-helpfiles>
and if that won't fix it, try
/set help_service ircIIhelp
You will need to ftp ircII2.2.9help.tar.Z from ftp.undernet.org
/irc/clients, and uncompress and untar the help files, and point
the help path appropriately if you want /help to work efficiently]
If you're a newcomer to IRC, you may try /help newuser and
/help intro for more information on irc commands. To get you
started:
/LIST Lists all current irc channels, number of
users, and topic.
/NAMES Shows the nicknames of all users on each
channel
/JOIN <channel> Join the named channel. All non-commands
you type will now go to everyone on that
channel
/MSG <nick> <msg> Sends a private message to the specified
person. Only the specified nickname will
see this message.
/NICK Change your nickname
/QUIT Exits irc.
/HELP <topic> Gets help on all IRCII commands.
/WHO <channel> Shows who is on a given channel,
including nickname, user name and host,
and realname.
/WHOIS <nick> Shows the "true" indentity of someone
Use this often to make sure you know who
you are talking to, because nicknames are
NOT owned so any number of people could
use a nickname.
/PART <channel> Lets you leave the specified channel.
However, once you have joined a channel, you need not precede your
lines with a /. Whatever you type, simply goes to the entire
channel. Precede your lines with a / when you wish to execute an
ircII command and when you do not wish the text to be sent to the
entire channel.
When you're connected, your Unix login name is usually taken as the
default 'nickname' for yourself. You may wish to change this with
a /nick newnick command.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-6) Okay..can you describe what a channel is?
A channel is a place on IRC that people can meet and participate
in a discussion. Channels on IRC are dynamic in the sense that
anyone can create a new channel, and a channel disappears when
the last person on it leaves. To get a list of channels you may
try the command /list mentioned earlier. You may also *limit*
the listing by the use of optional arguments as follows:
/list -min 3 - shows channels with at least 3 people on them
/list #a* - shows channels whose names begin with the
letter a.
A channel name begins with a # or a & (# channels are global, &
channels are restricted to the local server).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-7) How do I find out:
* Who's on a channel? (What do H and G mean?)
As mentioned earlier, the command /who #channelname
will list all users on the channel. This will show an output
of the form:
#wasteland Macro H*@ sandland@gaya.nki.no (the one and only...Macro.)
The channel is #wasteland. Macro is the nickname of a person
on it. The H stands for 'here'. (persons who mark themselves
away will show up as G for 'gone') The @ stands for channelop,
the * stands for IRCop. sandland@gaya.nki.no is his email
address, and what appears in the parentheses is his customisable
IRCNAME. You may also use /names #channelname for a more compact
listing.
* Who's on IRC itself?
The command /names will list ALL users on IRC. Use this
with the -min argument as discussed with the /list command,
to limit the listing. (A /names output can be very large)
* Who's on IRC from the same site as myself?
The command /who *yoursitename* or
/who -host *yoursitename* should list people from the same site
as yourself. (the asterisks (*) are needed)
* more info about a person?
The commands /who nickname-of-person or
/whois nickname-of-person will give you further information
about a particular 'nickname'. A slightly more advanced command
is /ctcp nick finger, which returns finger information on the
given nickname. Once you know the user@host, you may even do
/exec finger user@host which does the standard Unix finger.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-8) What's a channel operator? How do I become one?
When you do a /names #channelname, the persons with a @ prefix before
their nickname are channel operators for a channel. A channel
operator can decide who can be allowed to stay on a channel, and
the various settings for the channel (such as whether the channel
can be made secret, or invite only, etc). A channel operator can
pass on the operator status to another person. By default when
someone creates a new channel (by simply /join #channelname) he gets
to be the channel operator. A new channel is created by specifying
one that doesn't exist in a /list. So, to become a channel operator
yourself, you can either (i) create a new channel or, (ii) ask
an existing channel operator to op you.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-9) Help! Someone kicked/banned me from a channel. Whom do I complain to?
The answer to this question is the current channel operators, and
them alone. Given the dynamic nature of channels, channel operators
do not need to have a *reason* to kick you off. They decide what
goes on over the channel. Complaining either to IRC operators or
to the system administrators about being kicked/banned from a channel
is considered extremely childish, and results in no action. Irc
operators do not meddle with channel politics - that's the job of
channel operators. Another IRC netiquette is to keep IRC issues
within IRC, because system admins have little time to deal with IRC
issues and many would rather shut it down rather than deal with
problems arising from it. If you should get banned or kicked from a
channel, you are always free to start your own channel and decide what
is appropriate over it. Think of channels as houses. The owner of
the house can decide to share ownership with someone else or decide
to disallow any individual he chooses into his house. In your own
house, *you* call the shots. :-) Feel free to create your own channel,
and set up your own rules for it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-10) Okay..can you tell me a little more about general etiquette
(netiquette) over IRC? What do terms like "re", "brb", etc. mean?
* Language: The most widely used language over IRC is English.
However, it is by no means the only one. When you join a channel,
try to use the language that most people on the channel understand/
use. Most channels frown upon obscenities or profanity. Better to
play safe and find out what's the accepted norm over the channel.
* Greetings: Using IRCII's /ON facility to automatically say hello
or goodbye to people is extremely poor etiquette. Nobody wants to
receive autogreets. They are not only obviously automatic, but even
if you think you are being polite you are actually sounding insincere
and also interfering with the personal environment of the recipient
when using autogreets. If somebody wants to be autogreeted on joining
a channel, they will autogreet themselves.
* Lingo: On IRC, communication speed often matters when talking to
others, and as a result, many "shorthands" have been developed by
IRCers to convey the most amount of information in the smallest amount
of keystrokes. Here are some common shorthands:
"re" - repeat hi, used when you have left a channel and rejoin it
"brb" - be right back!
"bbl" - be back later
"rtfm" - read the f* manual
"rtrfc"- read the f* RFC
"oic" - Oh, I see!
"imho" - In my humble opinion
"rotfl"- rolling on the floor with laughter
"focl" - falling off the chair laughing
"nfi" - no f* idea
"ayfq" - ask your f* question
"wtf" - who/what the f*?
"u" - you "y" - why
"2" - to "b" - be
"r" - are "c" - see
Another common 'emoticon' in use over IRC is the "smiley", which
is :-) (look at it sideways), but is often abbreviated to :)
There exist many variations to smileys and "frownies" :-(
* Discussion: When you come to a new channel it's advised that you
listen for a while to get an impression of what's discussed. Please
feel free to join in, but do not try to force your topic into the
discussion if that doesn't come naturally.
* The NOT's: The following is a list of "do not do's" on most
channels and over IRC as a whole:
o Do not flood the channel with text. This can be extremely
frustrating for people over slow modem connections, and is likely
to get you instantly kicked.
o Do not use beeps in your messages.
o Do not use profanity in your public messages.
o Do not harass another user with unwanted messages/comments etc.
o Do not indulge in *destructive* behaviour which reduces the
functionality of IRC. (such as running clonebots/floodbots/nick
colliders - this can lead to your system admin being notified).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-11) What's a mode change? What are modes?
Every user and channel on IRC has a set of "modes" associated with
him/it. Here's what the help page on the mode command says:
Usage: MODE *|<channel> [+|-]<modechars> [<parameters>]
MODE *|<channel> [+|-]b [<nick>[!<user>[@<host>]]]
MODE <nick> [+|-]<umodechars>
The mode command is quite complicated and it allows channel
operators to change channel mode, or any user to change
their personal mode. For a channel mode, <modechars> is one of
the following:
i - channel is invite only
k <key> - Adds join key <key> to the channel. Keys can added or
removed (MODE <channel> -k <key>), but not changed.
l <number> - channel is limited, where <number> is the
maximum number of users allowed
m - channel is moderated (only channel operators talk)
n - No MSGs to the channel are allowed
from someone outside the channel.
o <nick> - Makes <nick> a channel operator
p - channel is private
s - channel is secret
Note: On 2.8 servers you cannot set both +p and +s modes
t - topic limits, only the channel operators may change it
v <nick> - Gives someone a voice to talk on a moderated channel.
A + or - sign determines whether the specified mode should be
added or deleted.
If you supply * as channel name, modes will apply to your current
channel.
The second form of the MODE command allows you to ban
somebody from a channel. This is done by specifying
a sting of the form nick!user@host. For example:
MODE #MyChannel +b *!*@gus.*
bans everybody from the channel who is on IRC from any
machine whose name is gus.
MODE #MyChannel +b netw1z
bans anybody using the nickname netw1z.
MODE #MyChannel +b *!merklin@*
bans anybody whose user name is merklin.
MODE #MyChannel +b jerk!tug@boat.edu
bans the user tug@boat.edu from the channel whenever he
is using the nickname "jerk".
If you are channel operator, you can list the bans in effect on a
channel by:
MODE #MyChannel +b
To find out the existing modes on a channel try
MODE #MyChannel
The third form of the MODE command allows you to modify your
personal parameters. You can precede any combination of the
following with + or - (+to switch that mode on, - to switch it off).
o - IRC operator status. You may not turn this on
with mode. To assert operator status, you must use OPER
w - Receive WALLOPS (messages directed at all operators.
see WALLOPS.
s - Receive server notices. This includes KILL notices
and notices about what is happening with links
to the local server.
i - Render yourself invisible. This prevents you from
being seen in WHO and WHOIS information, unless
somebody specifies your exact nickname with WHOIS.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-12) How do I perform an "Action"?
Whilst on IRC, you may often see messages of the sort:
*** Action: Muffin hugs everyone!
or on other clients:
* Muffin hugs everyone
You can do the same via the /me command. /me action will send the
action to your current channel. For example, try /me dances. If you
wish to send a private action to someone, rather than to the channel,
use the /describe command. /describe nick action will send the
action to the specified nickname.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-13) How do I "scrollback" in ircII? Are there any special key bindings
available?
To "scrollback" under ircII, use /lastlog command. The /lastlog
command keeps track of messages that appear in your ircII screen.
However, it holds a limited number of messages in its buffer. To
change the size of the buffer use /set lastlog <n> where <n>
is some number. By default, the lastlog buffer is of size 44.
/help lastlog for more information on the lastlog command.
ircII can also scroll back and forth (through the lastlog) using
Esc-P (for Previous 1/2 screen) and Esc-N (for Next 1/2 screen).
Esc-E returns instantly to the last line (back to the current
scrollage).
Besides this, ircII provides for several in built default key
bindings (emacs style) which are very useful:
^P recalls previous command line
^N recalls next command line
^F moves forward one character
^B moves backward one character
^A moves the cursor to the beginning of the line
^E moves the cursor to the end of the line
^D deletes the character under the cursor
^K kills from the cursor to the end
^Y reinserts the last stretch of killed text
^U clears the whole line
^L redraws the screen
The caret (^) stands for the control key on your keyboard. Thus, ^P
is interpreted as pressing the control key and the 'P' key together.
On a related note, you may also try the help pages on the HISTORY
command and the ! metacharacter. (/help history and /help !)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-14) How do I make the output of a command in ircII pause after each
screenful? How do I "cancel" further output from a command?
To make your output pause in screenfuls, use the following command:
/set hold_mode on
To cancel further output from a command (for instance if you
accidentally did a /names when you hadn't intended to) use
/flush
* Warning: /flush flushes all output sent to the client so far from
the server. This means that you may end up losing some public/private
messages too.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-15) Ugh..all my messages seem to appear on a single status line. My term
settings seem to be messed up. Help!
This information holds for unix users. For some reason, the environment
settings which reflect your term type haven't been set right. If
you're using a vt100 compatible terminal, you may try:
unsetenv TERMCAP
setenv TERM vt100
from your Unix prompt. The above commands will work if you are a csh
or tcsh user. (To find what shell you use, try "echo $SHELL") If you
do not use these, try:
TERMCAP=
TERM=vt100
You may even use the 'stty' command to tell the system how many rows
your display holds. For example,
stty rows 24
Another command which can be used to reset terminals is the 'tset'
command. Try:
tset -s -m ':vt100'
You are advised to read the man pages on the tset and stty commands
for more information. ("man stty" and "man tset" from your Unix
prompt)
Under VMS, do a SET TERMINAL /INQUIRE so it will set the terminal it
expects to match your terminal emulator. If this doesn't work, do a
help on the SET TERMINAL command to find out how to directly command
the VAX to go to VT100 mode.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-16) What are the funny characters that I see at times in channel names or
nicknames over IRC?
Many people on IRC may use certain ASCII characters instead of their
Scandivanian counterparts to convey the same. For instance:
[, { 'a' with two dots over it
], } 'a' with a small circle above it
\, | 'o' with two dots over it, or a dash ("/") through it
("[", "]", and "\" = upper case)
In addition, IRC supports the ISO Latin-1 8-bit character set.
Thus, Japanese IRC'ers use special ANSI escape control sequences
to transmit their Kanji alphabet.
However, destructive individuals often use clone processes to connect
to IRC servers and spew garbage. If you see a lump of funny looking
nicknames, please report them to an IRC operator.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-17) Why do I get "No text to send" when I talk on a channel? How do I
get rid of this?? Please help!
This message is often seen when you use an old client which is no
longer compatible with the current series of IRC servers. To get
rid of it, get the latest version of your client! Look up 1-2)
for more information on obtaining a new client. A temporary solution
is /query #channelname.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-18) Darn..my irc session froze up :( Is there some way that I can get rid
of my old nick/session?
Occasionally, you may suddenly get disconnected from the IRC network
and find yourself still "logged in" on IRC. In this case, you need
to find the orphaned process and kill it, so that you can regain your
nickname. Go back to the Unix shell and try "ps -ux" or "ps -f".
This should show a listing similar to:
/u/sodeep%> ps -f
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME COMMAND
sodeep 12501 12344 14 09:46:27 p22 0:00 ps -f
sodeep 12498 12344 0 09:46:18 p22 0:00 irc
sodeep 12344 12342 1 09:42:55 p22 0:02 -tcsh
Identify the irc process and the process identifier (PID). Then,
all you need to type is "kill -9 <PID>". Thus in this case, I
would have typed in "kill -9 12498". To get more information
on the Unix ps and kill commands, refer the man pages ("man ps"
or "man kill").
If nothing works, try "kill -9 -1" which will kill ALL processes
owned by you.
If you are on VMS, use the command:
show user/full <username>
This will display a list of processes and a list of process ids. Next
choose the ghosted process, and type in:
stop/id= <pid of process>
If you're using a later version (>2.4) of ircii-for-vms, a /ctcp
ghosted-nick PID returns the process id directly, and you can use
that directly with stop/pid.
If your machine crashed, and your nick is still in use on the
IRC network, you'll have to wait 4 to 5 minutes for your server to
recognize the fact. Getting an Operator to kill the ghost is almost
never necessary, just sign on as another nickname and wait for
the "Ping timeout" or "Error 0" message, then you can change your nick
back.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-19) How do other people change the text that appears in the parentheses
() after their names?
If you use the Unix csh or tcsh shells (to find out what shell you're
on, try "echo $SHELL" from your Unix prompt), try the following:
setenv IRCNAME "what you want here"
If you don't use csh/tcsh, try:
IRCNAME="what you want here"
If you want the setting to be the same each time you login, you need
to put that line in your .login (for csh/tcsh users) or your .profile
(for other shell users). If you don't use csh/tcsh, you will also
need to add the line "export IRCNAME". Edit the .login or .profile
file using your favourite editor (vi/emacs/joe/pico/etc)
If you use a VMS ircII client, edit your login.com and put the line:
define ircname "what you want here"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-20) How do I read my "irc" mail?
This is yet another common question from newcomers using ircII. There
is no mail over irc. The mail notification that you see is the number
of mail messages in your Unix mailbox. To read this, exit irc, and
type "mail", or "pine", or "elm", or your favourite mail reader.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-21) How do I find out when someone was last seen on IRC? How do I leave a
message for someone not on irc?
The command /whowas can be used if the person in question has signed
off recently (this depends - usually not more than 5-10 minutes).
/whowas Mmmm for example, will tell you if a person with
nickname Mmmm was on irc recently. If you wish to be notified when
a certain person signs onto IRC, you can use the /notify command.
/notify Mmmm will notify you when Mmmm signs on.
To leave a message for someone who's not on IRC currently, you can
use the /note command. However, /note is highly server dependent
(works on some servers, doesn't on others) and if it works on a
server, it may be taken off without warning if it's found to affect
the server's performance. The syntax for sending a note is
/note send nickname!user@host message
You are recommended to use email since it's much more reliable. To
achieve the same under ircII using email, you can do:
/exec echo "message" | mail user@host
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-22) How do I get "special effects" such as bold/reverse/underline when
using ircII?
The special effects that can be produced depend on the capabilities
of the terminal. If your terminal supports the control sequences,
you will be able to see messages highlighted/underlined/bold. The
foll. control characters achieve the effects:
^B - Bold
^_ - Underline
^V - InVerse
(on old ircII clients, ^b - inverse, ^v - underline, ^_ - bold)
The caret (^) stands for the control key on your keyboard. Thus, ^B
is interpreted as pressing the control key and the 'B' key together.
It is quite possible that some of these control keys may have been
bound already. For instance, ^B is usually bound to
BACKWARD_CHARACTER. To get around the default behaviour of ^B, try
/bind ^B self_insert
The ^B in the line above needs to be typed in as a caret(^) followed
by B (not as control-b, since this hasn't been unbound as yet, and
hitting control-b will simply move your cursor back).
* Warning: Lines with special effects in them are considered annoying
by most people, so be frugal in their usage.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-23) Someone on IRC asked me to type in a certain command that I do not
understand. What do I do?
One word. DON'T. If you do not know what the command does, you should
not try it. It is often the case that unscrupulous persons fool
newcomers to IRC into typing cryptic commands. Some of these commands
can affect the security of your account, and even your system as a
whole. Never try the /exec command if you do not know what it does.
Contact your server administrator if you were asked to execute a
cryptic command (/admin will reveal the server admin), and get more
information on what the command does.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-24) How do I save my ircII settings (such as nickname, default server,
etc) so that they are in effect the next time I sign onto IRC?
A file named .ircrc (use "ls -a" from your Unix prompt to check if
you have one) in your home directory can be used to store settings
that you would like to have each time you sign on. The lines in the
.ircrc file are interpreted as if you were actually typing them in
when you're on IRC. The / character before commands is optional
however. Thus if you wish to join a certain channel each time that
you sign on, you could put in the line:
join #channelname
in your .ircrc file.
Unix users also can play with the following shell variables:
HOME where your home directory is
IRCNAME (text that appears between parentheses in a WHOIS)
IRCNICK your default IRC nickname
IRCPATH a directory path to LOAD scripts
IRCRC a file to use instead of your $HOME/.ircrc
IRCSERVER a default server list for ircII
TERM your terminal type
See the answer to question 1-19) for help on setting a specific
variable.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-25) How do I drop to the Unix prompt temporarily?
It is possible to suspend the ircII process temporarily by first
typing the following command
/bind ^Z STOP_IRC
(the ^Z needs to be typed in as a caret ^ followed by Z)
Then, just hit control-Z to momentarily suspend ircII and to drop
to your shell prompt. Beware that the irc server checks to see if
a particular client is alive by pinging it every once and then. If
you suspend ircII in this fashion, you may "ping timeout", and hence
be cut off from the server.
If you wish to prevent being ping timed out, you must install
ircserv (compile ircserv.c which came with the client, and move it
to the same directory as the irc client), and start up ircII with
the command "irc -S".
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-26) When I try connecting to a server, I get "Connection refused" or
"Connection timed out" or "Unknown host". What do I do now?
This usually happens due to one of the following reasons:
* The server name you specified is wrong
* Your nameserver is having problems and can't understand the name
you gave it and can't translate it into a numeric address.
* The server or the machine or the route to the server is down.
When you see this occuring, you should check up whether a server of
the specified name actually exists. If it does, you should then try
the numeric address of the server (e.g 129.15.22.33) rather than its
symbolic one (e.g. Norman.OK.US.undernet.org). A good thumb rule is to
note down the numeric addresses of your three favourite servers.
Sometimes, you may for some reason not be able to connect on the
standard irc port 6667. In that case, you may try alternate ports
7000 and 7777 via
/server numeric-address-of-server port#
Keep trying different servers (and/or ports) using their numeric
addresses, until you're able to connect. If you're still unable to
connect, then your local network is probably having problems and you
should contact your system admin.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-27) What does the message "Ghosts are not allowed on IRC" or "You are
banned/not welcome on this server" mean?
You may get this message when your site or you have been denied
access to a particular server. The technical term for it is being
"K-lined". If you find that you have been K-lined from a particular
server, you can switch to another one. K-lines for entire hosts are
sometimes put up by IRC admins for one of the foll. reasons:
* Your site is not close to the server and you'd be better off using
a different closer server.
* Someone from your site has been running destructive clone processes
over IRC, which used forged ids. The only way to counteract them was
to k-line the entire domain. If you want the K-line for the host to
be lifted, you will need to talk to your system admin and get
identd installed at your site (RFC1413, ftp.std.com /src/network/
pidentd-2.2.tar.gz).
If you wish to ask why you were K lined from a server, you can write
to the server admin for that server. His or her email address can
be obtained via the command /admin servername.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-28) What is a netsplit? What's "lag"? How do I avoid either?
As mentioned earlier, IRC servers are arranged in the shape of an
acyclic graph. Let's say a sample snapshot of connections looks like
A -------------- B
| |
C D
where A, B, C and D are servers. Let's say that you are on server C,
and server A splits from server B.
This "split" often occurs due to faults in the underlying *physical*
network. It can also occur due to other reasons, such as if the machine
on which server runs, crashes, or if it is too overloaded to handle
connections (happens on bigger nets), or if an IRC operator willfully
disrupts the connection between two servers (happens when operators
reroute servers to achieve a better routing).
Then in this case, you will see users on B and D, "sign off". Voila!
That was a "netsplit". When A and B rejoin, you will see users from B
and D "rejoin" the channel you were on. To cut down on the mass
signoff and rejoin messages that you see during netsplits, you might
try the "netsplit" script that comes with the ircII client. Use the
command /load netsplit to load it.
The term "lag" refers to the delay in messages reaching their
destination. You might often see a bunch of messages from a certain
user all together. In this case it's quite possible that the user
is "lagged". If you see a flood of messages from *everyone*, then
no messages for a while, then a flood again, etc., it is quite
possible that *you* are lagged. To find out how well you are doing
with respect to others, use the /ping command. /ping #channelname
forces a response from others on the channel, and you can compare
response times.
Lag can occur if you are not connected to a server close to you, or
if you are on a telnet client, or due to faults in the *physical*
network, or if the machine on which the server runs is slow.
There's not much you can do to avoid netsplits. They're a part of
the way ircd was designed, and also a part of the way the Internet
runs. To avoid lag, always use the server closest to you. The /links
command lists all IRC servers. Use /server servername to switch
servers.
Both lag and netsplits are much much lesser on the Undernet, but more
on this later.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-29) Why do I get that annoying ~ which shows up in front of my address
on IRC? How do I get rid of it?
On IRC, it is often difficult for the server to verify the userid
of a particular client. Malicious users often use this to their
advantage by using forged userids and harassing other users, or
starting destructive clone processes which flood the network with
garbage. To better authenticate userids, later versions of irc
servers check to see if an IDENT server runs at your site. If it
does, the correct userid is queried from the IDENT server and used,
and the userid given by the user ignored. A server administrator may
choose to make the server tag users whose machines do not run IDENT
with a ~ before their name, signifying that they may not be under a
verified userid. This way, they can also deny access to troublesome
sites that do not run IDENT.
If you see the ~ before your email address in a /whois, and wish to
get rid of it, you will need to talk to your system administrator,
and ask him to install ident. The relevant RFC (request for comments)
which gives more information on ident is RFC1413. The IDENT package
for Unix systems can be found at:
ftp.std.com /src/network/pidentd-2.2.tar.gz
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-30) Hmm..what are all these "power scripts" that I keep hearing about?
Do I need them? Why do people call them risky?
The ircII client supports a scripting language which allows you
to program useful macros, functions, etc. /help ircII programming
will help you get started.
Most of the scripts that you see advertised are unnecessary. No
one needs a script that does mass mode changes for instance. (If
you're wondering why, each mode change is transmitted to each and
every server on the net. A mass of mode changes thus eats up a lot
of unnecessary bandwidth. Think about this the next time you do
a mode change.) The scripts which come with the client are more
than sufficient to help you get by. Notable scripts that come to
mind are the 'tabkey' script, which allows you to flip between
people whom you sent messages to before by a press of the tab key,
and the 'netsplit' script which cuts down on the mass signoffs and
rejoins that you see during netsplits.
When someone offers you a script, do not /load it without going
over it with a fine toothcomb. Even a simple /load scriptname can
cause you grief, if you do not know what the script does. Read each
and every line in the script, and get a general idea of what the
script does before loading it. Several scripts are known to have
'backdoors' put there intentionally or unintentionally by the
authors or distributors. Loading a script which you haven't gone
over is a BAD idea. To repeat, *never* load a script without reading
it first. If you do not understand it, DO NOT load it. Yes, it might
have "worked" for others - let them dig their own graves.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-31) Oh, I see. Now what's a bot? Why do people have a love/hate attitude
towards bots? Can I make a bot?
The term "bot" is short for "robot". You can often come across these
on IRC. A bot is a detached irc process which simulates another irc
client. Some bots serve as repositories for files, or useful data,
or conduct games. Dumb bots only do mode changes. Harmful bots
fork clone copies of themselves or flood the irc network with
garbage (clonebots/floodbots). These are almost universally hated.
Most bots on IRC are a nuisance, even though their owners find their
invention "cool". To quote guidelines for bots from the IRC primer:
* automatons should be clearly identified as such, having "bot",
"serv" or "srv" in their nickname.
* they should use NOTICES to communicate with the rest
of the world, and not reply to NOTICES they get.
* they should be able to always be killed (craziness is a
frequent disease among robots).
* they should be able to be killed remotely by their owner via IRC.
* they should not give access to their owner's real files, (bandits
have already been able to crack people's accounts through
their robots).
* they should not send messages to channels (unless the channel
is dedicated to that robot).
* they should not flood channels with MODE changes.
Please do not make yet another bot which disregards any of these. IRC
has more than its share of disruptive bots. *Never* ever take bot code
from someone and run it without understanding what it does. This is
a common mistake amongst newbies. Security issues come into play
again, not to mention that users doing this are often clueless about
controlling them, and the bots become a big nuisance. If you *must*
run a bot, learn ircII programming, or even better, C/perl & network
programming, and make sure that your bot serves a useful purpose
rather than "ops you on your channel and keeps it open when you are
not there".
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-32) Help! This extremely obnoxious person keeps harassing me with
messages/flooding me. What should I do?
One of the first commands that a newcomer to IRC must learn is the
magic /ignore command. With this command you can ignore people
flooding you or your channel, or harassing you, or whatever. The
syntax of the ignore command is:
/ignore user@host ALL
To find the user@host for a person, do a /whois nickname, or a
/who nickname. If you just wish to ignore messages from the person
you may do a /ignore nick MSG. /help ignore will give you more
information on this command. You can use wildcards (* and ?)in the
user@host. Thus to ignore everyone from a *.com site,
/ignore *@*.com all
On the Undernet, you can also use the "/quote silence" command to
counter people flooding you. This cuts flooding at the *local*
server unlike /ignore where your client continues to receive
messages even though you may not see them, and causes your client
to ping timeout in many cases. The syntax is:
/quote silence +user@host
or /quote silence nick
Ocassionally, malicious users may hack their userid or use
different accounts to get around your /ignore. Do not despair. You
can still evade people like these by going invisible and changing
nicks as follows:
/mode yournick +i or alternatively, /umode +i
followed by,
/nick newnick
Once you're invisible the harasser cannot see your new nickname
unless s/he's on the same channel as yourself. Simple make your
channel secret and invite only (/mode #channelname +sni) for you
and your friends, for a foolproof cure.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-33) Hey..I heard that you can exchange files over IRC - how is that done?
What's DCC?
If you have a client that supports DCC (direct client-to-client),
you can take advantage of it to exchange files, and even hold secure
conversations with your friends. To send a file via DCC to another
person, use:
/dcc send nickname filename
The other person who's offered the file via DCC, will need to type in
/dcc get nickname filename
You will see establishment of a DCC connection. Now wait patiently,
until the transfer is completed.
You can also use DCC to have a more secure conversation with another
person. DCC opens a direct connection which means that apart from
the initial requests to establish the DCC connection, further
exchange takes place directly between 2 clients without involvement
of intervening IRC servers. To use DCC CHAT, try
/dcc chat nickname
Then, to send a message via dcc to the person, use
/msg =nickname message (note the '=' sign which is required,
otherwise the message will not go over the dcc connection). You may
also try /dmsg nick message. /help dcc should give you more information
on DCC.
To close a previously sent DCC connection, use the command
/dcc close <type> <nick>
For example, if you had sent a file called sample.txt to Mmmm, and
wish to terminate the send, use
/dcc close send Mmmm
To list current DCC connections in use, try the command
/dcc list
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-34) How can I "register" my nickname? What's Nickserv?
Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee that you can use the
same nickname when you're on IRC. Although it is considered extremely
impolite to use someone else's nickname, it does happen occasionally
on IRC. This can cause confusion, and hence you're advised to make
sure that your friends recognise you by your user@host.
However, all is not lost. There does exist a service call Nickserv
which will register nicknames and warn other users who attempt to
use the same nickname that the nickname's registered by you. On
the Undernet, Nickserv's still in an experimental stage. Use
/msg nickserv@undernet.org help
for more information. Remember that it is not a guarantee that your
nickname will not be used. Steps are underway to strengthen the
undernet Nickserv, if possible.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-35) Where can I find pictures/gifs of people on IRC?
You can find pictures of people who use IRC at the following FTP
sites:
ftp2.undernet.org:/irc/pictures
ftp.funet.fi:/pub/pics/people/misc/irc (NORDUnet only)
ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de /pub/comp/networking/irc/RP
If you have Mosaic, you may try the following URLs:
http://www.enst.fr/~tardieu/irc/
http://www.powertech.no/IRCGallery/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-36) Where can I find an IRC manual? Where can I find more information
on IRC?
You can find an ircII manual at ftp.undernet.org under /irc/clients.
This manual is basically all the help files concatenated into one
big file. If you'd prefer each in separate files, ftp ircII2.2.9help.
tar.Z, and uncompress and untar it (uncompress ircII2.2.9help.tar.Z
| tar -xf -).
For more information on IRC, you can download the IRC primer and
tutorials from cs.bu.edu under /irc/support. For a technical
overview, you can try reading RFC1459. You can also join the
Undernet mailing lists - ircnet (general irc help) and wastelanders
(discussion of server routing/protocol/etc). To find out how to
subscribe, send mail to listserv@undernet.org with "help" in the body.
If you use Mosaic, a good URL to try is:
http://eru.dd.chalmers.se/home/f88jl/Irc/ircdocs.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
