1. WHAT CAN I DO ?
IRC is short for Internet Relay Chat. It's probably the most funny service to use. It is an online discussion (well maybe discussion might not be the right word - chat would describe it better) organized in separate channels. You can chat with other people from all around the world privately or in public.

2. WHAT DO I NEED ?
Well, you have probably guessed it by now. You need a special client and a server to connect to. To use IRC you need a special irc client, which you can obtain from one of the following addresses:

Visual IRC
mIrc
PIRCH
Internet Mac
Mac Helpers
Mac Internet Apps

3. WHERE CAN I CONNECT ?
Probably your ISP can tell you the address of an IRC server you can use. IF your ISP does not supply such an address, you might try one of the addresses below. Note that some servers do not allow public access or restricts access to a certain domain.

2.2.1 USA	2.2.2 Canada
irc.bu.edu	irc.mcgill.ca
irc.eskimo.com	irc.io.org
irc.uiuc.edu	irc.cs.mun.ca
irc.neosoft.com	bud.tic.ab.ca
2.2.3 Europe	2.2.4 Asia
Uni-Paderborn.de	irc.biu.ac.il
irc.wu-wien.ac.at	irc.tokyo.wide.ad.jp
irc.funet.fi	solar.cc.nus.sg
irc.eunet.fi	irc.ntu.edu.tw
sokrates.informatik.uni-kl.de	dec504.aist-nara.ac.jp

/nick <name>

where <name> is replaced by the nickname of your choice. Again, the nickname you have chosen might already be in usage. Then you have no other option than choosing a different nickname. Now we are ready to start chatting. Here is what to do:

THE CHANNELS
As mentioned before, IRC consists of many channels. Each channel has a specific name. Before you join a channel you might want to know which channels are available. This can be done by typing the following command:

/list

NOTE: All IRC commands start with a slash ("/"). If you forget the slash then this is treated as a normal message and will be sent to the entire channel.

The command we've just issued will produce a very large list, as it does list every channel, even those where currently no one is chatting. To limit your list to channels with at least 20 persons, you can use this command:

/list -min 20

This list will be a lot shorter. If you want to get into the action right away, here is a list of channels that are always crowded. Also some of these channels have their own homepage:

#Channel	Homepage	Topic
#insanity	#Insanity	Crazy chat
#prog	#Prog	All about programming
#StarWars	#StarWars	May the force be with you
#StarTrek	#StarTrek	Most illogical !
#talk	#Talk	Well ...
#talk2me	#Talk2Me	Well ...
#love	#Love	True Love
#Windows95	#Windows95	All about Windows95

Another good hint is to try to join a channel with the name of the country you're living in. So if you live in Austria, you could try #austria. If you try to join a channel that does not exist, then it is created at the time you're joining it, with yourself being the only persons in it. You also are given operator rights, because you have created the channel.

JOIN A CHANNEL
If you have found a channel you want to join, simply type the following command:

/join <channel>

Where <channel> is to be replace with the name of the channel you wish to join.

NOTE: Channelnames always start with a "#"

As soon has you have joined a channel you will see the topic of the channel and a list of persons (the nicknames) currently on that channel. Right after that you might see the first messages from other peoples.

LEAVING A CHANNEL
Because some clients allow to be on multiple channels at one, you have to specify which channel you are leaving. This is done by the following command:

/leave <channel>

Again <channel> is to be replaced with the channelname you want to leave.

CHATTING
Now you are ready to chat. During your chatting you will encounter three different types of messages. The first message type are server messages. A server message is sent by the server (well obviously) and indicates an informational message. Such server messages are issued when a new user joins the channel, if someone leaves the channel, if a mode change occurs, etc. Here are some examples of server messages:

* Jeannie (bottle@master.com) has joined channel #ghost
* Signoff Kahn
* You have been invited by NiceGirl to channel #talk

Server messages usually start with one or three "*" The next type of messages is a private message. Instead of a public message, which can be seen by the entire channel you are on, a private message is only sent to the user who is supposed to read it. If you yourself receive such a private message, this is indicated by the nickname of the sender with a "*" in front and at the end of his nickname:

*JaneDoe* Hey ! Why don't you come over ?

If you want to send a private message to any user, you have to use the /msg command as shown here:

/msg JaneDoe Surly I'll come over

If the nickname does no exist, then you will get an error message saying that there is no such nickname/channel. JaneDoe has to be replace with the nickname you want to send the message to. All other messages are public messages, which can be seen by everyone currently on the channel. Such a message is shown with the name of the sender is brackets. Here is an example:

<JaneDoe> Great !

But there are more commands that can be used to enhance your chatting experience. These commands are discussed in the next chapter

SPECIAL COMMANDS
If you want to get detailed information for a user, then you can obtain this information by typing

/whois <nickname>

where nickname is to be replaced by the person's nick you want get information for. If you have to leave your keyboard for a while but do not want to leave IRC, then you can mark yourself as away by using the following command:

/away <reason>

Where reason is any text you want to be displayed. After issuing this command, all other users will see something like

* nick is away (reason).

where nick is automatically replaced with your nickname. If some user is always sending private messages to you which you do not want, you can ignore this person by using the following command:

/ignore <nick>

where nick has to be replaced with the nickname you want to ignore. If you want to invite a person, who is on a different channel, then you can use the following command:

/invite <nick> <channel>

Again <nick> has to be replaced by the person's nick you want to invite and <channel> is the channel you want to invite the person to. The person you have invited will then see the following message:

* You have been invited to channel <name> by <nick>

If you want to "act", then use the following command:

/me <message>

Where <message> is to be replaced with a message to be displayed. All other users will then see something like

* nick <message>

Nick is automatically replaced with your nickname. If you want to get rid of any person on your channel, then you can kick this person from the channel

/kick <channel> <nick>

Where <channel> has to be replaced with the channel you want to kick the person from and <nick> is the nickname of the person you want to kick. As mentioned earlier, each channel has a topic. This topic can be changed by using the following command:

/topic <channel> <topic>

The parameters should be self-explanatory in the meanwhile.

When you have joined a channel, then you are a normal user. There also are special users, called operators. These people do have additional rights. They can change the mode for any other user, change the channel topic, etc. There are lots of modes that can be assigned to a user. As an example, we will show how to assign an operator mode to a user. This is done by

/mode <nick> +o

Then all other users on the same channel will see

* Mode change: "+o <nick> by <nick>

If you want to take away the operator mode from any user, then replace the "+o" with "-o" To determine wether a user is an operator, use the /whoiscommand (discussed earlier in this chapter). If you see a "@" in front of his nickname, then this person is an operator.

NOTE: Some actions can only be taken b operators. Examples are changing a topic (/topic) or change the mode for other users.

NOTE: An operator status is only valid for the channel it was assigned on and is lost when you leave the channel.

5. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
On some channels you will find several Bots. IRC Bots are programs written by other IRC users. These little programs can do various things. From kicking you out of the channel to auto-op you when joining the channel. An IRC-Bot can be identified be a name that has the word bot in it. Examples are Flobot or Gumbot. On IRC channel #austria you will find a bot that will automatically kick you out of the channel if you are flooding it with ASCII arts or Pings. Basically it is a good idea, that such bots exist and kick people out doing such things, as it might get very annoying.

You can learn more about the technical background and download IRC

Now you can talk live to the author of the Internet Information Center. You can reach him either on #austria or #linz. Have a look for the nickname bihuu. servers from the origin of IRC at www.funet.fi.

6. ADDITIONAL DOWNLOADS
As you have learned above, a bot is a special program (also called script), which does several things automatically. I have found a quite useful script, that will enhance your irc experience dramatically. It doesn't do any nasty things - it's simply an enhancement. This script is written by Vassago (Ryan Adams). I didn't test it with all possible clients. It might not work with yours. It has been tested under Linux. To use the script under Linux, type the following command after starting IRC: /load scriptpath

where scriptpath is the full path and filename of the script. Please note that the script is not written by myself and I will not take any responsibility of any effects resulting out of using this script. The phoenix homepage does not exist anymore. Also note that this script below will only work with a unix (or linux) ircII client.

Download packed fPhoenix Script V2.27
ZIP File, 46 KB

ATTENTION: We have just found out, that there are several versions of Phoenix, that do have serious security wholes. It seems as we have one of theese here. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK !!! We have found a version, that should not have any security wholes. It is fphoenix V2.27. If anyone finds any security whole in this, please let us know.

ATTENTION: On some channels the usage of such a script is forbidden. Use at your own risk ! You might want to check with your channel operators first.

The following list porived links to some pages, that offer scripts for the most famous mIRC client:

Official mIRC Homepage
mIrc Info Center
CTFire's One Stop mIrc Shop
Eric's mIRC Scripts
mIrc Script Archive
mIrc Palace
Online magazine for mIrc programmers