I can’t connect to server X
When you click the Connect button in Snak there is a whole lot of things that
must work perfectly very quickly for the connection to be established.
Almost all of those things are entirely out of the hands of the Snak developer
to influence. Once the request is sent out, it either works or it doesn’t.
If you can’t connect to a particular server there are only a few things you
can try:
Try again later – the server may be too busy to respond to requests.
Increase the timeout for the server. (See the chapter on connecting)
Double check the server name if you have entered it manually.
Make sure that your connection is set up to allow the IRC server to connect to
the Ident service in your IRC client (see next subject)
Try a different server on the same network.
The server keeps saying something about "Ident problems"
Ident is an identification service that most IRC servers require in order to let
you connect. When you connect to the IRC server, it will immediately try and establish
a connection back to you in order to verify that you are where you say you are.
Snak has a built in Ident service that is always active on OS 9. On OS X it is
disabled because OS X has its own Ident service that you should use instead.
If you are on OS X, please make sure that you have enabled the OS X Ident service
by using the scripts that come with Snak.
If you are using an AirPort, Cable modem or ADSL or NAT connection then the problem
is probably that the connection is set to block for connections on the port that
Ident requires. This is port 113 and you must make sure that your connection passes
connections on that port on to the machine running Snak.
The instructions for doing this are too varied to attempt to describe here, so
please contact your tech support person or see what the manual has to say on the
subject of opening a particular port.
The tab key steps through the names in the userlist
In Snak 4.7 the default use for the tab key is the nick completion. You can get
the old behavior where it steps through a list of nicks you have sent private
messages to by going to the General preference panel and unchecking the last checkbox
Why do I have a ~ in front of my nick
The tilde (~) signifies that the IRC server was not able to connect to an Ident
service on your machine. Please see the previous page about Ident problems and
what you can do to enable the Ident service.
I can’t send files with DCC
This problem typically happens if you have an AirPort, Cable modem or ADSL or
NAT connection. The way DCC sending works is that your client tells the other
side to establish a connection to it by sending the IP address and port that the
other side should attempt to connect to. Unfortunately AirPort, Cable modem or
ADSL or NAT device is not configured to let the incoming connection through, so
the DCC send never completes.
To correct the situation, configure the device to let connections on a specified
range of ports through to the machine running Snak. Then in Snak you need to configure
it to only use those ports for sending.
The number of ports to open depends on the number of simultaneous transfers you
expect.
The nicknames are truncated
The main text area is where Snak display the incoming messages and the nickname
of the sender.
It is divided into the nick column, which makes up the left part of the main text
area, and the message area that takes up the rest of the area.
The width of the nick column can be changed by placing the cursor between the
nick column and message area, clicking and dragging the divider.
How do I use color
The input field supports colored and formatted text. The Format menu is used to
apply formatting like Bold and Underline. Because the IRC specification does not
support multiple font or sizes in outgoing text any font and text size changes
will be local only.
Colored text:
Color in outgoing messages are chosen by selecting the text in the input field
you want to colorize and pressing control-c followed by a number.
The meaning of the number in the message depends on the channel it is sent to.
The PC and Mac clients encode colors differently. Snak will use the Mac encoding
if the channel name contains "Mac" and the PC encoding in all other
cases.
In the Mac encoding control-c followed by 1 gives black text. 2 gives red text,
3 is orange, 4 is yellow, 5 is green etc.
Something is wrong with the saved preference files
The purpose of the Make New Preference File menu item is to allow multiple people
to share the program while keeping their preferences separate.
It is not necessary to use this feature every time you make a change to the preferences.
If you make a change in the Preferences window it will take effect immediately,
no need to save anything.
By default Snak uses the file called Snak Data in the preferences folder to store
the preferences. This is the file that the program uses if you launch it by double
clicking on the application icon. If you double click a saved preference file
then the program will switch to using that instead.
The program always has an active preference file, and as mentioned above this
is usually the Snak Data file in the preferences.
When you use the Make New Preference File then the program will create a new file
and write a copy of the preferences into it. The new preference file then becomes
the current preference file.
The server keeps timing out
Some servers take a long time to respond for various reasons. They may be overloaded,
or they may be waiting for an ident response from the client that never comes
(see previous topics for ident problems)
By default Snak will wait 40 seconds for the server to respond but if you find
that a particular server needs more time you can increase the timeout for individual
servers.
To increase the timeout, open the server list (Cmd-E) and select the network and
server you want to change. Then press the Edit button and enter a new value for
the server timeout in the dialog.
How do I change my username from "Snak"
"Snak" is the default username that the program uses for new profiles.
To change it you can open the profile list (Cmd-K) and open each profile in turn
and enter something else. The change takes effect next time you connect.
Why am I logged on as "Snakker"
"Snakker" is the default nickname that Snak uses when you haven’t
gone through the Setup Assistant. To change the nickname you can open the profile
list (Cmd-K) and open each profile in turn and change the nickname. You can also
re-run the Setup Assistant by choosing it from the Help menu.
Can I prevent my real email address from showing in the userlist
It is not actually your email address. When you connect to the Internet you do
so through your ISP. That gives you an address on the Internet that the IRC server
displays when you connect to the channel. The server then combines this address
with the username that is set up in the IRC client. The client has nothing to
do with making the address, but you can change your username (see previous topics)
to remove any resemblance to your email address.
How do I make Snak open new windows in a particular size (userlist width)
You can use the "Set Default Size" menu item in the Windows menu to
make Snak store a template for new windows.
How do I assign commands to the function keys
You need to do this in one of the script files that is found in the UserScripts
folder. If you open the file "basical" you will see some lines starting
with "Alias F5" and "Alias F6" in the top half. These lines
assign certain commands to F5 and F6.
When you edit the script files you must make sure not to use a word processor
like Microsoft Word or similar. You must use a simple text editor like BBEdit
or SimpleText in order to ensure that the script files are not made unusable.
I don’t want the MP3 or DCC lists because I never use them
In that case you can simply drag each unwanted tab out in its own window, and
then close it. If you find you need it at a later date you can press Cmd-M to
make the MP3 list reappear. Cmd-D will reopen the DCC list. They will then come
up by in a window like they were before they were closed. To put a tab back with
the other tabs, simply drag it back.
Logitech scroll wheel mouse doesn’t work right
Based on user feedback, please update to at least version 4 of the drivers.
How do I open a window for private messages to someone
Under the general preference panel you can check the "Open query on private
message". You can also use the "respond" menu item in the tools
menu to open a query window to the last person that messaged you. You can use
a contextual menu click in the user list by holding down the control when you
click on the user and then you can select the Query item in the menu that comes
up. Lastly you can type the /query <nick> command to open a query window
manually.
