Have you ever wanted to talk with other computer users in other parts of the world? Well guess what... You can! The program is called IRC, (Internet Relay Chat), and it is networked much over North America, Asia Europe, and Oceania. When you are talking on IRC, everything you type will instantly be transmitted around the world to other users that might be watching their terminals at the time, they can then type something and respond to your messages, and vice versa. I should warn you that the program can be very addictive once you begin to make friends and contacts on IRC,especially when you learn how to discuss in 14 languages...:) Topics of discussion on IRC are varied, just like the topics of Usenet newsgroups are varied. Technical and political discussions are popular, especially when world events are in progress. IRC is also a way to expand your horizons, as people from many countries and cultures are on,24 hours a day. Most conversations are in English, but there are always channels in German,Japanese,French,Finnish, and occasionally other languages. IRC gained international fame during the late Persian Gulf War, when updates from around the world came across the wire, and most people on IRC gathered on a single channel to hear these reports. QUICK START ================== If your in a hurry, here are some quick commands that will get you started. What follows is a section that describes in more detail more commands that you may use to make IRC more interactive for you and making your sessions a little easier. But if you just want to get you feet wet just read to the end of this section (Quick Start). When you initiate IRC Chat you will see a Motd screen and it will take 30-45 seconds or more before the login is complete. Afterwards Key Enter the Channel/Room you would like to go into,if you are not "joined" to the default channel. Chat Away! The default server is au.undernet.org:6667 after connecting you may register your nickname and password if you like. Use the list command for a long list of channels available. This list is very long, so don't be surprised,but in the detaled section you can use Flags that will shorten the list. *** Quick IRC - Commands *** /? This Help /Q Quit IRC /W Who's online? (just Enter does the job as well) /J <#Channel> Join channel /L List channels /N Changes your nick name (handle on IRC) to /S Switches to the named /A Sends text as an action /; Send to privately. Don't forget the ";"! Everything else will go to the people on your current channel. Just start typing to see the ">" prompt. Input will be paused until you send your message or command by pressing the Return key. Professionals ;) may use the "normal" commands as well, like /WHOIS *** Some Other IRC Servers Available*** au.undernet.org:6667 ca.undernet.org:6667 toast.dal.net:6667 or :6660 to 6669 can be used eu.undernet.org:6667 iapp.netscape.com:6667 mickey.cc.utexas.edu:6667 us.undernet.org:6667 GETTING STARTED IN MORE DETAIL ==================================== The most important thing to remember about IRC is that you have to be willing to explore and learn to use it... Take you time, try not to get flustered,enjoy yourself, and you will soon be making new friends all over the world! IRC is based on a client-server model. Clients are programs that connect to a server, a server is a program that transports data,(messages),from a user client to another. There are clients running on many different systems, (Unix, emacs, VMS, MSDOS, WinNt, VM...), that allow you to connect to an IRC server. How to behave on IRC ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The most widely understood and spoken language on IRC is English. However,as IRC is used in many different countries, English is by no means the only language. If you want to speak some other language than English,(for example with your friends), go to a separate channel and set the topic to indicate that. On the other hand, you should check the topic before you move to a channel to see if there are any restrictions about language. On a non-restricted channel, please speak a language everybody can understand. If you want to do otherwise,change channels and set the topic accordingly. It's not necessary to greet everybody on a channel personally. Usually one "Hello!" or equivalent is enough. And don't expect everybody to greet you back... On a channel with 20 people that would mean one screenful of hellos. It's sensible not to greet, in order not to be rude to the rest of the channel. If you must say hello to somebody you know,do it with a private message. The same applies to goodbyes. Remember,people on IRC form their opinions about you only by your actions,writings and comments, so think before you type. If you use offensive words, you'll be frowned upon. Do not "dump" to a channel or user,(send large amounts of unwanted information). This is likely to get you kicked off the channel or killed off from IRC. Dumping causes network "burps", connections going down because servers cannot handle the large amount of traffic anymore. Other prohibited actions include: * Harassing another user. Harassment is defined as behavior towards another user with the purpose of annoying them. * Annoying a channel with constant beeping. * Any behavior reducing the functionality of IRC. Privacy on IRC ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You should always keep in mind that messages you send to someone over IRC are passed along all the servers between you and and the person you are writing to. When you're sending a letter to someone,any postman on the way could open it and read its contents.. Well,it's the same on the network. Any IRC-Admin could compile its server in "debug" mode and log whatever messages are transmitted through his node,(it has already been done),so a good thumb rule is not to trust the servers. +-------------------------------------------+ | IRC IS NOT A SECURE WAY OF COMMUNICATION! | +-------------------------------------------+ First Steps ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Note:IrcII,the client most people are using,has most of this information online. If you are stuck, type "/?" and hit for the Quick Help Screen. +------------------------------------------------+ | All ircII commands begin with a "/" character. | +------------------------------------------------+ The slash is the default command character. Commands are not case sensitive,and can be abbreviated to their first letters: "/q" stands for quit and will end your IRC session. Anything that does not begin with "/" is assumed to be a message to someone and will be sent to your current channel, or to a person you are QUERYing. Simple screen activity -------------------------------- What is displayed What you typed Sender Recipients ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ > Morning people Morning, people You Channel hello some1else Channel General commands -------------------------- Keyword Action ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ /? Quick Help /Q Quit IRC /W Who's online? (just Enter does the job as well) /J <#Channel> Join channel /L List channels /N Changes your nick name (handle on IRC) to /S Switches to the named /A Sends text as an action /; Send to privately. Don't forget the ";"! /N [] Changes your nickname to whatever you like. Everyone who wants to talk to you sees this name - also, at themoment, nicknames are limited to 9 characters max. Your nickname will be the same as your login name by default. You can also set an environment variable,IRCNICK, the value of which will be used instead. Nickname clashes are not allowed; this is enforced by the servers. If your intended nickname clashes with someone else's as you enter IRC, you will not be able to enter until you change it to something else. /N Nappy *** Nap is now known as Nappy /Q [] Exits your IRC session. You can also use BYE,SIGNOFF and EXIT. If a reason is supplied,it is displayed to other people on your channels. /QUIT Lunch Time! /? Shows the Quick help. /WHOIS [] Shows information about someone. /WHOIS Nap *** Nap is pioch@poly.polytechnique.fr (Klein bottle for sale...inquire within.) *** on channels: @#Twilight_Zone @#EU-Opers *** on via server poly.polytechnique.fr (Ecole Polytechnique,Paris,FRANCE! ) *** Nap has a connection to the twilight zone (is an IRC operator) *** Nap has been idle 0 seconds /WHOIS Nappy *** Nappy: No such nickname Sometimes WHOIS won't help you much, because the person you want to know more about just left IRC or changed nick. However,you can use WHOWAS to get this information for a while: /WHOWAS [[] ] Shows information about who used the given nickname last, even if no one is currently using it. /WHOWAS Nappy *** Nappy was pioch@poly.polytechnique.fr (Artistic ventureshighlighted.Rob a museum.) on channel *private* *** on irc via server poly.polytechnique.fr (Signoff: Mon Jun 22 20:15:23) Very often, an unsuccess call to WHOIS will lead you to try WHOWAS. That's why ircII allows you to "/SET AUTO_WHOWAS ON"; that way, a "***:No such nickname" message will automagically generate a "/WHOWAS ". Try typing "/HELP SET AUTO_WHOWAS" for more information on this topic. /W Who's online? (just Enter does the job as well) /AWAY [] Leave a message explaining that you are not currently paying attention to IRC. Whenever someone sends you a MSG or does a WHOIS on you, they automatically see whatever message you set. Using AWAY with no parameters marks you as no longer being away. /AWAY Gone to get a cup of coffee. *** You have been marked as being away /AWAY *** You are no longer marked as being away Private conversation commands -------------------------------------- Keyword Action ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ /; Send to privately. Don't forget the ";"! Channels and Public Conversations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On IRC, there are a lot of places where you can "hang out"; those places are called 'channels'. You can compare conversations on a channel to a conversation among a group of people: you see/hear everything that is said, and you can reply to anything that's said. What you type is received by everyone who's willing to listen-and everyone who is late will not hear what was said before,unless repeated by one of the ones who were there. (Who said "reallife" ?) All channels on IRC have names: a "#" sign followed by some kind of text-string, like "#C++" or "#Asians" or "#EU-Opers". Usually, the name of the channel will indicate the type of conversation that's going on in there. Don't count on it, though. Channel commands -------------------------- Keyword Action ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ /L lists channels, number of users, topic /J sets your current channel, (same as CHANNEL) /W gives a listing of user Every channel has certain characteristics, called channel modes. These will also be explained below. Recall the NAMES and LIST commands; they will show you the names of the existing channels. /LIST [[] ] Lists all current "channels",number of users, and topic. The displayed list may be quite long, so you can limit it using flags. "/LIST -MIN n" for instance removes channels with less than 'n' users of the output. Example: /LIST -MIN 5 *** #aussies 5 *** #amiga 5 Daily Amiga Silence...join&enjoy *** #hottub 21 Imagine sky, high above... *** #tuebingen 11 Happy Borthday CHUCK!!! *** #Christian 6 Jesus! *** #Twilight_ 15 The Open Bar & Grill *** #initgame 5 More players needed!!!!!!!!!!!! *** #Taiwan 8 Welcome good friends. *** #espanol 6 EMERGENCIA SE Necesitan Mujeres! *** #sherwood 7 *** #francais 6 on apprend le japonais (japanese welcome) /NAMES [[] ] Shows the nicknames of all users on each "channel", (these may be very long. Remember to filter them with "-MIN n" or "-MAX n"). /NAMES -MIN 5 Pub: #twilight> Mycroft @sojge scorpio @Troy @Avalon @Nap phone Merlinus Lumberjak @tzoper Pub: #espanol Cacique Bonjovi leopardo Carina Miguel Cisco r2 Pub: #amiga @gio @Radix @xterm @mama @AmiBot Pub: #aussies @Bleve @GrayElf @Insomniac @Morkeleb @titus Pub: #hottub baby @Aldur KnightOrc @Toasty Gwydion @Belkira @Aiken Edge @Spockobot @Nada @ZBot @Aurik @anna @RedBaron @Katzen @esashi IceWolf @Eniigma @Digger @TheHeck To join in the conversation on a certain channel you may use the JOIN command. /J [] Sets your current channel to the supplied channel. /J #Twilight_Zone *** Nap has joined channel #Twilight_Zone *** Topic: The Gernsback Continuum *** Users on #Twilight_Zone: Nap msa tober phone @julia @SirLance igh @Daemon @Avalon @Waftam @Trillian @tzoper The CHANNEL command has the same effects. Note that if no parameters are given, your current channel is displayed. Upon entering a channel,you are given useful details about it: list of users talking in that channel,topic... Once in a channel, you may wish to get a detailed list of the people IRCing inside. That's where the WHO command comes in handy: /WHO [|] Gives a listing of users. "/WHO *" for the list of users in your current channel. /WHO #Twilight_Zone Channel Nickname S User@Host (Name) #Twilight_ msa H msa@tel1.tel.vtt.fi (Markku Savela) #Twilight_ tober H ircuser@kragar.eff.org (tober) The first field is the current channel, then nickname, status, real name (in internet user@host form), and a small witty comment you can set yourself with the environment variable IRCNAME. Status indicates if a user is "H"ere or "G"one, (see AWAY), if IRCop ("*"), and/or chanop ("@").It is also possible, when you are already on a channel, to ask someone to join your channel. The command is called INVITE. /INVITE [] Invites another user to a channel. If no channel is specified, your current channel is used. /INVITE Nap *** Inviting Nap to channel #Twilight_Zone If you receive an INVITE message, you can type "/JOIN -INVITE" to join the channel to which you were last invited, or simply "/JOIN ". To leave a channel,just issue a LEAVE command, (PART has the same effects): /LEAVE Leave a channel. /LEAVE #Twilight_Zone *** Nap has left #Twilight_Zone Well,you guessed it,if there is a way to invite someone on a channel,there's also the possibility to KICK someone out of it, for example if this person is behaving like a jerk, annoying people or flooding the channel with unwanted information: /KICK [] Kicks named user off a given channel. Only 'channel operators' are privileged to use this command. /KICK #Twilight_Zone Target *** Target has been kicked off channel #Twilight_Zone by Nap Channels have topics, that indicate the current topic of conversation. You can change this topic on a channel with the TOPIC command. /TOPIC [[] ] Changes the topic for the channel. /TOPIC The silent channel. *** Nap has changed the topic on channel #EU-Opers to The silent channel. At times, you may want to send a description of what you are doing or how you are feeling or just anything concerning you to the current channel. It is absolutely good style to not forget the period at the end of the sentence! /A Tells the current channel or query about what you are doing. /A opens up the fridge. * Nap opens up the fridge. You can also use your own nickname as command, i.e. you can type the line with a leading slash: /Nap reaches out for the orange juice. * Nap reaches out for the orange juice. Network Related Commands ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you encounter any problem, email your Sysop, or /j #irchelp Keyword Action ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ADMIN displays information about a server LINKS shows the servers on the IRC network MOTD displays the server message-of-the-day LUSERS gives a brief listing of users, servers and operators TRACE shows the server connections of the given server STATS shows some irc server usage statistics INFO shows useless information about IRC VERSION shows client and server version number /ADMIN [] Displays the administrative details about the given server. If no server is supplied, the server you are connected to is used. /ADMIN ### Administrative info about poly.polytechnique.fr ### Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, FRANCE ### IRC-Administrator Nicolas Pioch (Nap@IRC) ### /LINKS [[] ] Shows a list of servers currently connected to the IRC network. If is given, /LINKS asks the given for a list of servers matching the given expression, (this list can get very long!). /LINKS *po* *** nova.unix.portal.com 7 Cupertino California, USA *** poe.acc.Virginia.EDU 6 University of Virginia 2.7.1f *** polaris.utu.fi 9 University of Turku, Finland *** polaris.ctr.columbia.edu 6 Columbia University, New York City *** csd.postech.ac.kr 4 POSTECH Computer Science Dept. *** cdc853.cdc.polimi.it 2 Polytechnic of Milan, Italy *** poly.polytechnique.fr 0 Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, FRANCE /S Switches to the named Switches your primary server to the supplied at the specified. If no port number is given, the default port number is used (normally 6667). /S poly.polytechnique.fr 6667 *** Connecting to port 6667 of server poly.polytechnique.fr *** Welcome to the Internet Relay Network, Nap *** Your host is poly.polytechnique.fr, running version 2.7.2g.ID *** This server was created Sat Jan 16 1993 at 12:16:10 MET Occasionally, you can switch servers faster than the IRC network can send out the information that you have left your previous server. So don't be surprised if you are told your nickname is already in use... Just wait a moment and set it with /NICK again. /MOTD [] Gives the Message-Of-The-Day for the named server. If no server is given, your server is used. /MOTD MOTD - poly.polytechnique.fr message of the day - MOTD - _____________________________________ MOTD - /\ \ MOTD - \_| Bienvenue sur le serveur | MOTD - | Internet Relay Chat | MOTD - | de l'Ecole Polytechnique, FRANCE | MOTD - | _________________________________|__ MOTD - \_/___________________________________/ MOTD - MOTD - | | | En cas de probleme, MOTD - )_) )_) )_) tapez / admin MOTD - )___))___))___)\ MOTD - )____)____)_____)\\ Nicolas PIOCH MOTD - _____|____|____|____\\\__ Nap sur IRC MOTD - --\ Welcome on IRC ! /--------- MOTD - ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ * End of /MOTD command /LUSERS Gives a brief listing of the number of servers,operators and users matching the given ,as seen from the specified. /LUSERS *** There are 1008 users and 291 invisible on 135 servers *** 72 users have connection to the twilight zone *** There are 458 channels *** I have 16 clients and 4 servers *** 22 maximum connections, 19 clients /TRACE [] Shows the server connections of the given . /TRACE *** Serv Class[9] ==> 134S 1331C eff.org[192.88.144.3] *** Serv Class[8] ==> 1S 6C Julia.Enst.FR *** Serv Class[8] ==> 1S 6C Eurecom8.Cica.FR[192.70.34.208] *** Serv Class[1] ==> 2S 0C athina.cc.uch.gr[147.52.80.102] *** Serv Class[8] ==> 1S 5C dafne.mines.u-nancy.fr[192.70.66.2] *** Serv Class[8] ==> 1S 0C cnam.cnam.fr *** Class 0 Entries linked: 16 *** Class 9 Entries linked: 1 *** Class 8 Entries linked: 4 *** Class 1 Entries linked: 1 /STATS c|i|k|l|m|u|y [] Shows some irc server usage statistics. /STATS u *** Server Up 12 days, 12:28:44 /INFO [] Shows information about the IRC creators,debuggers,slaves and a lot of other people who no longer have much to do with IRC. /VERSION Shows the ircII version number and the version number of the server. /VERSION *** Client: ircII 2.2 *** Server poly.polytechnique.fr: ircd 2.7.2g.Nap+6(privacy). Quick Reference Panel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Keyword Action ------- ------ /? This Help /Q Quit IRC /W Who's online? (just Enter does the job as well) /J <#Channel> Join channel /L List channels /N Changes your nick name (handle on IRC) to /S Switches to the named /A Sends text as an action /; Send to privately. Don't forget the ";"! /ADMIN displays information about a server /LINKS shows the servers on the IRC network /MOTD displays the server message-of-the-day /LUSERS gives a brief listing of users, servers and operators /TRACE shows the server connections of the given server /STATS shows some irc server usage statistics /INFO shows useless information about IRC /VERSION shows client and server version number /LIST [[] ] Lists all current "channels", number of users, and topic. The displayed list may be quite long, so you can limit it using flags. "/LIST -MIN n" for instance removes channels with less than 'n' users of the output. The above commands are a good start to get the feel of IRC and get comfortable in a chat session. If you have any questions please Email the Sysop for a quick anwser.