Internet Relay Chat

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) provides a chatting enviroment with people from all over the world. It consists of various separate networks (or "nets") of IRC servers, machines that allow users to connect to IRC. The largest nets are EFnet (the original IRC net, often having more than 32,000 people at once), Undernet, IRCnet, DALnet, and NewNet.

You will use a program called a client to connect to an IRC server. The server relays information to and from other servers on the same net.

Once connected to an IRC server on an IRC network, you will usually join one or more "channels" and converse with others there. On EFnet, there often are more than 12,000 channels, each devoted to a different topic. Conversations may be public (where everyone in a channel can see what you type) or private (messages between only two people, who may or may not be on the same channel). IRC is not a "game", and I highly recommend you treat people you meet on IRC with the same courtesy as if you were talking in person or on the phone, or there may be serious consequences.
 

Channel names usually begin with a #, as in #inwo4life .
Each user is known on IRC by a "nick", such as TheSyXxMachine or SyXxIsGod. To avoid conflicts with other users, it is best to use a nick that is not too common or just sounds plain stupid, e.g., "Sephiroth" is a poor choice, and "JasonSensation" is just plain stupidity.

 On some nets, nicks do not belong to anyone, nor do channels. This can lead to conflict, so, if you feel strongly about ownership of such things, you may prefer networks with "services" like Undernet, DALnet, or other smaller networks.

Channels are run by channel operators, or just "ops" for short, who can control the channel by choosing who may join (by "banning" some users), who must leave (by "kicking" them out), and even who may speak (by making the channel "moderated")! Channel ops have complete control over their channel, and their decisions are final. If you are banned from a channel, send a /msg to a channel op and ask nicely to be let in (see the /who command in the next section to learn how to find ops). If they ignore you or /who gives no response because the channel is in secret mode (+s), just go somewhere else where you are more welcome.
 

Commands and text are typed in the same place. By default, commands begin with the character / . If you have a graphical client such as mIRC , many commands can be executed by clicking on icons with the mouse pointer. It is highly recommended that you learn to type in the basic IRC commands first. . The basic commands work on all the good clients.

Some examples are given below. In these, suppose your nick is "TheSyXxMachine", and that you are on the channel #nwo4life.

Your friend "SiRaK" is in #nwo4life with you, and your friend "CopyCat" is on IRC but is not on a channel with you. You can apply these examples in general by substituting the relevant nick or channel names.

A quick example of simple IRC commands.

Command
What Command Actually Does.

/join #nwo4life
You join the channel #nwo4life.



Hi Peeps
Everyone on #nwo4life sees <TheSyXxMachine> Hi Peeps. (You need not type in your own nick.)
 

/me is god.
Everyone in #nwo4life sees * TheSyXxMachine is god.

/leave #nwo4life
You leave the channel.
 

/whois CopyCat
You get some info about CopyCat

/whois TheSyXxMachine
This is some info others see about you.

/nick SyXxIsStillGod
Changes your nick to "SyXxIsStillGod"

/msg CopyCat Sup Dood..
Only CopyCat sees your message (you don't need to be on the same channel for this to work).

/ping #nwo4life
Gives information on the delay (round-trip) between you and everybody on #nwo4life.
 

/ping SiRaK
Gives information on the delay (round-trip) between you and just SiRaK.

/quit L8rZ
You quit IRC completely, with the parting comment so that others see "*** Signoff: TheSyXxMachine (L8rZ!)".

 That's just a quick rundown of the IRC basics, it is all you need to know to get started, you don't even really NEED to know the above, but it's a head start I suppose.

I'll add some downloads soon.

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