IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. It was originally written by Jarkko Oikarinen in 1988. Since starting in Finland, it has been used in over 60 countries around the world. IRC is a multi-user chat system, where people meet on Channels (rooms, virtual places, usually with a certain topic of conversation) to talk in groups, or privately. 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 on IRC. As a user you run a Client program which connects to a Server in an IRC network. All servers are interconnected and pass messages from user to user over the IRC network. One server can be connected to several other servers and up to hundreds of clients. Several larger and smaller IRC networks exist. The largest ones, called EFnet (Eris Free net), IRCnet, Undernet and Dalnet usually serve about 20000 users at any given moment. Lots of other ones are a little less populated but often offer more stability and convenience. An IRC client reads in the commands and text that you supply to it, and parses them. It filters them and performs the appropriate actions, and if necessary, passes them on to your IRC server. An IRC server can serve many other clients. The server holds information about the channels and people on IRC, as well as other pieces of information, and is also responsible for routing your messages to other users. The IRC Network itself consists of multiple servers which are all connect to each other. First, you have to make sure an IRC Client is installed on your system. If you do not have one you should ask your local system admin to install a client on your PC or local area network. If you have a stand-alone PC with internet acces you have to obtain and install a client yourself. In general, the port number to use is 6667. Some, but not all, servers listen to other ports (most commonly in the 6665-6670 range). When in doubt, select port 6667 (Dalnet usually uses port 7000). A port number should be seen as an entrance to a server. If you take the wrong entrance (port) the server will not understand what you are doing, and will disconnect you. Normally you do not need a password to use an IRC server. Most servers allow anonymous access. If you do not have a password for an IRC server then leave the password entry field blank. If you are prompted for a login or password and you dont know what to type, try to connect to another server. No, you do not have to give your real name. However, simply filling in nonsense will not make you anonymous. IRC is not inteded to keep you hidden from your friends or enemies. Keep this in mind if you are tempted to behave maliciously. A fake real name can be a good way to mask your gender from all the nerds out here but the PC you use can always be traced so you will never be truly anonymous. Assuming you have an E-mail account somewhere you should fill in the address you can be reached at by mail. In case you do not have an E-mail address you can just fill in your name. Your IP Address is the address your PC uses on the Internet. It is usually a set of 4 numbers or its equivalent IP Name. Some providers offer you a unique IP Address (static IP) or they assign a different one every time you connect (dynamic IP) to them. With Dynamic IP addresses you have to make sure your client automatically looks up your current IP Address and your Local Host name each time you connect to IRC. The Local Host name is the name you or your provider assigned to your PC. It can be a single word or a name equivalent to your IP Address. First of all, always try some other IRC Servers when you are unable to access your favorite one. The server, its machine or the route to the server may just be down or broken. When using a new server name you should make sure a server with the specified name actually exists. The server name you specified could be wrong. If the server exists, you can then try the numeric address of the server rather than its symbolic one (e.g 131.174.124.9 for irc.sci.kun.nl). This will solve problems if your Domain Name Server is down, slow, does not understand the name you gave it or cannot translate it into a numeric address. A Not enough user parameters error will occur if you try to connect to a server but you did not have the Local Host name filled in, or had it filled in incorrectly. Check your entry in your client's setup menu. Also check if you supplied your client with a valid E-Mail address. This is a server message to you, it has nothing to do with registering or paying for your IRC client. If you receive this message or if you get disconnected very quickly, your Local Host name or IP Address may be wrong, or not filled in at all. Look in your client's setup dialog and check if the Local Host is correct and if the IP Address is filled in correctly. An easy way to solve an incorrect IP Address is to set the 'On connect, always get' "IP Address" and "Local Host" to "ON" and restart your client. If this does not help you could be trying to connect to a NON-public server. Try another server to be sure. "Ghosts are not allowed on IRC" means that you are banned from using that server. You cannot be completely banned from IRC. Banning exists only on a per-server basis (being banned on one server does not mean you are automatically banned from another). When you're banned you can not use a server. Alternatively IRC servers can accept you under resticted access only. Banning is in one of three forms: - You are banned specifically, you yourself. Only you can be responsible for this (if you are using a shared account or dynamic IP addressing, this obviously does not apply). The responsibility lies completely with you and you have no one to complain to. - Your machine is banned. Chances are, you did committed no wrongdoing. Try using another machine on the network if you have one and seeing if you can use that particular irc server. - Your whole site is banned (where "site" is a "school", "company", "country" or "provider"). This almost certainly is not your fault. Chances of geting the server-ban lifted are slim. Try using another server. The most general answer is use another server, but if it bothers you, try writing to the irc administrator of that site (type /admin servername). Be polite in explaining your case. Most servers can only accomody a maximum amount of IRC users. This is why they sometimes refuse access to you, and close the link at startup. Since servers reserve connections to local users you are more often refused when you are far apart from the server you're trying to connect to.' New developments of the IRC protocol (the so called Bounce-line) make it possible that a server automagically forwards you to a server that is not as buzy and/or more nearby to you thus effectively preventing your disconnection. Some servers restrict access to local users and might therefore close or not even accept a connection from you. Bad behavior by you or your friends, customers from your provider or an entire country may also be restrcited from using certain servers. Getting disconnected with the "No authorization" message occurs due to a similar reason. The server does not give your site access. A server administrator can choose which sites can connect to his server via "I - lines" (called invitation lines). Many servers only I-line local sites so you should try to use a server close to you. Yup, that is very well possible. I only know of mIRC as being working through SOCKS compliant (compatible) firewalls at the moment. No other IRC clients support firewalls. You need a SOCKS compliant IRC client to be able to IRC over a firewall. Ask your internet provider or corporate network managers if you are behind a firewall and, if so, if using mIRC will allow you to use IRC. As far as I know it is totally impossible to use IRC when you are behind a proxy. No proxy interface to IRC has been developed yet. Servers can give you restricted access usermode +r if you're far away from them or if you or somebody from your site (read 20) messed up. When you have restricted access you can not be channel operator, you can not do mode changes and you can not change nickname but you can chat normally! Read more on http://www.funet.fi/~irc/server/restricted.html The only way to get unrestricted IRC access is to find another (more nearby) IRC server. Being restricted has nothing todo with what IRC client you use or with paying (or not yet) for shareware IRC clients like mIRC. It's probably best to take a look around and see what you want to do first. All IRC commands start with a "/", and most are one word. Typing /help will get you help information. /names will get you a list of all nicknames, /list will give you a list of channels, etc. The match text can be a wildcard string, where: * matches any text & matches any word text matches if text contains only this word text* matches if text starts with this word *text matches if text ends with this word *text* matches if text contains this word anywhere The location where this event occurrs can be specified using: ? for any private message # for any channel message #mirc for any messages on channel #mirc * for any private or channel messages Note:These script can be on anynumber instead of 1. 1 is the normal user, but if you want only certian users to use it, then set it on a number above 1 and add that user nicknames or hostmark to your userlist next to the remote tab. Script goes into the remote. |
|