IRC Instructions

Introduction

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is the longest standing chat standard on the Internet.

There are many IRC networks that work separately. Choose the network you like. I have recently moved to Libera.chat.

Web-based IRC access - Registration is not needed. Installation is not needed.

Click here: https://kiwiirc.com/nextclient/irc.libera.chat
- Nick: Enter your desired nickname or alias.
- Password: (Optional) This is only if you have a registered nickname. Leave empty otherwise.
- Channel: #finki or #sisng
Click START to connect and you are ready to chat
- This should connect you to the selected channel (#finki if you followed the instruction), where you can send public messages to all users in the channel or see a list of connected users to the channel and send a personal message to them.
Additional notes and netiquette:
- channel are like rooms, for chatting with everyone present there
- not everyone listed is truly active and reading, they might be away
- In the chat box of the channelyou can type text messages but you can also issue specific IRC commands, write /help to list all commands and /help command will list the help for the specific command.
- The command /join channelname will join a new channel (in parallel to the first one) and open it in a new tab. Registered channels for real projects start with #, some channels that are for temp purposes start with ##. Remember that the # prefix should always be typed.
- You can draw the attention of some specific user, by pinging them with @ - write their @nickname in your message.
- You can also write a private message to any user. /msg nickname yourmessage
- Please be patient and polite, not everyone is on standby waiting for yout messages. It might take quite some time since the user responds.

Access using an IRC client

One of the most popular Windows-based software that supports IRC is mIrc.

One of the most popular GNU/Linux-based software that supports IRC is Pidgin.

If you use Thunderbird for email, it has an integrated Chat module, that supports IRC.

Please remember that you should connect to a server from the Freenode network (just choose the general Freenode network and it will use the closest/fastest server) and visit one of the channels that I visit too (e.g. #finki)

Access using TELNET

You need to know a couple of instruction. Example provided bellow. Bolded text are commands issued by you, the rest are server responses. Let's say that you want to access as:

Nick: john19873
FirstName: John
LastName: Doe
YourServer: johnservernotreally.com (it does not have to be a real server)
username: johnsuser (it does not have to be a real user)
password: sistem7 (this is optional, only if Nick is registered to some username)

> telnet chat.freenode.net 8000

Trying 38.229.70.22...
Connected to chat.freenode.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
:card.freenode.net NOTICE * :*** Looking up your hostname...
:card.freenode.net NOTICE * :*** Checking Ident
:card.freenode.net NOTICE * :*** Couldn't look up your hostname
:card.freenode.net NOTICE * :*** No Ident response

PASSWORD sistem7 
NICK john19873
USER johnsuser johnservernotreally.com John Doe

:card.freenode.net 001 john19873 :Welcome to the freenode Internet Relay Chat Network john19873
:card.freenode.net 002 john19873 :Your host is card.freenode.net[38.229.70.22/8000], running version ircd-seven-1.1.7
...
...
:card.freenode.net 372 john19873 :- Thank you for using freenode!
:card.freenode.net 376 john19873 :End of /MOTD command.
:john19873 MODE john19873 :+i

JOIN #finki
:john19873!~johnsuser@100.100.100.100 JOIN #finki
:card.freenode.net 353 john19873 = #finki :john19873 ajan gdarko
:card.freenode.net 366 john19873 #finki :End of /NAMES list.

PRIVMSG #finki :Hello everyone
:ajan!~ajan@100.100.100.100 PRIVMSG #finki :Hello John, how are you
:pero!~pero@100.100.100.2   PRIVMSG #finki :Hello John from me too, wassup?

PING :card.freenode.net
   (when the server sends to you a PING, you have to answer with PONG,
   otherwise you will be disconnected as inactive)
PONG :card.freenode.net


QUIT

:john19873!~johnsuser@100.100.100.100 QUIT :Client Quit
ERROR :Closing Link: 100.100.100.100 (Client Quit)
Connection closed by foreign host.

Note that some internet providers block IRC access in this way, so if you are not connected please look for other ports/options here including how to access over SSL or TOR: https://freenode.net/kb/answer/chat