TrueColor Technical

With the advent of Google and other highly specific search engines finding information these days is relatively simple. “Google it” has become an everyday phrase. However, often the request is too specific or to broad to get any value out of the results. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could ask a question and get an answer from a real person? There is such a service on the internet it’s called IRC, or Internet Relay Chat. If you know where to look, what and how to ask IRC can be a very valuable resource.

IRC was developed in 1988 at the University of Oulu, Finland. It was originally an extension of a BBS service that allowed real-time communication with a group of others connected to the same server. 21 years later IRC is still strong with many many active servers.


IRC CLIENTS:

To connect and use IRC you will need two things, an IRC client, and a server address.

There are several clients used to connect to IRC servers. Just to name a few:



mIRC (Windows) – The #1 windows based IRC client, used by a majority of users connecting from windows based computers. It can be found here: http://www.mirc.com



BitchX (Linux) – A text based Linux IRC client with windowing functions and ASCII colors. It is included in most popular Linux distributions. It can be found here: http://www.bitchx.com/



Xchat (Linux & Windows) – Another popular client developed under a free software license. Xchat has a wealth of features. It can be found here: http://www.xchat.org/

All IRC clients have somewhat of the same functionality they allows you to join multiple IRC channels (chat rooms), and servers at the same time, talk publicly, private one-on-one conversations. You can even transfer files with most IRC clients. Now on to the servers.
SERVERS:

There are a multitude of servers to connect to I am going to discuss the main 4 that I use.

Irc.efnet.net - Eris Free net was the largest IRC network for years and years, with over 100K online users on an average day. Because of its massive size EFnet was having lots of problems with lag, netsplits, op hacking and various other things but recent server improvements solved most of these problems.

Irc.undernet.org - Undernet is a good alternative to EFnet. It provides a friendly and stable IRC network. The Undernet is growing in size very rapidly due to the continuous improvements to the servers and the information and help provided to its users. Currently it holds about 100K users.

Irc.IRCnet.com - is an IRC network that split off the large EFnet network some years ago. At first it mainly consisted of European servers but overseas servers have joined to make a world-wide network with about 100K users.

Irc.Dal.net - DALnet was created by The EFnet's #startrek users as a quiet place where they could run their channel without having to deal with takeovers and netsplits. But the people who run DALnet stress that it’s not just for trekkers anymore. With about 30K users DALnet is now one of the largest and most active IRC networks available. It is well organized and one of the five most famous IRC networks.

The choice on which servers to use is a matter of preference and experience. I myself connect to channels on each of these servers (most IRC clients allow you to use multiple servers at once).
BASIC COMMANDS:

I am going to give you a basic overview of IRC commands just so you’re not completely overwhelmed the first time you see them.



/server servername port

– This allows you to connect to an IRC server. Most servers use ports between 6661 and 6669. All of the above IRC clients will guess the port for you.

/nick nickname

– This allows you to change your name as it appears in channel windows.

/list expr

– This command will list all the channels on a network. ‘expr’ is optional and will display just the channels. that contain ‘expr’

/join #channel

– (must include the ‘#’) allows you to join a channel.

/part #channel

– use this to leave a channel.

/msg username

– send a private message to username.



ETIQUETTE:

IRC is notorious for not being the friendliest place to find answers. Flaming and “newb bashing” are common place, but if you learn how to ask properly you can avoid most of that. First things first do not ever ask to ask a question, don’t ask if there some one that can help you or a guru on a specific topic, JUST ASK. If someone wants to answer and can, they will. Do not repeat yourself. Be reasonable do not spam the channels and ask maybe once an hour if you didn’t get a response. Google is your friend first. Asking a question that can just as easily answered by typing the question into Google will likely just annoy people.

Look for channels regarding the topic you need help with. You can find them using the /list command

I explained above. Most channels will have a topic that explains acceptable behaviour, or a link to a FAQ that explains everything. Read them. It seems a large majority of people completely lose any respect or decency when put into a chat environment, don’t play into it, it really does no one any good. IRC is pretty easy to pick up once you start using it. Check it out. If you have any questions, comments, etc, feel free to send me an email or leave a comment.

Some channels you may find me in include the following: #linux, #windows, #freebsd, #calgary, #c, #unixdev, and #udshells.