Internet Relay Chat (IRC) mini howto

[Sacha Schlegel <sacha_oasis@schlegel.li>]

Hi contributors

Probably Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is nothing new for you. Among
mailinglists, phone conferences, face to face meetings, groupware tools,
IRC is just another communication medium.

It is very interactive and very easy to chat away. I assume you are all
very busy in your daily life and probably dont need another
communication medium. If used wiesly, IRC can be helpful.

One project I follow (http://www.gnuenetprise.org) on the freenode IRC
network uses IRC as their main way of communication. There are about
average 10 guys, from around the world, logged on. The #debian (from the
www.debian.org Debain GNU/Linux project) channel is packed with more
than hundred users and there is chatter 24/365. Very good for a quick
"how do i do that" or "why is this not working" sort of questions. 

Some projects have fixed times when they meet on IRC, similar to the
weekly phone conferences.

OK. What do you need?

All you need is an IRC client. Please find below a list of some IRC
clients.

Once you downloaded the client start it. You should find a list of
available servers where the Freenode IRC network should be listed.
Otherwise the IRC server is called irc.freenode.org

The irc.freenode.org server listens on port 6667 for normal connections
and 9999 for ssl connections. The default port settings should be set in
the client. Depending on the IRC client you can set a proxy settings
(some support HTTP and HTTPS), if needed. If you are behind a firewall,
you might not be able to send and receive files.

Please connect to the chosen server, irc.freenode.org. Once you are
connected you can join a channel with:

/join #ebxml

Please use the "/" and "#" characters. You should then see all the
people in the channel. With:

/nick NameAway

you can change your nick name. Please find more information about IRC
at:

http://www.irc.org and follow the links.

Kind regards.

Sacha Schlegel


--------------------IRC clients------------------------------

Linux/Unix/Mac/Windows:
-----------------------

Mozilla Chatzilla at http://www.mozilla.org

Linux/Unix:
-----------

Textbased BitchX at http://www.bitchx.org
Textbased IRSSI at http://www.irssi.org
GUIbased X-Chat at http://www.xchat.org

MacOS X:
--------

ircle at http://www.ircle.com/download.shtml
Snak at http://www.snak.com/

Windows:
--------

The most common client is MIRC at http://www.mirc.com


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