Comments?----IRC - It ain't just a GUI!----
By Niels (aka Ch4r) | nielsosky@gmail.com | http://binaryuniverse.net
| Copy Info |
This tutorial may be redistributed and hosted on other servers as long as full credit is given where it is due and it remains completely unchanged.
| Introduction |
This tutorial is meant for the IRC newbie. It will help familiarize you with IRC, specifically the commands involved, as that is the main and most powerful aspect. Hence the name "It ain't just a GUI!". If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or any other form of feedback, you can contact me either via email (nielsosky@gmail.com) or by catching me around the Binary Universe forums (http://binaryuniverse.net/forums). Note that if you have a question about IRC in general, your better option would be to post at the BU forums. Having said that, let's get started. Enjoy!
| Wtf is IRC? What do I need? |
IRC, short for Internet Relay Chat, is a means of chatting to multiple people over the internet. To use IRC, one connects to an IRC server with an IRC client, and then joins a channel, which may also be thought of as a chat room. Once in the room, all messages a user types are broadcast to all other clients in the room.
For this tutorial, you will need an IRC client. I would recommend X-Chat or IceChat, both of which I have used (I use X-Chat on Linux and IceChat on Windows). They are both relatively simple, and are generally nice IRC clients. Another commonly used IRC client is mIRC, although I don't have much experience with that. You will need to choose a nickname, and possibly fill in other information such as alternate nicks depending on your client. For information on how to do this, read the client's ReadMe.
| Connect to a server and joining a channel |
To join a chat, you need to do two things. First, you need to connect to an IRC server, and then you need to join a channel, which is the chat room. Channel names always begin with a hash (#). An example is #binaryuniverse.
Now, fire up your IRC client and type this, then hit enter:
/server irc.quickproxy.net
This is the format of a simple IRC command. IRC commands begin with / followed by the command, and then some arguments. This particular command tells the IRC client to connect to the server irc.quickproxy.net. Once you've connected to the server, you join a channel with the /join command:
/join #binaryuniverse
This command is used to join the channel #binaryuniverse. Note that the /join command can be shortenned simply to /j. Thus we could use the following instead: /j #binaryuniverse. Now that you're in the channel, you can type stuff and hit the enter key to send messages. However, there's much more to IRC than this.
| Nicks |
Your nick is the name you are identified by in IRC. To keep your nick unique to you, you should probably register it. This is done by sending the register command as a private message to NickServ, which is the service that deals with nicks. More arguments need to be included to specify the password and email address that the nick is registered to. The syntax for the register command is as follows:
/msg nickserv register password email@adress
Eg, this registers a nick with the password 'woot_irc' and the email person@site.net:
/msg nickserv register woot_irc person@site.net
Once a user registers a nick, the user must authenticate with the password they used to register when they join the server with the identify command, using the following syntax: /msg nickserv identify password. So to take my earlier example:
/msg nickserv identify woot_irc
Note that the /msg command is used to send a private message. In the case of the register and identify commands, a PM is sent to a special service, NickServ. However, /msg can also be used to send a PM to another user on the server. For example, this sends a message to the_irc_user saying 'Hey!':
/msg the_irc_user Hey!
| Modes |
Modes are IRC's method of configuration. Through modes one can designate the administration of a channel, who's banned from the channel, a password for the channel, and many other similar options. Following are modes that are commonly set on a specific user:
+o - Op(erator). This is the equivilant of an adminsitrator on a message board. They can ban people, set modes, make other people Operators, and so on.
+h - H(alf)Op(erator). Hops are the equivilant of moderators on message boards. Hops can set the topic, ban people, and set +v, but their power is generally much more limited than that of an op. For example, they cannot set other hops.
+v - Voice. Having voice simply means that you can talk when the channel is muted. Users without vocie that are not h/ops cannot talk when the channel is muted, but users with voice can.
+b - Ban. Not much to say. It just means you can't join the channel.
The following modes are worth noting, but cannot be set on a specific user. Rather, they are set to configure the channel in general:
+i - Invite only. Only users that are invited with the /invite command can join the channel.
+m - Muted. Only users with +v, +o, or +h can talk.
+k - Requires keyword. This means that you must know the keyword/password to the channel to join it.
+l - Limit. This sets a limit for the maximum amount of users for the channel.
Note that there are several other modes that can be set, but as this is a basic introductory tutorial, I cover only the basics. Modes are set with (surprise, surprise) the /mode command. Channel modes are set in the following way:
/mode #channel +mode
For example, '/mode #binaryuniverse +m'. If the mode requires mroe arguments, such as a password or a limit for the channel, these are added after the mode. For example, to set a keyword of 'the_channel_pass', the following command would be used:
/mode #channel +k the_channel_pass
To remove a channel mode, simply replace +mode with -mode. Note that the additional arguments, such as the channel password, are not required. So to remove the +k that was set in the previous example, the following command is used:
/mode #channel -k
Settings modes on a specific user is very similar, except for the fact that another argument is required: the user to set the mode on. So to set mode +o on 'the_leet_irc_user':
/mode #channel +o the_leet_irc_user
And to remove op status:
/mode #channel -o the_leet_irc_user
| Registering a channel |
If you've tried to experiment with the modes, you'll find that you probably can't set them in any old channel. Rather, you need to register your own channel. To do that, first join a channel that is not yet registered with /j #channel. To register the channel, the register command is sent to ChanServ, which is the service in charge of channels. To do that, use the following syntax:
/msg chanserv register #channel password description_of_the_channel
That should be pretty straightforward, as you simply replace #channel, password, and description_of_channel with the appropriate values. That's all!
The following are more commands you might find useful whilst running a channel.
/kick - this kicks a user from the channel, but doesn't ban them
/kickban - this kicks *and* bans a user from the channel
/topic - the /topic command changes the current channel topic
/msg chanserv aop/hop #channel add user - this is used to decide which users should automatically be given op or hop when they join the channel. You can also replace 'add' with 'del' to remove them form the aop or hop list.
| That's All |
By now you should be pretty comfortable with the basics of IRC. One more command that it seems fitting should not be covered until the end is the /quit command. This disconnects you from the server. Hope you enjoyed this. Happy chatting!
| Shouts |
Shouts to mu(aka ~w(aka~1w1(aka wild(aka ordinary-tiger(aka mu-tiger))))), Subby, Edit, Zugg, Cryptic_Override, Ic3D4ne, dlab, ScM, Tele, Gate, R4d30n, and everyone else I forgot.
Written for Binary Universe
http://binaryuniverse.net
http://binaryuniverse.net/forums
irc.quickproxy.net #binaryuniverse
-Niels
