The Book of IRC: The Ultimate Guide to Internet Relay Chat

351 Pages·1999·5.731 MB·English

by  Alex Charalabidis

THE BOOK
of
Alexander Charalabidis
It
No Starch Press
San Francisco
ir
THE BOOK OF IRC. Copyright ©2000 By Alexander Charalabidis
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system,
without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
123456789 10—02 01 00
Trademarks
Trademarked names are used throughout this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence
of a trademarked name, we are using the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark
owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.
Publisher: William Pollock
Project Editor: Karol Jurado
Technical Reviewer: M.D. Yesowitch
Cover and Interior Design: Derek Yee Design
Copyeditor: Gail Nelson
Composition: Derek Yee Design
Proofreader: John Carroll
Indexer: Nancy Humphreys
Distributed to the book trade in the United States and Canada by Publishers Group West, 1700 Fourth Street,
Berkeley, California 94710, phone: [phone], fax: [phone].
For information on translations or book distributors outside the United States, please contact No Starch Press
directly:
No Starch Press
555 De Haro Street, Suite 250, San Francisco, CA 94107-2365
phone: [phone]; fax: [phone]; [email protected]; www.nostarch.com
The information in this book is distributed on an "As Is" basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been
taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor No Starch Press shall have any liability to any person
or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the informa-
tion contained in it.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Pubtication Data
Charalabidis, Alexander.
The book of IRC / Alexander Charalabidis.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-886411-29-8
1. Internet Relay Chat. I. Title.
TK5105.886.C48 1999
005.7'l376-dc21 99-10403
BRIEF CONTENTS
Chapter 0 Chapter 7
Instructions for Internet Dummies Channels
1 99
Chapter 1 Chapter 8
IRC? What's That? Communication
11 125
Chapter 2 Chapter 9
Your IRC Survival Kit Finding People on IRC
19 147
Chapter 3 Chapter 10
Windows IRC Clients Creating and Managing a Channel
33 157
Chapter 4 Chapter 11
Unix Clients Enhancing a Client with Scripts
41 187
Chapter 5 Chapter 12
IRCing on the Macintosh IRC Operators
55 201
Chapter 6 Chapter 13
Connecting to a Server CTCP
73 207
J
Chapter 14 Appendix A
DCC Network and Server Lists
217 307
Chapter 15 Appendix B
Server and Network Commands Terminology
227 313
Chapter 16 Appendix C
Odds and Ends Countries on IRC and Domain
239 Decoder
321
Chapter 17
Abuse and Security Issues Appendix D
253 Useful Addresses
327
Chapter 18
Installing, Running, and Appendix E
Operating an IRC Server Server Numerics
265 331
Chapter 19 Appendix F
IRC Robots Sample Server Configurations
289 339
Chapter 20
The Soapbox and More
295
CONTENTS IN DETAIL
INSTRUCTIONS FOR INTERNET DUMMIES
0.1 Help! Where's the On Button? 2
0.2 Equipment 2
0.3 Computing and the Internet for Beginners 5
0.4 Internet Service Providers 6
0.4.1 Connecting to the Internet via a PPP Dial-Up 7
0.4.2 Connecting to the Internet via Dial-In 7
0.5 Starting Out on the Internet and Using Basic Services 8
0.5. / Using the World Wide Web 8
0.5.2 Using FTP 9
0.5.3 Using Telnet 9
1
IRC? WHAT'S THAT?
1.1 So... What's It All About? 12
1.2 Origin and History of IRC 13
1.3 Technical Concept 15
1.4 What IRC Has to Offer 16
1.5 IRC for Company Use 17
2
YOUR IRC SURVIVAL KIT
2.1 Saints and Sinners 19
2.2 Safety First 20
2.2.1 Trojan Horses 20
2.2.2 Nukes 22
2.2.3 Insert Card to Continue 22
2.3 The Virtual Tourist's Guide to IRC Networks 23
2.3. / Formation of IRC Networks 23
2.3.2 Bright Lights, Big City 25
2.3.3 Small-Town World 25
2.3.4 Foreign Exchange 26
\
2.3.5 All Things Special 26
2.4 Somebody Asked Me to Meet Him ... Where? 27
2.5 IRC Clients and Servers 27
2.5. / Differences among Clients 28
2.5.2 Differences among Servers 29
2.5.3 Client Commands versus Server Commands . 29
2.6 Software Licensing 30
2.7 Basic Commands 31
WINDOWS IRC CLIENTS
3.1 mIRC 33
3.1.1 Setup and Use 34
3.2 Pirch 36
3.2.1 - Setup and Use . 37
3.3 Visual IRC 37
3.3. J Setup and Use 38
3.4 Other Windows Clients 39
4
UNIX CLIENTS
4.1 Getting a Client 42
4.2 ircll 43
4.3 sire 44
4.4 BitchX 44
4.5 Installation of ircll and Related Clients 45
4.5.1 tar, gzip, and Feather 45
4.5.2 Configuring ircll 48
4.5.3 Compile 50
4.5.4 Binaries 50
4.5.5 Setting the Environment 51
4.5.6 The .ircrc File 53
5
IRCING ON THE MACINTOSH
5.1 Mac Users Do IRC with Style 55
5.1.1 General Downloading Instructions 56
5.1.2 ' Choosing the Right Client 57
5.2 Ircle 58
5.2.1 Setup and Use 60
5.3 ShadowlRC 61
5.3.7 Setup and Use 63
5.4 Snak 64
5.4.1 Setup and Use 66
5.5 MaclRC 66
5.5. / Setup and Use 67
5.6 ChatNet 68
5.6.1 Setup and Use 70
5.7 Summary 71
6
CONNECTING TO A SERVER
6.1 Selecting a Network and Server, and Connecting 74
6.1.1 Internet Addressing 75
6.1.2 /re// 76
6.1.3 Graphical Clients and mIRC 76
6.2 Things That Can Go Wrong 78
6.2.1 K-lined, or You Are Not Welcome ... 78
6.2.2 Ping Timeout 79
6.2.3 No More Connections/Server Full 80
6.2.4 Connection Refused 80
6.2.5 Unable to Resolve Server Name 81
6.2.6 Illegal Nickname 82
6.2.7 Nickname or Channel Temporarily Unavailable 82
6.2.8 Ending Up on a Different Server 82
6.2.9 No Authorization 83
6.2.10 Ident Required/Install Identd/Bad Username 83
6.3 Welcome to the Internet Relay 85
6.3.1 The Message of the Day 86
6.3.2 Your Identity on IRC ,.. 87
6.3.3 Nickname Registration and Ownership 88
6.3.4 The Realname Field 88
6.4 User Modes (Umodes) 89
6.4.1 Umode i 89
6.4.2 Umode w 90
6.4.3 Umode s 90
6.4.4 Umode o 90
6.4.5 Umode d 90
6.4.6 Umode r 90
6.4.7 Other Umodes 91
6.5 Changing Servers: The SERVER Command 91
6.6 Disconnecting from a Server 92
6.6.1 Nickname Collisions 93
6.6.2 Operator Kill 94
6.6.3 Server Downtime 94
6.6.4 Ping Timeout 95
6.6.5 Connection Reset by Peer 95
6.6.6 Excess Flood 95
6.6.7 Kill Line Active 96
6.6.8 Other Types of Connection 96
CHANNELS
7.1 Obtaining a List of Available Channels 101
7.7.7 Disconnecting When Using LIST 103
7.1.2 Strange Channel Names 104
7.1.3 Argh! The List Keeps Scrolling Off and I Miss Most of It 104
7.1.4 I Give Up—Nothing Is Working 105
7.2 Selecting a Channel from the List and Finding the Right Channel 105
7.3 joining a Channel 106
7.3.1 No Such Channel 108
7.3.2 How Did I End Up on Channel #? 108
7.3.3 Banned from Channel 108
7.3.4 Bad Channel Key 109
7.3.5 Channel Is Full 110
7.3.6 Kick or Ban after Joining 110
7.3.7 I Joined a Channel on the List and It's Empty! 110
7.3.8 Nickname or Channel is Currently Unavailable 111
7.3.9 Invite-Only 111
7.4 Who Is on the Channel? 112
7.5 Channel Operators 113
7.5.1 Channel Bots 114
7.6 Moderated Channels and Woice 116
7.7 Channel Events 116
7.7.7 Mode Changes 117
7.7.2 Joins, Parts, and Quits 117
7.7.3 Nick Changes 118