Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of real-time Internet chat or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group (many-to-many) communication in discussion forums called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message and data transfers via Direct Client-to-Client. In computing and telecommunications, the transport layer is the second highest layer in the four and five layer TCP/IP reference models, where it responds to service requests from the application layer and issues service requests to the Internet layer. ... The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite. ... User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite. ... The Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) is a message-oriented transport layer protocol that is currently under development in the IETF. Applications that might make use of DCCP include those with timingconstraints on the delivery of data such that reliable in-order delivery, when combined with congestion control, is likely... In the field of computer networking, the IETF Signaling Transport (SIGTRAN) working group defined the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) as a transport layer protocol in 2000. ... The Resource ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP), described in RFC 2205, is a Transport layer protocol designed to reserve resources across a network for an integrated services Internet. ... Network congestion avoidance is a process used in computer networks to avoid congestion. ... The network layer is third layer out of seven in OSI model and it is the third layer out of five in TCP/IP model. ... The Internet Protocol (IP) is a data-oriented protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork. ... Internet Protocol version 4 is the fourth iteration of the Internet Protocol (IP) and it is the first version of the protocol to be widely deployed. ... Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is a network layer for packet-switched internetworks. ... The Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol is a hierarchical interior gateway protocol (IGP) for routing in Internet Protocol, using a link-state in the individual areas that make up the hierarchy. ... Is Is is Yeah Yeah Yeahs third EP, to be released on July 24, 2007. ... The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the core routing protocol of the Internet. ... IPsec (IP security) is a suite of protocols for securing Internet Protocol (IP) communications by authenticating and/or encrypting each IP packet in a data stream. ... In computer networking, the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is the standard method for finding a hosts hardware address when only its network layer address is known. ... Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) is a network layer protocol used to obtain an IP address for a given hardware address (such as an Ethernet address). ... This article is chiefly about the Routing Information Protocol (RIP) for the Internet Protocol, but also discusses some other routing information protocols. ... The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite. ... The ICMP for IPv6 (Internet Control Message Protocol Version 6) is an integral part of the IPv6 architecture and must be completely supported by all IPv6 implementations. ... The Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) is a communications protocol used to manage the membership of Internet Protocol multicast groups. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... IEEE 802. ... The IEEE 802. ... Wi-Fi (IPA: ) is the common name for a popular wireless technology used in home networks, mobile phones, video games and more. ... Official WiMax logo WiMAX, the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular type access. ... Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a cell relay, packet switching network and data link layer protocol which encodes data traffic into small (53 bytes; 48 bytes of data and 5 bytes of header information) fixed-sized cells. ... Dynamic synchronous Transfer Mode , or DTM for short, is a network protocol. ... Token-Ring local area network (LAN) technology was developed and promoted by IBM in the early 1980s and standardised as IEEE 802. ... Ethernet is a large, diverse family of frame-based computer networking technologies that operate at many speeds for local area networks (LANs). ... In computer networking, fiber-distributed data interface (FDDI) is a standard for data transmission in a local area network that can extend in range up to 200 km (124 miles). ... In the context of computer networking, frame relay consists of an efficient data transmission technique used to send digital information quickly and cheaply in a relay of frames to one or many destinations from one or many end-points. ... General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a Mobile Data Service available to users of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and IS-136 mobile phones. ... Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data only, abbreviated as EV-DO or EVDO and often EV, is one telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access. ... High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is a collection of mobile telephony protocols that extend and improve the performance of existing UMTS protocols. ... High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC) is a bit-oriented synchronous data link layer protocol developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). ... In computing, the Point-to-Point Protocol, or PPP, is commonly used to establish a direct connection between two nodes. ... The Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is a method for implementing virtual private networks. ... In computer networking, the Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) is a tunneling protocol used to support virtual private networks (VPNs). ... ISDN redirects here. ... ARCNET (also CamelCased as ARCnet, an acronym from Attached Resource Computer NETwork) is a local area network (LAN) protocol, similar in purpose to Ethernet or Token Ring. ... Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) is a licensed data link layer protocol for network topology discovery and quality of service diagnostics, developed by Microsoft as part of their Windows Rally set of technologies. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Ethernet physical layer is the physical layer component of the Ethernet standard. ... For other uses, see Modem (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Power band. ... Synchronous optical networking, is a method for communicating digital information using lasers or light-emitting diodes (LEDs) over optical fiber. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Optical fibers An optical fiber (or fibre) is a glass or plastic fiber designed to guide light along its length. ... Coaxial Cable For the weapon, see coaxial weapon. ... 25 Pair Color Code Chart 10BASE-T UTP Cable Twisted pair cabling is a common form of wiring in which two conductors are wound around each other for the purposes of cancelling out electromagnetic interference known as crosstalk. ... Online chat can refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, but is primarily meant to refer to direct one-on-one chat or text-based group chat (formally also known as synchronous conferencing), using tools such as instant messaging applications—computer programs, Internet Relay Chat, talkers and possibly... Synchronous conferencing is the formal term used in science, in particular in computer-mediated communication, collaboration and learning, to describe text chat technologies. ... Many-to-many is a term that describes the third major Internet computing paradigm. ... One-to-one in communication is the act of an individual communicating with an other. ... // Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. ... Direct Client-to-Client (DCC) is an IRC-related sub-protocol enabling peers to interconnect using an IRC server for handshaking in order to exchange files or perform non-relayed chats. ...

IRC was created by Jarkko Oikarinen in late August 1988 to replace a program called MUT (MultiUser talk) on a BBS called OuluBox in Finland. Oikarinen found inspiration in a chat system known as Bitnet Relay, which operated on the BITNET. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The talker is a kind of chat system that was originally based on MUDs. ... The UNIX talk command shown in these screenshots was popular in the 1980s and early 1990s. ... BBS redirects here. ... Location of Oulu in Northern Europe Coordinates: , Country Finland Province Oulu Province Region Northern Ostrobothnia Sub-region Oulu sub-region Charter 1605 Government  - City manager Matti Pennanen Area  - City 449. ... Bitnet Relay or officially The Interchat Relay Network or simply Relay was a precursor to todays Internet Relay Chat and various online chat systems. ... BITNET was a cooperative U.S. university network founded in 1981 under the aegis of Ira Fuchs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and Greydon Freeman at Yale University. ...

IRC gained prominence when it was used to report on the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 throughout a media blackout. It was previously used in a similar fashion during the Iraqi invasion. Relevant logs are available from ibiblio archive^[1]. During the Soviet Coup of 1991 (August 19-22, 1991), also known as the August Putsch or August Coup, a group of members of the Soviet government briefly deposed Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and attempted to take control of the country. ... A media blackout refers to the suppression of news related to a certian topic, for any of a number of reasons. ... For other uses, see Iraq war (disambiguation). ... ibiblio (formerly SunSITE and MetaLab) is a collection of collections, and hosts a diverse range of publicly available information and open source software. ...

IRC client software is available for virtually every computer operating system. The following comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients gives an overview of features and differences between various Internet Relay Chat clients. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ...

Technical information

A Screenshot of mIRC, an IRC client for Windows.

A Screenshot of Xchat, an IRC client for Linux.

Xaric, a console based IRC client, in use on Mac OS X. Shown are two IRC channels and a private conversation with the software author.

IRC is an open protocol that uses TCP and optionally TLS. An IRC server can connect to other IRC servers to expand the IRC network. Users access IRC networks by connecting a client to a server. There are many client and server implementations, such as mIRC and the Bahamut IRCd. Most IRC servers do not require users to log in, but a user will have to set a nickname before being connected. mIRC is a shareware Internet Relay Chat client for Windows, created in 1995 and developed by Khaled Mardam-Bey. ... Windows redirects here. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (870x747, 127 KB) Screenshot taken in Ubuntu running GNOME desktop environment. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (870x747, 127 KB) Screenshot taken in Ubuntu running GNOME desktop environment. ... A typical X-Chat session on the Freenode IRC network showing an active conversation in the #Wikipedia channel as well as other channels in tabs. ... This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ... Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Xaric is an open source internet relay chat client for Unix-like systems. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Mac OS X (pronounced ) is a line of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... In networking, a communications protocol or network protocol is the specification of a set of rules for a particular type of communication. ... The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite. ... Transport Layer Security (TLS) and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), are cryptographic protocols that provide secure communications on the Internet for such things as web browsing, e-mail, Internet faxing, instant messaging and other data transfers. ... mIRC is a shareware Internet Relay Chat client for Windows, created in 1995 and developed by Khaled Mardam-Bey. ...

IRC was originally a plain text protocol (although later extended),^[2] which on request was assigned port 194/TCP by IANA. However, the de facto has always been to run IRC on 6667/TCP and nearby port numbers to avoid having to run the IRCd software with root privileges. It is possible (though quite inconvenient) to use IRC via a basic byte-stream client such as netcat or telnet. Computer files can be divided into two broad categories: binary and text. ... TCP and UDP are transport protocols used for communication between computers. ... The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, DNS root zone management, and other Internet protocol assignments. ... An IRCd (Internet Relay Chat daemon) is a computer program to create an IRC server on which people can talk to each other via the Internet. ... On many computer operating systems, superuser, or root, is the term used for the special user account that is controlled by the system administrator. ... In computing, netcat is a network utility for reading from and writing to network connections on either TCP or UDP. It is designed in a thin and simple way, which makes it easy to incorporate in larger applications. ... For the packet switched network, see Telenet. ...

The protocol specified that characters were 8 bit but did not specify the character encoding the text was supposed to use.^[3] This can cause problems when users using different clients and/or different platforms want to converse.

All client-to-server IRC protocols in use today are descended from the protocol implemented in the irc2.8 version of the IRC2server, and documented in RFC 1459. Since RFC 1459 was published, the new features in the irc2.10 implementation led to the publication of several revised protocol documents; RFC 2810, RFC 2811, RFC 2812 and RFC 2813, however these protocol changes have not been widely adopted among other implementations^{[citation needed]}.

Although many specifications on the IRC protocol have been published, there is no official specification, as the protocol remains dynamic. Virtually no clients and very few servers rely strictly on the above RFCs as a reference^{[citation needed]}.

Microsoft made an extension for IRC in 1998^[4] via the proprietary IRCX. They later stopped distributing software supporting IRCX, instead developing the proprietary MSN .NET Messenger Service. IRCX (Internet Relay Chat eXtensions) was and is a working-draft by Microsoft to extend the IRC protocol. ... The . ...

The standard structure of a network of IRC servers is a tree (acyclic graph). Messages are routed along only necessary branches of the tree but network state is sent to every server and there is generally a high degree of implicit trust between servers. This architecture has a number of problems. A misbehaving or malicious server can cause major damage to the network, and any changes in structure, whether intentional or a result of conditions on the underlying network, require a net-split and net-join. This results in a lot of network traffic and spurious quit/join messages to users, and temporary loss of communication. Adding a server to a large network means a large background bandwidth load on the network and a large memory load on the server. Once established however, each message to multiple recipients is delivered by multicast. That means each message travels a network link exactly once. This is a strength in comparison to non-multicasting protocols such as SMTP or XMPP. In mathematics and computer science, graph theory studies the properties of graphs. ... Multicast is sometimes also (incorrectly) used to refer to a multiplexed broadcast. ... Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the de facto standard for email transmission across the Internet. ... Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, or XMPP, is an open, XML-based protocol for near real-time extensible messaging and presence events. ...

For a discussion of the evolution of server-side IRC protocols and the various IRCd incarnations, see the separate article on IRC daemons. An IRCd (Internet Relay Chat daemon) is a computer program to create an IRC server on which people can talk to each other via the Internet. ...

Commands and replies

Main article: List of Internet Relay Chat commands

IRC is based on a line-based structure with the client sending single-line messages to the server, receiving replies to those messages and receiving copies of some messages sent by other clients. In most clients users can enter commands by prefixing them with /. Depending on the command, these may either be handled entirely by the client, or - generally for commands the client does not recognise - passed directly to the server, possibly with some modification. This is a list of universal commands used in IRC. The leading / is the command indicator. ...

Due to the nature of the protocol, it is impossible for automated systems to pair a sent command with its reply.

Channels

The basic means of communication in an established IRC session is a channel. Channels in a server can be displayed using the command /list [#string] [-min #] [-max #] that lists all currently available channels, optionally filtering for parameters (#string for the entire or part of the name, with wildcards, and #min / #max for number of users in the channel). A filter is a computer program to process a data stream. ... The term wildcard character has the following meanings: // In telecommunications, a wildcard character is a character that may be substituted for any of a defined subset of all possible characters. ...

Users can join to a channel using the command /join #channelname and send messages to it, which are relayed to all other users on the same channel.

Channels that are available across an entire IRC network are prepended with a ' # ', while those local to a server use '&'. Other non-standard and less common channel types include '+' channels — 'modeless' channels without operators, and '!' channels, a form of timestamped channel on normally non-timestamped networks.

Modes

Users and channels may have modes, which are represented by single case-sensitive letters and are set using the mode command. User modes and channel modes are separate and can use the same letter to mean different things (e.g. usermode "i" is invisible mode whilst channelmode "i" is invite only). Modes are usually set and unset using the mode command which takes a target (user or channel), a set of modes to set (+) or unset (-) and any parameters the modes need.

Some but not all channel modes take parameters and some channel modes apply to a user on a channel or add or remove a mask (e.g. a ban mask) from a list associated with the channel rather than applying to the channel as a whole. Modes that apply to users on a channel have an associated symbol which is used to represent the mode in names replies (sent to clients on first joining a channel and use of the names command) and in most clients to represent it in this list of users in the channel.

In order to correctly parse incoming mode messages and track channel state the client must know which mode is of which type and for the modes that apply to a user on a channel which symbol goes with which letter. In early implementations of IRC this had to be hard-coded in the client but there is now a de-facto standard extension to the protocol which sends this information to the client at connect time.

There is a small design fault in IRC regarding modes that apply to users on channels, the names message used to establish initial channel state can only send one such mode per user on the channel, but multiple such modes can be set on a single user. For example, if a user holds both operator status (+o) and voice status (+v) on a channel, a new client will be unable to know the less precedented mode (voice). Workarounds for this are possible on both the client and server side but none are widely implemented.

Many IRCd programmers have added extra modes or modified the behavior of modes in the above list so it is strongly advisable to check the documentation of the IRC network or IRCd (though note that the network may have patched the IRCd) for more detailed information on what the modes do on a particular server or network. Hostmask refers to an IRC address assigned to a client by the server. ...

IRC operators

There are also users who maintain elevated rights on their local server, or the entire network; these are called IRC Operators, sometimes shortened to IRCops. On some IRC implementations, IRC operators are also given channel operator status in every channel, although many people believe that administration of channels and administration of the network should be kept separate, and that IRC operator status does not confer the right to interfere with a particular channel's operation. The line that appears in an IRC Operators client when they oper up An IRC operator (often abbreviated as IRCOp or oper) is a user on an Internet Relay Chat network who has privileged access. ...

Challenges

Issues in the original design of IRC were the amount of shared state data^[5] being a limitation on its scalability^[6], the absence of unique user identifications leading to the nickname collision problem^[7], lack of protection from netsplits by means of cyclic routing^[8][9], the trade-off in scalability for the sake of real-time user presence information^[10], protocol weaknesses providing a platform for abuse^[11], no transparent and optimizable message passing^[12], no encryption^[13]. Some of these issues have been addressed in Modern IRC.

Attacks

Because IRC connections are usually unencrypted and typically span long time periods, they are an attractive target for malicious hackers. Because of this, careful security policy is necessary to ensure that an IRC network is not susceptible to an attack such as an IRC takeover war. IRC networks may also k-line or g-line users or networks that have a harming effect. An IRC channel takeover is an acquisition of IRC channel operator status by someone other than the channels owner. ... This article refers to a Japanese shipping company. ... Gline (sometimes written as G-line or G:Line) is an IRC-related term. ...

A small number of IRC servers support SSL connections for security purposes. This helps stop the use of packet sniffer programs to obtain the passwords of IRC users, but has little use beyond this scope due to the public nature of IRC channels. SSL connections require both client and server support (which may require the user to install SSL binaries and IRC client specific patches or modules on their computers). Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), its successor, are cryptographic protocols which provide secure communications on the Internet. ... A packet sniffer (also known as a network analyzer or protocol analyzer or, for particular types of networks, an Ethernet sniffer or wireless sniffer) is computer software or computer hardware that can intercept and log traffic passing over a digital network or part of a network. ...

IRC served as an early laboratory for many kinds of Internet attacks, such as using fake ICMP unreachable messages to break TCP-based IRC connections (nuking) to annoy users or facilitate takeovers. The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite. ... The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite. ... DoS redirects here. ... An IRC channel takeover is an acquisition of IRC channel operator status by someone other than the channels owner. ...

Abuse prevention: timestamping vs. nick/channel delay protocol

One of the most contentious technical issues surrounding IRC implementations, which survives to this day, is the merit of "Nick/Channel Delay" vs. "Timestamp" protocols. Both methods exist to solve the problem of denial-of-service attacks, but take very different approaches. DoS redirects here. ...

The problem with the original IRC protocol as implemented was that when two servers split and rejoined, the two sides of the network would simply merge their channels. If a user could join on a "split" server, where a channel which existed on the other side of the network was empty, and gain operator status, they would become a channel operator of the "combined" channel after the netsplit ended; if a user took a nickname which existed on the other side of the network, the server would kill both users when rejoining (i.e., 'nick-collision'). In computer networking, specifically Internet Relay Chat, netsplit is a term used to describe the disconnection of a given node from the previously established network. ...

This was often abused to "mass-kill" all users on a channel, thus creating "opless" channels where no operators were present to deal with abuse. Apart from causing problems within IRC, this encouraged people to conduct denial of service attacks against IRC servers in order to cause netsplits, which they would then abuse. In computer networking, specifically Internet Relay Chat, netsplit is a term used to describe the disconnection of a given node from the previously established network. ...

Nick/channel delay

The nick/channel delay (abbreviated ND/CD) solution to this problem was very simple. After a user signed off and the nickname became available, or a channel ceased to exist because all its users left (as often happens during a netsplit), the server would not allow any user to use that nickname or join that channel, respectively, until a certain period of time (the delay) had passed. The idea behind this was that even if a netsplit occurred, it was useless to an abuser because they could not take the nickname or gain operator status on a channel, and thus no collision of a nickname or 'merging' of a channel could occur. To some extent, this inconvenienced legitimate users, who might be forced to briefly use a different name (appending an underscore was popular) after rejoining. EXAMPLE:Laughbox,Blondie,BamBam,Pinkie,etc. ... In computer networking, specifically Internet Relay Chat, netsplit is a term used to describe the disconnection of a given node from the previously established network. ... In computer networking, specifically Internet Relay Chat, netsplit is a term used to describe the disconnection of a given node from the previously established network. ...

Timestamping

The alternative, the timestamp or TS protocol, took a different approach. Every nickname and channel on the network was assigned a timestamp -- the date and time when it was created. When a netsplit occurred, two users on each side were free to use the same nickname or channel, but when the two sides were joined, only one could survive. In the case of nicknames, the newer user, according to their TS, was killed; when a channel collided, the members (users on the channel) were merged, but the channel operators on the "losing" side of the split lost their channel operator status. In computer networking, specifically Internet Relay Chat, netsplit is a term used to describe the disconnection of a given node from the previously established network. ...

TS is a much more complicated protocol than ND/CD, both in design and implementation, and despite having gone through several revisions, some implementations still have problems with "desyncs" (where two servers on the same network disagree about the current state of the network), and allowing too much leniency in what was allowed by the 'losing' side. Under the original TS protocols, for example, there was no protection against users setting bans or other modes in the losing channel which would then be merged when the split rejoined, even though the users who had set those modes lost their channel operator status. Some modern TS-based IRC servers have also incorporated some form of ND and/or CD in addition to timestamping in an attempt to further curb abuse.

Most networks today use the timestamping approach. The timestamp versus ND/CD disagreements caused several servers to split away from EFnet and form the newer IRCnet. After the split, EFnet moved to a TS protocol, while IRCnet used ND/CD.      IRC Abjects • AbleNET • AfterNET • Aitvaras • AusIRC • AustIRC • AustNet • Blitzed • BRASnet • DALnet • Delinked • DeltaAnime • EFnet • EsperNet • freenode • Gamma Force • GamesNET • GameSurge • IRCHighway • IRCnet • LinkNet • NetGamers • Open and Free Technology Community • QuakeNet Rizon • SlashNET • UKChatterbox • UniBG • Undernet • ZiRC EFnet or Eris Free network is a major IRC network, with over 70,000... IRCnet is one of the largest IRC networks. ...

Networks

There are thousands of running IRC networks in the world. They run various implementations of IRC servers, and are administered by various groups of IRC operators, but the protocol exposed to IRC users is very similar, and all IRC networks can be accessed by the same client software. AbleNET is an IRC network. ... Abjects is an unmoderated, mid-sized Internet Relay Chat Network. ... AfterNET is an IRC network and was founded in September 1996. ... AustIRC is an IRC network which provides a more friendly and secure alternative to many other IRC networks such as DALnet and EFNet. ... AustNet or austnet is an IRC network which aims to provide a friendly and secure alternative to other IRC networks such as DALnet and EFNet. ... Blitzed is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network founded on October 31st, 2000 in response to the collapse of WreckedNet. ...      IRC Abjects • AbleNET • AfterNET • Aitvaras • AusIRC • AustIRC • AustNet • Beirut IRC • Blitzed • BRASnet • DALnet • Delinked • EFnet • EsperNet • freenode • Gamma Force • GamesNET • GameSurge • IRCHighway • IRCnet • NetGamers • Open and Free Technology Community • QuakeNet • Rizon • RusNet • SlashNET • UniBG • Undernet • ZiRC BRASnet was the largest IRC network in Brazil, founded in early 1996 (when the... A guide to the symbols for weather fronts that may be found on a weather map. ... DALnet is an Internet relay chat (IRC) network founded in July 1994 by members of the EFnet #startrek channel. ...      IRC Abjects • AbleNET • AfterNET • Aitvaras • AusIRC • AustIRC • AustNet • Blitzed • BRASnet • DALnet • Delinked • DeltaAnime • EFnet • EsperNet • freenode • Gamma Force • GamesNET • GameSurge • IRCHighway • IRCnet • LinkNet • NetGamers • Open and Free Technology Community • QuakeNet Rizon • SlashNET • UKChatterbox • UniBG • Undernet • ZiRC EFnet or Eris Free network is a major IRC network, with over 70,000... The title of this article should be freenode. ... GamesNET is an Internet Relay Chat network devoted to the Internet gaming community. ... GameSurge is a popular Internet Relay Chat network devoted to the online multiplayer gaming community. ... IRC-Hispano is the largest Spanish language IRC network and the 17th in the world[1]. In Spain, more than 90% of the people that chat online use IRC-Hispano[2]. The network has sometimes surpassed the 750,000 daily users and at its peak the network has recorded more...      IRC Abjects • AbleNET • AfterNET • Aitvaras • AusIRC • AustIRC • AustNet • Blitzed • BRASnet • DALnet • Delinked • DeltaAnime • EFnet • EsperNet • freenode • Gamma Force • GamesNET • GameSurge • IRCHighway • IRCnet • LinkNet • NetGamers • Open and Free Technology Community • QuakeNet Rizon • SlashNET • UKChatterbox • UniBG • Undernet • ZiRC // IRCHighway is a large IRC-network with around 10,000 users connected every day. ... IRCnet is one of the largest IRC networks. ... // Introduction NetGamers is a medium-sized network, with servers across Europe and N.America, with an average of about 2000 concurrent users, which rises depending on the popularity of its partner games. ... The Open and Free Technology Community (OFTC) is an IRC network founded in 2001. ... QuakeNet is the largest IRC network, with peak user counts close to 180,000 every day and over 180,000 channels. ... Rizon is a large Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network. ... RusNet is the largest IRC network in Russia, Ukraine, and most of the ex-USSR, founded in 1997 through merge of the leading local IRC networks SibNet, VolgaNet, OdNet, and LvNet. ... SlashNET is a medium-sized, independently-operated Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network. ... UniBG also referred to as University BG or sometimes United BG is the largest Bulgarian IRC network. ... The Undernet is one of the largest Internet Relay Chat (IRC) networks. ... In information technology, a server is an application or device that performs services for connected clients as part of a client-server architecture. ... The line that appears in an IRC Operators client when they oper up An IRC operator (often abbreviated as IRCOp or oper) is a user on an Internet Relay Chat network who has privileged access. ...

One can join servers by clicking on an irc://irc.network.example:port/channel hyperlink. // A hyperlink, is a reference or navigation element in a document to another section of the same document or to another document that may be on a (different) website. ...

The largest IRC networks have traditionally been grouped in The Big Four — a designation for networks that top the statistics. The Big Four networks change periodically, but due to the community nature of IRC there are a large number of other networks for users to choose from.

The Big Four:

• EFnet
• IRCnet
• QuakeNet
• Undernet

For network statistics, rankings, and a list of smaller networks, see netsplit.de, Search IRC and Gogloom. For other articles on IRC networks, see Category:IRC networks.      IRC Abjects • AbleNET • AfterNET • Aitvaras • AusIRC • AustIRC • AustNet • Blitzed • BRASnet • DALnet • Delinked • DeltaAnime • EFnet • EsperNet • freenode • Gamma Force • GamesNET • GameSurge • IRCHighway • IRCnet • LinkNet • NetGamers • Open and Free Technology Community • QuakeNet Rizon • SlashNET • UKChatterbox • UniBG • Undernet • ZiRC EFnet or Eris Free network is a major IRC network, with over 70,000... IRCnet is one of the largest IRC networks. ... QuakeNet is the largest IRC network, with peak user counts close to 180,000 every day and over 180,000 channels. ... The Undernet is one of the largest Internet Relay Chat (IRC) networks. ...

Clients

Scheme of an IRC-Network with normal clients (green), bots (blue) and bouncers (orange)

Image File history File links Ircnetz-Schema. ... Image File history File links Ircnetz-Schema. ...

Client software

For more details on this topic, see Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients.

To connect to an IRC network, people most commonly will connect to an IRC network via an IRC client. The client takes the raw IRC traffic and turns it into an easy-to-use interface. The following comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients gives an overview of features and differences between various Internet Relay Chat clients. ...

There are a great deal of IRC clients available, and are mostly separated by operating system. On Windows-based systems, one of the most popular IRC clients is mIRC.^[14] However, with the recent introduction of new clients such as Bersirc, KVIrc, Trillian, Pidgin, Visual IRC, ChatIRC, IceChat and X-Chat, mIRC is beginning to see much more competition, especially with clients that are not commercial. Many people still use mIRC most likely due to the fact that it has been around for quite some time and has a wide variety of scripts available. An operating system (OS) is a software that manages computer resources and provides programmers with an interface used to access those resources. ... mIRC is a shareware Internet Relay Chat client for Windows, created in 1995 and developed by Khaled Mardam-Bey. ... Bersirc is a multi-platform Open Source IRC client currently in development for the Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X operating systems. ... KVIrc started as an alternative IRC client for KDE under GNU/Linux by Szymon Stefanek. ... Trillian is a multiprotocol instant messaging application for Windows created by Cerulean Studios that can connect to multiple IM services, such as AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Bonjour, Jabber, and Skype networks (the latter four with Trillian Pro which allows for additional plugins). ... Pidgin (formerly named Gaim) is a multi-platform instant messaging client. ... Visual IRC (ViRC) is an open source Internet Relay Chat client for the Windows operating system. ... A Screenshot of Xchat 2. ... mIRC is a shareware Internet Relay Chat client for Windows, created in 1995 and developed by Khaled Mardam-Bey. ... mIRC is a shareware Internet Relay Chat client for Windows, created in 1995 and developed by Khaled Mardam-Bey. ...

ircII is the canonical Unix IRC client, but its userbase has declined with the appearance of competing clients such as ircII-EPIC, BitchX, irssi, X-Chat, Konversation, etc. For Mac OS X, the most widely used clients are Snak, Ircle and Colloquy. OS X can also run most Unix-like command line and X11 IRC clients. Recently, X-Chat Aqua, a special build of X-Chat, has been gaining ground on OS X systems. Amiga IRC clients are AmIRC, WookieChat, BenderIRC. Amongst AmigaOS clones there is MomosIRC for MorphOS. ircII is a Unix IRC client that is made available completely free of charge, and is available in source form. ... Canonical is an adjective derived from canon. ... Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®, sometimes also written as or ® with small caps) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... The Enhanced Programmable ircII Client (ircII-EPIC) is an IRC client for Unix systems descended from the ircII client. ... BitchX ANSI splash screen (one of several in rotation). ... Irssi is an IRC client program originally written by Timo Sirainen, and released under the terms of the GNU General Public License. ... A Screenshot of Xchat 2. ... Konversation is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client for the K Desktop Environment (KDE). ... Mac OS X (pronounced ) is a line of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... Snak is a modern IRC client for Macintosh written by Kent Sorensen. ... Ircle (sometimes spelled IRCle) is an IRC client written by Onno Tijdgat for the Macintosh computer platform. ... Colloquy is an open-source IRC, SILC and ICB client for Mac OS X. It uses its own chat core that is also included as part of the ChatKit project, though in the past it used Irssi as its IRC protocol engine. ... A command line interface or CLI is a method of interacting with a computer by giving it lines of textual commands (that is, a sequence of characters) either from keyboard input or from a script. ... “X11” redirects here. ... X-Chat Aqua is in its simplist form a IRC client for Mac OS X. It is based around the X-Chat program which supports multiple Operating Systems including Mac OS X. However, X-Chat relies on X11. ... A Screenshot of Xchat 2. ... AmIRC is a MUI based IRC client for the Amiga. ... MorphOS is a mixed proprietary and open source operating system produced for the Pegasos PowerPC (PPC)-processor-based computer, most models of PPC-accelerated classic Amiga computers, and the EFIKA PPC consumer device. ...

There are a number of Internet browsers with IRC clients. Opera has a built in IRC client. Mozilla Firefox does not have a built-in IRC client, though ChatZilla, a Firefox add-on, can be installed to provide access to IRC in the browser. Chatzilla is part of the SeaMonkey internet suite. Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by the Norwegian Opera Software company. ... Firefox may refer to: Firefox (novel), written by Craig Thomas, published in 1978 Firefox (film), the 1982 movie starring Clint Eastwood, based on the novel Firefox (arcade game), the laserdisc arcade game based on the movie Mozilla Firefox, a web browser The Red Fox or the Red Panda, based on... ChatZilla is an IRC client, written in XUL and JavaScript for Mozilla web browsers. ... SeaMonkey is a free, open source, and cross-platform Internet suite that is the continuation of the former Mozilla Application Suite. ...

Built in IRC is utilized by many computer games, such as War§ow, Unreal Tournament, Uplink, World of Warcraft, Zdaemon and EVE Online. The SoulSeek file sharing network is based on IRC. War§ow or Warsow, often abbreviated as W§W or WSW, is a multiplayer first-person shooter computer and video game first publicly released on June 8, 2005. ... Unreal Tournament, abbreviated UT, (sometimes referred to as UT99, UT Classic, UT1, or UT:GOTY to differentiate from Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, and Unreal Tournament 3) is a popular first-person shooter video game. ... For the Half-Life demo, see Half-Life: Uplink Uplink is a computer game released in 2001 by the British software company Introversion Software. ... World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW) is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment and is the fourth game in the Warcraft series, excluding expansion packs and the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. ... ... EVE Online is a persistent world multiplayer online game set in space. ... Soulseek is a file-sharing (also called Peer to Peer or P2P) application and network used mostly to exchange music, although users are able to share a variety of files. ...

For novice users, mIRC and other large-window clients can seem unnecessarily large and complex. New users may prefer instant messaging clients like Miranda IM, Pidgin or Trillian that support IRC and provide a familiar interface to the application. Alternatively web based clients such as Mibbit provide an easy way for people to access IRC. // Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. ... Miranda Instant Messenger is a minimalist, open source multiprotocol instant messaging application, designed for Microsoft Windows. ... Gaim (to be renamed Pidgin in the next release) is a popular multi-platform instant messaging client that supports many commonly used instant messaging protocols. ... Trillian is a multiprotocol instant messaging application for Windows created by Cerulean Studios that can connect to multiple IM services, such as AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Bonjour, Jabber, and Skype networks (the latter four with Trillian Pro which allows for additional plugins). ...

Bots

Main article: IRC bot

Automated clients are called bots. As bots evolved, they began to serve as permanent points of contact for information exchange and protection agents for the channels they served, because of their superior speed when compared to humans. Presently, although many of these functions are often delegated to network-provided services which allow for registration and management of both nicknames and channels, bots remain popular and continue to be adapted to new and unexpected tasks. An IRC bot performing a simple task. ... An IRC bot performing a simple task. ... IRC services is a common name for a set of features implemented in most modern Internet Relay Chat networks. ...

Bots have been written in a variety of languages, and a wide array of implementations exist. Most modern IRC services typically implement bot-like interfaces, through which users can communicate with and control the functionality. Bots have also been created for malevolent uses, such as flooding or taking over channels, occupying them from rightful owner. IRC services is a common name for a set of features implemented in most modern Internet Relay Chat networks. ...

Bouncer

Main article: Bouncer (networking)

A program that runs as a daemon on a server and functions as a persistent proxy is known as a bouncer. A bouncer's purpose is to maintain a connection to an IRC server, acting as a relay between the server and client. Should the client lose network connectivity, the bouncer will archive all traffic for later delivery, allowing the user to resume his IRC session without disrupting their connection to the server. Bounce, often abbreviated as BNC, is used to relay traffic and connections in computer networks. ... In Unix and other computer multitasking operating systems, a daemon is a computer program that runs in the background, rather than under the direct control of a user; they are usually instantiated as processes. ... In information technology, a server is an application or device that performs services for connected clients as part of a client-server architecture. ... In computer networks, a proxy server is a server (a computer system or an application program) which services the requests of its clients by forwarding requests to other servers. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with bounce (network). ...

Furthermore, as a way of obtaining a bouncer-like effect, the old UNIX user's way of doing this is to run a (typically text-based) client on a remote server, inside a piece of screen-detaching software (e.g. GNU Screen), and using a secure shell to connect to this server, letting it relay all information, and thus letting the client archive all traffic should the connectivity be lost. Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®, sometimes also written as or ® with small caps) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... Usually used in reference to a computer application, especially a computer game, a text-based application is one whose primary input and output are based on text rather than graphics. ... GNU Screen is a free terminal multiplexer developed by the GNU Project. ... SSH redirects here. ...

Search engines

There are numerous search engines available to aid the user in finding what they are looking for on IRC. Generally the search engine consists of two parts, a "back-end" (or "spider/crawler") and a front-end "search engine".

The back-end (spider/crawler) is the work horse of the search engine. It is responsible for crawling IRC servers to index the information being sent across them. The information that is indexed usually consists solely of channel text (text that is publicly displayed in public channels). The storage method is usually some sort of relational database, like MySQL or Oracle. MySQL (pronounced (IPA) , my S-Q-L[1]) is a multithreaded, multi-user SQL database management system (DBMS)[2] which has, according to MySQL AB, more than 10 million installations. ... The term Oracle database may refer either to the database management system (DBMS) software released by Oracle Corporation as Oracle RDBMS, or to any of the individual databases managed by such software. ...

The front-end "search engine" is the user interface to the database. It supplies users with a way to search the database of indexed information to retrieve the data they are looking for. These front-end search engines can also be coded in numerous programming languages. The more popular languages for such search engines and indexing spiders are Perl, PHP and C. Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Perl Programming Perl is a dynamic programming language created by Larry Wall and first released in 1987. ... For other uses, see PHP (disambiguation). ... C is a general-purpose, block structured, procedural, imperative computer programming language developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system. ...

Most search engines have their own spider that is a single application responsible for crawling IRC and indexing data itself; however, others are "user based" indexers. The latter rely on users to install their "add-on" to their IRC client (like mIRC); the add-on is what sends the database the channel information of whatever channel[s] the user happens to be on. IRC search engines have completely automated the process of finding information on IRC and have thus contributed greatly to the popularity of IRC in recent years.

Modern IRC

IRC has changed much over its life on the Internet. New server software has added a multitude of new features.

• Services: Network-operated bots to facilitate registration of nicknames and channels, sending messages for offline users and network operator functions.
• Extra modes: While the original IRC system used a set of standard user and channel modes, new servers add many new modes for such features as removing color codes from text, or obscuring a user's hostmask ("cloaking") to protect from denial of service attacks.
• Proxy detection: Most modern servers support detection of users attempting to connect through an insecure (misconfigured or exploited) proxy server, which can then be denied a connection. An example is the Blitzed Open Proxy Monitor or BOPM. This proxy detection software used by several networks, although that real time list of proxies is defunct since early 2006.
• Additional commands: New commands can be such things as shorthand commands to issue commands to Services, to network operator only commands to manipulate a user's hostmask.
• Encryption: For the client-to-server leg of the connection SSL might be used (messages cease to be secure once they are relayed to other users on standard connections, but it makes eavesdropping on or wiretapping an individual's IRC sessions difficult). For client-to-client communication, SDCC (Secure DCC) can be used.
• Ident: Provides identification to the IRC server, but in modern Internet that RFC 1413 identification is almost useless.

IRC services is a common name for a set of features implemented in most modern Internet Relay Chat networks. ... Hostmask refers to an IRC address assigned to a client by the server. ... A denial-of-service attack (also, DoS attack) is an attack on a computer system or network that causes a loss of service to users, typically the loss of network connectivity and services by consuming the bandwidth of the victim network or overloading the computational resources of the victim system. ... In computer networks, a proxy server is a server (a computer system or an application program) which services the requests of its clients by forwarding requests to other servers. ... Encrypt redirects here. ... Transport Layer Security (TLS) and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), are cryptographic protocols that provide secure communications on the Internet for such things as web browsing, e-mail, Internet faxing, instant messaging and other data transfers. ... In cryptography, a man in the middle attack (MITM) is an attack in which an attacker is able to read, insert and modify at will, messages between two parties without either party knowing that the link between them has been compromised. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Direct Client-to-Client (DCC) is an IRC-related sub-protocol enabling peers to interconnect using an IRC server for handshaking in order to exchange files or perform non-relayed chats. ... This article is about the Internet protocol. ...

See also

Wikibooks Internet Technologies has a page on the topic of

IRC

Image File history File links Wikibooks-logo-en. ... Wikibooks logo Wikibooks, previously called Wikimedia Free Textbook Project and Wikimedia-Textbooks, is a wiki for the creation of books. ... The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of instant messaging protocols. ... This is a comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients. ... The following tables compare general and technical information including the differences in feature sets between popular IRC daemons. ... The following tables compare general and technical information including the differences in feature sets between various IRC services packages. ... This is a list of universal commands used in IRC. The leading / is the command indicator. ... A chat room or chatroom is a term used primarily by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. ... ChatZilla is an IRC client, written in XUL and JavaScript for Mozilla web browsers. ... Client-To-Client-Protocol (CTCP) is a special type of communication between Internet Relay Chat (IRC) clients. ... Direct Client-to-Client (DCC) is an IRC-related sub-protocol enabling peers to interconnect using an IRC server for handshaking in order to exchange files or perform non-relayed chats. ... This article is about the Internet protocol. ... // Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. ... IRC services is a common name for a set of features implemented in most modern Internet Relay Chat networks. ... An IRCd (Internet Relay Chat daemon) is a computer program to create an IRC server on which people can talk to each other via the Internet. ... IRCX (Internet Relay Chat eXtensions) was and is a working-draft by Microsoft to extend the IRC protocol. ... Irssi is an IRC client program originally written by Timo Sirainen, and released under the terms of the GNU General Public License. ... Konversation is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client for the K Desktop Environment (KDE). ... mIRC is a shareware Internet Relay Chat client for Windows, created in 1995 and developed by Khaled Mardam-Bey. ... psyBNC is an IRC network bouncer or BNC. psy is short for psychoid, the original creator of psyBNC. BNC is short for bouncer, a method of bouncing through a server to cloak your hostname. ... A serving channel (sometimes called a depot channel) is a slang term for a file sharing channel found on an IRC network. ... A list of packs available from an XDCC bot XDCC (Xabi DCC or eXtended DCC) was initially a script written in 1994 for ircII by Xabi. ... vhost, or vanity host, on IRC is a method to mask a users real IP address to protect privacy and prevent Denial-of-service attacks. ...

References

Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 84th day of the year (85th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• RFC 1459 - Technical Information about the IRC Protocol
• Large archive of IRC-related documents, somewhat EFnet biased
• IRC.org - Technical and Historical IRC6 information; articles on the history of IRC.
• Living Internet A comprehensive history of the Internet, including IRC.
• IRC/2 Numerics List of numeric replies for the IRC protocol