"IRC UNLEASHED"

Have you ever wanted to talk with other computer users in other parts of the world? Well guess what... You can! The program is called IRC, (Internet Relay Chat), and it is networked much over North America, Asia Europe, and Oceania. When you are talking on IRC, everything you type will instantly be transmitted around the world to other users that might time, they can then type something and respond to your messages, and vice versa. I should warn you that the program can be very addictive once you begin to make friends and contacts on IRC, especially when you learn how to discuss in 14 languages... Topics of discussion on IRC are varied, just like the topics of Usenet newsgroups are varied. Technical and political discussions are popular, especially when world events are in progress. IRC is also a way to expand your horizons, as people from many countries and cultures are on, 24 hours a day. Most conversations are in English, but there are always channels in German, Japanese, French, Finnish, Thai, Chinese and occasionally other languages. IRC gained international fame during the late Persian Gulf War, when updates from around the world came across the wire, and most people on IRC gathered on a single channel to hear these reports.

GETTING STARTED:

IRC (original code was written by Jarkko Oikarinen) is a multi-user, multi-channel chatting network. It allows people all over the internet to talk to one another in real-time. IRC does everything 'talk' does, but with better protocol, allowing more than 2 users to talk at once, with access across the aggregate Internet, and providing a whole raft of other useful features.There are two ways to enter IRC from a Unix system. If you are using the emacs (editor from Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation) lisp client, you just have to type "M-x irc", (if this doesn't work you may need to load the client into your emacs session).

If you are using the C client, (easier for beginners), then you usually type "irc". Non-Unix boxes have special clients, each of which has to be configured using a special procedure. Check the manual or help screen for more information. If you wish to be known by a nickname which is not your login name, type "irc " instead. Each IRC user, ("client"), chooses a nickname. All communication with another user is either by nickname or by the channel that they or you are on (more information about channels (later on). The most important thing to remember about IRC is that you have to be willing to explore and learn to use it... Take your time, try not to get flustered, enjoy yourself, and you will soon be making new friends all over the world! IRC is based on a client-server model. Clients are programs that connect to a server, a server is a program that transports data, (messages), from a user client to another. There are clients running on many different systems, (Unix, emacs, VMS, MSDOS, VM...), that allow you to connect to an IRC server. The client which will be spoken of here is the most widespread: ircII, (originally designed by Michael Sandrof). Other clients are similar, and often accept ircII commands.

The most widely understood and spoken language on IRC is English. However, as IRC is used in many different countries, English is by no means the only language. If you want to speak some other language than English, (for example with your friends), go to a separate channel and set the topic to indicate that. On the other hand, you should check the topic before you move to a channel to see if there are any restrictions about language. On a non-restricted channel, please speak a language everybody can understand.

If you want to do otherwise, change channels and set the topic accordingly. It's not necessary to greet everybody on a channel personally. Usually one "Hello!" or equivalent is enough. And don't expect everybody to greet you back... On a channel with 20 people that would mean one screenful of hellos. It's sensible not to greet, in order not to be rude to the rest of the channel. If you must say hello to somebody you know, do it with a private message. The same applies to goodbyes. Also note that using your client facilities, (ircII "ON" command for instance), to automatically say hello or goodbye to people is extremely poor etiquette. Nobody wants to receive autogreets. They are not only obviously automatic, but even if you think you are polite you are actually sounding insincere and also interfering with the personal environment of the recipient when using autogreets.

If somebody wants to be autogreeted on joining a channel, he will autogreet himself. Remember, people on IRC form their opinions about you only by your actions, writings and comments, so think before you type. If you use offensive words, you'll be frowned upon. Do not "dump" to a channel or user, (send large amounts of unwanted information). This is likely to get you kicked off the channel or killed off from IRC. Dumping causes network "burps", connections going down because servers cannot handle the large amount of traffic anymore. Other prohibited actions include:

• Harassing another user. Harassment is defined as behavior towards another user with the purpose of annoying them.
• Annoying a channel with constant beeping.
• Any behavior reducing the functionality of IRC.

  ---

You should always keep in mind that messages you send to someone over IRC are passed along all the servers between you and and the person you are writing to. When you're sending a letter to someone, any postman on the way could open it and read its contents... Well, it's the same on the network (Actually its worse. Any IRC-Admin could compile its server in "debug" mode and log whatever messages are transmitted through his node, (it has already been done), so a good thumb rule is not to trust the servers. IRC IS NOT A SECURE WAY OF COMMUNICATION!. How to establish direct communications between clients will be explained later. This should be used when you wouldn't want anybody else on IRC to intercept your private messages.

      Keyword         Action
      ~~~~~~~         ~~~~~~
      MSG             sends a private message
      QUERY           starts a private conversation
      NOTICE          sends a private message
      NOTIFY          warns you of people logging in or out IRC
      IGNORE          removes output from specific people off your screen

You can use the MSG command, (usually "M" is an alias for it), to send someone a message that only that person can read.

/MSG <nickname> | <channel> <text>
      Send a private message to specified nickname.

        /MSG Nap This message is for Nap only.
         -> *Nap* This message is for Nap only.

        On my screen will appear:

        *YourNick* This message is for Nap only.

If you want to send a private message to more than one person, you can specify a list of nicknames separated by commas, (no spaces).

       /MSG Nap,Sorg This message for both Nap and Sorg.
        -> *Nap* This message for both Nap and Sorg.
        -> *Sorg* This message for both Nap and Sorg.
   

Two special case nicknames are defined. If the nickname is "," (a comma), the message is sent to the last person who sent you a MSG. If the nickname is "." (a period), the message is sent to the last person to whom you sent a message.

You can have a private conversation by only using /MSG. However, typing "/MSG <nick> <text> " or "/MSG . <text>" gets cumbersome. That's where the /QUERY command comes in handy.

/QUERY [<nickname>|<channel>]
   Starts a private conversation with <nickname>.

   All text you type that would normally be sent to your channel now goes
to the supplied nickname in the form of MSGs. To cancel a private conversation, use QUERY with no arguments.

        /QUERY Nap
           *** Starting conversation with Nap

             Blahblahblah
            -> *Nap* Blahblahblah

        /QUERY
           *** Ending conversation with Nap

There is also another command to send messages, called NOTICE. Unlike MSGs, NOTICEs are surrounded by '-' when printed, and no automated responses, (such as generated by IGNORE or an automaton), will be sent in reply. Services, (robots), on IRC often use this form of interaction.

/NOTICE <nickname>|<channel> <text>
   Sends a private message to the specified <nickname>.

        /NOTICE Nap Better use /MSG instead of /NOTICE.
          -> -Nap- Better use /MSG instead of /NOTICE.

        On my screen will appear:

         -YourNick- Better use /MSG instead of /NOTICE.


   As you begin to make new friends over IRC, you'll want to mark certain
   nicknames such that you will be warned when they signon or off.

/NOTIFY [[-]<nickname>]
   Adds or removes <nickname> to the list of people you'll be warned when they enter or quit IRC (in ircII versions prior to 2.2, too many people
in the NOTIFY list cause excessive slowness).

        /NOTIFY Nap Nappy
          *** Signon by Nap detected

        /NOTIFY
          *** Currently present: Nap
          *** Currently absent: Nappy

Eventually, you may wish some day not to see messages from a specific user on your screen. This may happen when someone is dumping large amounts of garbage, or if someone is harassing you. The proper response to such a behavior is to IGNORE that person. IGNORE is a very powerful command, and can be used in many ways. However the basic usage of this tool is the following.

/IGNORE [<nickname>|<user@host> [[-]<message type>]]
   Suppresses  output from the given people from your screen. IGNORE can
be set by nickname or by specifying a userid@hostname format. Wildcards
may be used in all formats. Output that can be ignored includes MSGs,
NOTICEs, PUBLIC messages, INVITEs, ALL or NONE. Preceding a type with a
"-" indicates removal of ignoring of that type of message.

        /IGNORE *@cheshire.oxy.edu ALL
           *** Ignoring ALL messages from *@CHESHIRE.OXY.EDU

        /IGNORE
           *** Ignorance list:
           ***     *@CHESHIRE.OXY.EDU      ALL

        /IGNORE *@cheshire.oxy.edu NONE
           *** *@cheshire.oxy.edu removed from ignorance list

On IRC, there are a lot of places where you can "hang out"; those places are called 'channels', (most of the information in this section can also be obtained by issuing "/HELP CHANNEL"). You can compare conversations on a channel to a conversation among a group of people: you see/hear everything that is said, and you can reply to anything that's said. What you type is received by everyone who's willing to listen - and everyone who is late will not hear what was said before, unless repeated by one of the ones who were there. (Who said "real life" ?)

All channels on IRC have names: a "#" sign followed by some kind of text-string, like "#C++" or "#Asians" or "#EU-Opers". Usually, the name of the channel will indicate the type of conversation that's going on in there. Don't count on it, though.

Channel commands

       Keyword   Action
       ~~~~~~~   ~~~~~~
       LIST      lists channels, number of users, topic
       NAMES     shows the nicknames of the users on each channel
       JOIN      sets your current channel, (same as CHANNEL)
       WHO       gives a listing of users
       INVITE    sends an invitation to another user
       LEAVE     leaves a channel, (same as PART)
       KICK      gets rid of someone on a channel
       TOPIC     changes the topic of the channel
       ME        sends anything about you to a channel or QUERY
       DESCRIBE  sends anything about you to a person or channel

   Every channel has certain characteristics, called channel modes.
These will also be explained below.  Recall the NAMES and LIST
commands; they will show you the names of the existing channels.

/LIST [[<flags>] <channel mask>]
  Lists all current "channels", number of users, and topic. The
displayed list may be quite long, so you can limit it using flags.
"/LIST  -MIN n" for instance removes channels with less than 'n' users of the output.

        Example:

        /LIST -MIN 5
           *** #aussies   5
           *** #amiga     5        Daily Amiga Silence...join&enjoy
           *** #hottub    21       Imagine sky, high above...
           *** #tuebingen 11       Happy Borthday CHUCK!!!
           *** #Christian 6        Jesus!
           *** #Twilight_ 15       The Oper Bar & Grill
           *** #initgame  5        More players needed!!!!!!!!!!!!
           *** #Taiwan    8        Welcome good friends.
           *** #espanol   6        EMERGENCIA SE Necesitan Mujeres!
           *** #sherwood  7
           *** #francais  6        on apprend le japonais (japanese welcome)


/NAMES <channel mask>
   Shows the nicknames of all users on each "channel", (these may be very long. Remember to filter them with "-MIN n" or "-MAX n").

       /NAMES -MIN 5
         Pub: #twilight> Mycroft @sojge scorpio @Troy @Avalon @Nap phone
              Merlinus Lumberjak @tzoper
         Pub: #espanol   Cacique Bonjovi leopardo Carina Miguel Cisco r2
         Pub: #amiga     @gio @Radix @xterm @mama @AmiBot
         Pub: #aussies   @Bleve @GrayElf @Insomniac @Morkeleb @titus
         Pub: #hottub    baby @Aldur KnightOrc @Toasty Gwydion @Belkira
              @Aiken Edge @Spockobot @Nada @ZBot @Aurik @anna @RedBaron
              @Katzen @esashi IceWolf @Eniigma @Digger @TheHeck

("@" (ampersand symbol) is preceded by the nicknames of the operator of the channel).

   To  join in the conversation on a certain channel you may use the JOIN
command.

/JOIN <channel>
   Sets your current channel to the supplied channel.

        /JOIN #Twilight_Zone
          *** Nap has joined channel #Twilight_Zone
          *** Topic: The Gernsback Continuum
          *** Users on #Twilight_Zone: Nap msa tober phone @julia @SirLance
              @Daemon @Avalon @Waftam @Trillian @tzoper

The CHANNEL command has the same effects. Note that if no parameters are given, your current channel is displayed.
Upon entering a channel, you are given useful details about it: list of users talking in that channel, topic... Joining a channel does not cause you to leave your previous channel unless NOVICE is set to ON. See "/HELP SET NOVICE".

Once in a channel, you may wish to get a detailed list of the people IRCing inside. That's where the WHO command comes in handy:

Channels can have additional constraints, which can be set by the MODE command, (most of the information in this section can also be obtained by issuing "/HELP MODE"). To understand this, recall that the first person to JOIN a channel effectively creates it and is initially "in charge" of the channel, ("Channel Operator" or quot;chanop"). He/She can subsequently add those constraints, make other people chanops at leisure.

Mode commands

               Keyword      Action
               ~~~~~~~      ~~~~~~
               MODE         changes channel or user mode

Public is the default mode for a channel. When someone is on a public channel, he can be seen by all other users,(if his own user mode permits this). Anyone can notice users on a public channel and join such a conversation.

Private means that, although anyone can see members of such a channel, you can't tell what channel they are on unless you are already on that channel with them. They just appear as "Prv: *" in LIST or NAMES. Since the number of potential channels is in the billions, this is quite some security - all you give away is the acknowledgement that you're IRCing.

If you are on a secret channel, someone who is not on the same channel can't even see that you are there. Your name does not show up in a LIST of active users. The only indication of your presence is that, when entering IRC, all new users are told that there are "NNNNN users on XXX servers". If someone checks on all users and finds less than NNNNN of them, he knows that other people are hiding on secret channels. But a secret channel user still cannot be found except by brute-force checking through all channels, a hopeless proposition in the face of the huge number of possible channel names. Security through obscurity finally means something.

 /MODE <channel>|<nickname> [[+|-]<modechars> [<parameters>]]
    
  Allows channel operators to change channel mode, or any user to change
their personal mode, (don't use this command too often, it floods the net
with worthless information).

      /MODE #Twilight_Zone +m
       *** Mode change "+m" on channel #Twilight_Zone by Nap

      /MODE Nap -i
       *** Mode change "-i"for user Nap by poly.polytechnique.fr

        And this is how to give 'chanop' status to someone on the channel

      /MODE #Twilight_Zone +o sojge
       *** Mode change "+o sojge" on channel #Twilight_Zone by Nap
      
   A "+ or -" sign  determines whether the mode should be added or deleted.

Try typing "/HELP MODE" to get further information. Channels can be moderated (only chanops can talk), secret, private, with a limited number of users, anonymous, invite-only, topic-limited, with a list of banned users...

The MODE command also allows you to modify your personal parameters, your "user mode". You can check your usermode with the command "/MODE <YourNick>" or sometimes "/UMODE". Note that user mode +i may be the default on some servers, in order to protect privacy of users. This should not be seen as a problem, since any user can change his/her personal mode whatever defaults a server may set.

Channel modes

         ModeChar           Effects on channels
         ~~~~~~~~           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
         b <person>         ban somebody, person in "nick!user@host" form
         i                  channel is invite-only
         l <number>         channel is limited,<number> users allowed max
         m                  channel is moderated, (only chanops can talk)
         n                  external /MSGs to channel are not allowed
         o <nick>           makes nick a channel operator
         p                  channel is private
         s                  channel is secret
         t                  topic limited, only chanops may change it

User modes

        ModeChar            Effects on nicknames
        ~~~~~~~~            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
           i                makes yourself invisible to anybody that does
                            not know the exact spelling of your nickname
           o                IRC-operator status, can only be set
                            by IRC-ops with OPER
           s                receive server notices
           w                receive wallops (abused and deprecated)

         Keyword            Action
         ~~~~~~~            ~~~~~~
         DCC                handles direct connections to remote clients
         DCC SEND           initiates a file transfer
         DCC GET            accepts a file transfer
         DCC CLOSE          ends a DCC connection or offer
         DCC LIST           shows current DCC connections
         DCC CHAT           initiates a secure chat between two clients

There are many other CTCP commands, and new ones are introduced all the time. There is a mechanism for you to find out what you can use: CTCP CLIENTINFO. To find out about your own client services, execute a CLIENTINFO on yourself.

        /CTCP Nap CLIENTINFO
           *** CTCP CLIENTINFO reply from Nap: SED VERSION CLIENTINFO
           USERINFO ERRMSG FINGER TIME ACTION DCC UTC PING :Use
           CLIENTINFO <COMMAND> to get more specific information

If you are interested in this powerful CTCP mechanism, have a look in the various ircII help files. "/HELP CTCP" might tell you more...!. However the client-to-client protocol has a very powerful feature: Allowing two people to exchange files.