How to use IRC: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:05, 21 August 2013

IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, is a low-bandwidth chat platform that has been around for decades. If you're new to it, it can be a little tricky to figure out, but it's worthwhile because a lot of developers and technical communities use it to share information and hang out.

A bunch of people who develop for jailbroken iOS are in #iphonedev on irc.saurik.com. Feel free to drop by and listen for a bit. If you ask a question and nobody responds right away, leave your IRC client open for a while to wait for questions, since not everyone is always awake and online. It's also helpful to do your best finding an answer yourself (via Google, etc.) before asking in the channel.

IRC clients

In order to connect to an IRC server, you can use a web-based client or install a client application. The client will have a place to type in the server name (like irc.saurik.com) and channel name (like #iphonedev), and a place to type in a nickname for yourself.

Here are a list of common IRC clients, sorted by platform. The client in bold is recommended, but feel free to try out the others to see which one you prefer!

Web
- Mibbit (AJAX) • ChatZilla (Firefox Extension)
Windows
- HexChat • KVIrc • mIRC • Pidgin • Trillian • irssi (CLI)
OS X
- Textual • Colloquy • XChat Aqua/Azure • Adium • Trillian • irssi (CLI)
Linux
- XChat • Pidgin • irssi (CLI)

Details about saurik's IRC network

saurik runs an InspirIRCd instance on his server at irc.saurik.com.

Port 6667 is opened as raw, unencrypted IRC. This is the default port most clients will connect to.

Ports 6697, 7001, and 7070 are opened as encrypted SSL IRC.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-== What is IRC, and how do I use it? ==
+IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, is a low-bandwidth chat platform that has been around for decades. If you're new to it, it can be a little tricky to figure out, but it's worthwhile because a lot of developers and technical communities use it to share information and hang out.
-IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, is a simple, low-bandwidth chat platform that has been around for some time.
-== IRC Clients ==
+A bunch of people who develop for jailbroken iOS are in [irc://irc.saurik.com/iphonedev #iphonedev on irc.saurik.com]. Feel free to drop by and listen for a bit. If you ask a question and nobody responds right away, leave your IRC client open for a while to wait for questions, since not everyone is always awake and online. It's also helpful to do your best finding an answer yourself (via [http://google.com/ Google], etc.) before asking in the channel.
-In order to connect to an IRC server, you must first download an IRC client.
+== IRC clients ==
+In order to connect to an IRC server, you can use a web-based client or install a client application. The client will have a place to type in the server name (like irc.saurik.com) and channel name (like #iphonedev), and a place to type in a nickname for yourself.
 Here are a list of common IRC clients, sorted by platform. The client in '''bold''' is recommended, but feel free to try out the others to see which one you prefer!
+* '''Web'''
+** '''[http://mibbit.com/ Mibbit (AJAX)]''' &bull; [http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/chatzilla/ ChatZilla (Firefox Extension)]
 * '''Windows'''
 ** '''[http://hexchat.github.io/ HexChat]''' &bull; [http://kvirc.net/ KVIrc] &bull; [http://mirc.com/ mIRC] &bull; [http://pidgin.im/ Pidgin] &bull; [http://trillian.im/ Trillian] &bull; [http://irssi.org/ irssi (CLI)]
@@ Line 13: / Line 16: @@
 * '''Linux'''
 ** '''[http://xchat.org/ XChat]''' &bull; [http://pidgin.im/ Pidgin] &bull; [http://irssi.org/ irssi (CLI)]
-* '''Web'''
-** '''[http://mibbit.com/ Mibbit (AJAX)]''' &bull; [http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/chatzilla/ ChatZilla (Firefox Extension)]
-== The Saurik IRC Network ==
+== Details about saurik's IRC network ==
 saurik runs an InspirIRCd instance on his server at [irc://irc.saurik.com/ irc.saurik.com].
@@ Line 22: / Line 24: @@
 Ports 6697, 7001, and 7070 are opened as encrypted SSL IRC.
-The iPhone Dev Wiki has a channel on the Saurik IRC Network, which can be found at [irc://irc.saurik.com/iphonedev #iphonedev @ irc.saurik.com].
-Feel free to drop by and listen for a bit. If you have a question, but don't get an immediate response, be patient and wait a while, since not everyone is always awake and online to answer your questions.
-It's also helpful to do your best finding an answer yourself (via [http://google.com/ Google], etc.) before asking in the channel.