mirc.com

On the Internet there are many ways to talk to other people. Nowadays, the (instant) messaging programs like MSN and ICQ are very popular. But there is also IRC, or Internet Relay Chat. This way of communicating is a little more complicated and I think that’s why it isn’t as popular as it used too. MSN and ICQ are a lot easier to use. Anyway, I’ve been using IRC since 1996, and I almost always used mIRC to do so. There are a couple ...
...Xircon for example), but mIRC has become the most popular program. Let me first explain you the concept.

THE CONCEPT
============
There are two levels:

1) THE NET
-----------------
A “net” is actually a group of servers. If you connect to one server of a particular net, you can reach any channel or any other person who’s connected on any other server belonging to the same ... more

On the Internet there are many ways to talk to other people. Nowadays, the (instant) messaging programs like MSN and ICQ are very popular. But there is also IRC, or Internet Relay Chat. This way of communicating is a little more complicated and I think that’s why it isn’t as popular as it used too. MSN and ICQ are a lot easier to use. Anyway, I’ve been using IRC since 1996, and I almost always used mIRC to do so. There are a couple other programs you can use on IRC (like Pirch and Xircon for example), but mIRC has become the most popular program. Let me first explain you the concept.

THE CONCEPT
============
There are two levels:

1) THE NET
-----------------
A “net” is actually a group of servers. If you connect to one server of a particular net, you can reach any channel or any other person who’s connected on any other server belonging to the same net. This way, if one server is full, and you have to connect to another server, you can still reach your friends... if of course you stay in the same net.
Examples: DALnet, EFnet, Undernet

2) THE CHANNEL
-------------------------
Once connected to a server, you have to join a channel. You can have all sorts channels: about places (#London – and of course you can join #London even if you’re not living there), about music (#MP3), about computers (#C++), etc… and you can join (almost) as much channels as you want. Just keep in mind that if you join #MP3 on Undernet and your friend #MP3 on DALnet, you will not be able to communicate with each other.
If you’re in a channel, you will notice that the nicks on top have a “@” before their nick. This means that they are “operators”, they have the right to kick you, ban you, change the topic, etc… So you better listen to what they say!

Now how do you communicate? Basically, there are three ways: through a channel, with private messages, or through a DCC chat. If you write something in a channel, everybody in the channel will be able to read it. (That’s rather trivial isn’t it) But to write something in a channel you do NOT need to have joined the channel. Operators can avoid this by setting the channel mode +n. (no external messages) Normally 99% of the channels are set +n. The second way to communicate is with private messages. You double-click on the nick you want to talk to in private or you use the command /msg. I will leave the third way of communicating (DCC) for the next paragraph.

FEATURES
=========
mIRC has been created in 1995 by Khaled Mardam-Bey and it has evaluated a lot through the years. In comparison with the 3.72 I first used in 1996 mIRC has become a lot more powerful and the number of features have been multiplied by 10. Is that a good evolution? I don’t know. On one hand it has become sometimes easier to use and substantially more powerful. On the other hand you have so many possibilities nowadays I get lost a little. People who develop a program should always pay attention not to forget the initial purpose of the program. Look what they did with ICQ for example, what a mess… Anyway, the features I’m going to talk about now are features that were also available on the initial versions and are essential for the use of mIRC.

1) Aliases, popups and remote
As I said before, one of the strengths of mIRC is that you can completely personalize en elaborate it. Aliases, popups and remote are the tools to do so. This is how they work:
- An alias is a particular command you can define yourself. Let’s say you want to make a particular timer with a lot of parameters. Instead of having to type the long command line over and over, you give a new name to this long command. That’s the alias.
- You can also change the popup menus the way you want.
- Finally, the purpose of the remote tool is to make mIRC respond automatically to certain actions. A frequently occurring application is the flood protection. Say you’re a channel operator and you want to protect your channel against flood, you can set up mIRC so that it will kick anyone typing more than 10 lines in 10 seconds.

2) DCC
DCC, or direct-client-to-client, allows you to connect directly to another IRC user, instead of through an IRC server. You can chat through DCC (no lag), or you can use it to send files to each other (that’s what it’s mainly used for). But watch out, as always on the Internet, never accept a file from someone you don’t know, there are a lot viruses (most of them not harmful, but still it’s annoying) circulating on IRC.

3) Logging
You can choose to automatically log channels or private chats. Personally, I log all of my personal chats. This can be very helpful, because it contains a lot of information on people. For example, if they talk to you again, but you just don’t remember having met them before, you just have a look in your logs and you instantly remember.

Scripts
=====
You should try to download a script from the net. What is a script? You could describe it as an add-on for mIRC. Usually, when you download a script, you download a completely personalized version of mIRC. It can have different purposes: fun-scripts (with all kinds of funny messages and colours), war-scripts (with special functions to defend yourself against flood or other attacks, or to attack other people), bot-scripts (to start your own bot), fserve-scripts (to start your own file server), etc…

1) War-scripts
There are mainly two ways to make “war” on IRC: floods and DoS. If you flood someone you send so many messages to another user (usually with a couple clones you made) that the server has to disconnect the user. You can also flood a channel, in that case you send so many messages to the channel that a conversation becomes impossible. DoS is something completely different. It means “Denial of service”. If you do this on another user, you send a notice to his server that he isn’t online anymore, and the server will effectively disconnect him.

2) Bot-scripts
A bot on IRC is not a real user, but a fully automated IRC client. The purpose of an bot is to keep a hierarchy on a channel. Let’s say you founded a channel, and you want to stay an operator, you need to leave a bot with operator status while you’re away otherwise other people can take over your channel. When you come back your bot will recognize you and you can command your bot to make you operator again. On most of the nets, if your channel is big enough, you can file for a bot of the net, which will take care of everything. On Undernet these bots are “X” and “W”.

3) Fserve-scripts
If you have an fserve-script, you can use mIRC as a file-sharing program. People will be able to check the files you share and also to download them. Concerning MP3s, don’t expect too much. There is a wide range of songs available generally, but not as much as on AudioGalaxy or Morpheus.

APPRECIATION
=============
The quality of discussions varies a lot. Some channels are populated with frustrated adolescents trying to play god, on other channels you can find really useful information. Up to you to find the good channels.

ADVANTAGES
--------------------

1) IRC is very fast. It may not be as fast as MSN, but certainly faster than ICQ or web chats.

2) For beginners who just want to chat in their favourite chatrooms and with their friends, mIRC is very easy to use: simple commands and a clear lay-out.

3) As described before, you can completely personalize mIRC. It has become a very powerful tool. Of course, if you really want to use it well, it takes a while before you understand all the features and commands.

4) mIRC is the ideal place for online gamers to meet. Most of the clans in for example “Tactical Ops” have their own channel somewhere where they meet, agree on dates for wars, or discuss on tactics to use.

5) Personally, I use IRC as a kind of helpdesk. As I know quite a bunch of people there, and some good channels, when I want to know something (about computers, internet, music, or whatever) I just ask in the channel and there’s often someone to help me.

6) mIRC isn’t free in theory, but in reality it comes down to it. The trial period is 30 days, but you can continue using it after the trial period without any problem. If you want, you can register it (registering fee is 10$) if you want to get legal.

7) Finally, mIRC is a quite a small program (1.1mb zipped) so you don’t need a lot of space on your hard disk. Moreover, it requires few memory, so you can use it even on an old 486.

DISADVANTAGES
-------------------------

1) Effects of overcrowding
Some popular servers sometimes get overcrowded and that can cause some problems.
- Firstly you can have a terrible “lag”. If you have lag it means that you’re not getting messages immediately, in other words there is a big delay between the time you read a message and the moment it has been sent. You can check other people’s lag by /ctcp ping <nick>. To improve your lag, simply reconnect to another server. Comparing to web chats you can assume that there is certainly less lag on IRC.
- Secondly you could experience a “net split”. If a net spit occurs, some servers of a net won’t be able to communicate with each other. You’re experiencing a net split if suddenly half of the channel is leaving at once without a reason. There is nothing you can do if a net split occurs, you just have to wait until it’s repaired. The stability among different nets varies a lot though. Undernet, the net I’m on, is all right.

2) Spamming & Inviting
And yes, the disease that has spread all over Internet is also present here. You will regularly get private messages asking you to view a web page with “absolutely free teen pics” or you will frequently be invited to #younggirls or some other silly channel founded by some lonely geek who’s not getting any visitors.

3) Asl
The “asl”-thing appeared about 3 years ago. Today is has become a real plague. Asl means age, sex, and location in case you didn’t know. If someone starts talking to you, you can bet his first or second word (after Hello) will be asl. The reason I really hate asl is that I’m not willing to give information about myself to someone I absolutely don’t know very well. Secondly, asl is used a lot by frustrated net-geeks looking for a female to talk to. They ask your asl, they see you’re a male and they say goodbye. I refuse to make it so easy for them.

USEFUL TIPS
===========

Colours
----------
Since a couple of years, you can also use colours on IRC. Although the idea was good, it has done more harm than good to IRC. The good side is that now joins/parts/quits stand in another colour than the actual text, which make site clearer. The downside is that many users use the colours at all times. Especially annoying are scripts loaded with colours. The consequence of all this is that in many channels colours are banned: if you use colours, you get kicked out! Conclusion: leave out the colours!

Statistics
-----------
There exist a program that makes statistics of what is said in your favourite channel. Just keep the log, choose what statistics you want, and let the program do its work. You can ask for statistics on chat hours, number of chat lines per user, number of kicks, etc… Everything is fully customisable. IRC users love it!
http://netti.nic.fi/~mauvinen/mircstats/

A couple of frequently used abbreviations on IRC
------------------------------------------------------------
bbl be back later
brb be right back
btw by the way
irl in real life (as the opposite of irc)
lol laughing out loud
np no problem
wb welcome back

High-quality channels on Undernet:
------------------------------------------
- For programming: #coders, #c++
- For warez: #oldmemphis
You will find some of the best warez here. The only restriction is that you stay in the channel while you’re downloading from their ftp servers.

Useful links:
--------------
http://www.mirc.com (the official homepage)
http://www.mircscripts.com/
http://www.mirc.net/
http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/misc/ccosmos.html
http://www.xnet.org/help/
http://leonardo.spidernet.net/Copernicus/831/mirc/
http://netti.nic.fi/~mauvinen/mircstats/

WHERE TO FIND ME
=================
You will find me on:
- net: Undernet
- channels: #Vlaanderen, #Kortrijk
and my nick is “Ex-Rochus”

There’s no particular time to find me there. I don’t have my regular hours. And by the way, if I don’t answer, maybe I’m away and I just left my PC on. Try /uwho Ex-Rochus and see how long I’m idle.
 

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