YoLinux Tutorial: IRC - Internet Relay Chat

This tutorial covers using IRC to get Linux help online. Linux client software, IRC chat sites, sample sessions and links are also presented.
Note: Due to the nature of hackers, if you plan on being highly contoversial or opinionated, it is often safest to use a dial up connection with a randomly assigned IP address rather than a static IP which the offended hacker can target.

Note that Red Hat 8.0/9.0 no longer ship with an IRC client but one can compile from source or download and install an RPM for 7.3 on the newer systems.

Related YoLinux Tutorials:

°Linux Sys Admin

°Linux Networking

°Firefox Configuration

°Linux Fonts

°YoLinux Tutorials Index

Free Information Technology Magazines and Document Downloads
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IRC Linux clients:

ircII - (/usr/bin/irc) Text terminal based IRC client. Download and compile.
xchat - GTK+ based IRC client.
BitchX - (/usr/bin/BitchX) Text terminal (RedHat Power Tools CD)
ChatZilla - Included in Mozilla browser to handle irc:// URL's.
irc://irc.openprojects.net/#sclug SCLUG (Wed 8:00 PM PST) - Example of an IRC URL acceptable by browsers like Mozilla. ChatZilla is built into Mozilla to handle irc:// URLs but it is not included in Firefox.

Sample session:

Example using ircII:

prompt$ /usr/bin/irc

/server irc.linux.com
/list                   - List chanels
/join #linuxhelp        - or join #kernelnew, #linpeople, #livid (linux video), #java ...
/who *                  - List users in the current channel

Nick: bla bla bla...    - It's polite to address a person

/msg Nick               - This method will send a private message to Nick

/part #linuxhelp        - Close channel
/quit

Note: /usr/bin/irc comes with RPM ircii. (ircii was not included with RH 8.0 and later. You can still install an ircii RPM from RH 7.3 on 8.0/9.0.) RH 8.0/9.0 does not ship with any IRC clients. Fedora core 3 includes xchat and ChatZilla.

Helpfull commands:

 /help

IRC Linux sites:

irc.linux.com
irc-2.mit.edu
irc.openprojects.net
LA Linux Users Groups
FreeNode.net

Links:

IrcHelp.org
Irc.org - Home of ircd server
- [RPM] - [SRC]
- ircd installation manual
- IRC Links Page
Freshmeat list of IRC clients
Freshmeat list of IRC daemons
Detailed use of IRC and linux - by Kimmie Dicaire
A comparison of messaging protocols: TOC, Oscar, Tahoo, ICQ, IRC, Jabber, ...

Note IRC is NOT ICQ. For info on ICQ see ICQ.com and the Linux ICQ client home page, LICQ.org.

LinuxNetMag.com: ICQ-Clients for Linux

Books:

	"The Book of IRC: The Ultimate Guide to Internet Relay Chat" by Alex Charalabidis ISBN # 1886411298, No Starch Pr
	"Internet Messaging: From the Desktop to the Enterprise" by Marshall Rose, David Strom ASIN # 0139786104

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