IRC User's Survival Guide

IRC is a widely used Internet service that allows anyone to exchange typed lines of text in real time with other users all over the world by connecting to an IRC server. Messages may be sent privately (to one user) or to a channel (which may have several users).

This introduction will focus on "vanilla IRC", mostly as defined in RFC 1459 and/or implemented on IRCnet. Aspects specific to other networks, such as channel services or exotic modes, will be avoided; they cause a lot more confusion (*** umodes available oiwsabjgrchytxkmnpeAEGFSLX, channel modes available +abceiklmnoprstvMNL - good grief) and other problems than they prevent anyway. Even if you prefer a network that runs a modified version of ircd (the original IRC server software), you will probably recognize the core IRC functionality described in this document.

• A very brief history of IRC
• Getting connected

  "What do I need?", "Where do I connect to?", "What's this about an Ident server?", "Your IRC nickname", "Connect!"

• Basic IRC usage

  "The usermask", "Using IRC channels", "How do I chat privately with someone?", "On the Internet, I can do anything I want, right?", "Quitting IRC"

• Power user stuff

  "What do PING? and PONG! mean?", "What does DCC mean?", "What about all the other abbreviations I keep seeing?", "How can I tune my client settings?", "How can I get information on other people?", "How do I get rid of someone who annoys me?", "How can I find out stuff about the servers?", "Who runs IRC?"

• A channel of your own!

  "How can I create a new channel?", "What are the things I can do as a channel operator?", "How do I keep my channel operator status while I'm logged off?"

• Security

  "Risks specific to IRC", "Harmful files", "'Real life' risks on IRC"

• More information