This is the first section of the IRC User's Survival Guide.
Jarkko Oikarinen started developing the IRC protocol in the summer of 1988. The original goal was to provide a means for users on OuluBox, a BBS, to chat amongst themselves, but only a few months later, IRC servers were running in Finland and the USA, forming the basis for a global network.
In 1993, RFC 1459 was published, defining the protocol. Three years later, the "main IRC network" mentioned in RFC 1459 split into IRCnet and EFnet.
Next section: "Getting connected".
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