The open Internet Relay Chat protocol is commonly used, but unfortunately, for as long as I can remember, SiteScope has lacked a dedicated IRC monitor. Of course you can use SiteScope just to check whether the IRC server port responds, but that might not tell you much about the actual state of the server - it's common for the registration process to take more than a minute even if the server responds in a matter of milliseconds.

This is why I wrote this simple extension to the SiteScope port monitor, using the string sending and matching options in order to actually register an IRC connection with the server. The example below appears to work at least with SiteScope 6.0 c1 and IRCnet ircd 2.10.3p3; if you use other software, you might need to tune the example monitor accordingly. In addition to the documentation for your IRC server software, you might find RFCs 1459, 2810, 2811, 2812 and 2813 useful.

#
# replace the _id value with the one for your group's _nextID
#
_id=1
#
_name=IRC on irc.example.com
_frequency=600
_class=PortMonitor
_hostname=irc.example.com
#
# IRC servers often run on port 6667, but variations are common
#
_port=6667
#
# register on the server.
# the slashes tell SiteScope we're feeding it a regular expression
# (allowing us to send multiple lines) 
#
# send a password message.
# the parameter value isn't important
# PASS *
#
# take a nickname
# NICK SiteScope
#
# register with a user name (SiteScope)
# set invisible user mode (8)
# the third parameter is unused (*)
# set a "real name" (SiteScope Administrator)
# USER SiteScope 8 * :SiteScope Administrator
#
# quit
# QUIT
#
_sendString=/PASS \*\nNICK SiteScope\nUSER SiteScope 8 \* \:SiteScope Administrator\nQUIT\n/
# 
# check to see that the server sends an adequate response in 120 seconds
# 
_matchString=:irc.example.com 001 SiteScope :Welcome to the Internet Relay Network SiteScope!
_timeout=120
#
# verification is a matter of taste
#
_verifyError=on