Getting started with IRC

IRC is an acronym for Internet Relay Protocol which has existed for 38 years as of this writing. While it seems obsolete to normalfags, Its actually THE GOAT of messanger software back in the old days. Nowadays only nerds and wizards using it, and that's a good thing.

You can host your own IRC server with minimal resource, even your smart toaster can run it. Its a fun place to hang out.

Get the client

mIRC or hexchat is a good start to dip your toes in. They both have good reputation among IRC folks. While I never use them personally, I think they're pretty good from the screenshots that I found from google. My usual setup is with Weechat with relay on a VPS. Weechat is a terminal based client and if you're not accustomed with terminal just use what I mentioned above.

Registering an account

Its managed by NickServ, an IRC service that manage your username. You can use it by typing /msg NickServ

• Register: /msg NickServ REGISTER yourPassword your@email.address
• Login: /msg NickServ IDENTIFY yourPassword
• Check username availability: /msg NickServ INFO username

Some server needs email verification to fight spam, if you don't like it you can find another server that didn't do that.

Using it

IRC server doesn't log chat by default, so that means you wouldn't get chat history from way back without a service that logs it. You need a bouncer for that, and for the ol' school way simply just leave the client open all the time.

Here are some notable bouncers worth checking out

• Soju
• The lounge
• ZNC