Now you may be thinking; “That chat program is still around?” or “What the heck is a eye-arr-see?”

Well let me tell you my friend. It stands for Internet Relay Chat and it’s been around for 34 years. It’s pretty much perfected at this point and quite easy to use if you have even the slightest technical knowledge.

So IRC servers are separate from one another with each server having it’s own admins. Each server you connect to has it’s own bots ran by individuals to messages and ask for things.

IRC servers work by sending slash commands much like discord does. To message another user you might type /msg coolboot2000 hello world! Piracy on IRC works by sending a bot a pm with the pack number you want.

“Where do I find servers and bots and pack numbers?” It’s as easy as using a xdcc search engine. http://sunxdcc.com/ has both a search and a list of networks. (DCC is Direct Client to Client meaning no files pass thru the server and XDCC is a version of DCC that allows large files to be transferred.)

“How do I connect?” You use an IRC client with SSL support. ~mIRC~ AdiIRC for windows and Hexchat with a patch for Linux. Once installed you can use the slash command /connect or use the clients GUI buttons to make a connection to the server.

“How do I make my own IRC client?” Follow the specifications here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_Relay_Chat_commands There are a ton of pre-made IRC libraries for pretty much every programming language.

Best luck friends!

edit: updated 11-6-23

  • Gazumbo@beehaw.orgEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    I haven’t used IRC since the 90’s but it blew my mind the other day when I found out mIRC is still going.

    • Swarfega@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Oh wow. I completely forgot about mIRC.

      Looking in my emails I still have my registration email for it. Dated 17th May 2003. Over twenty years ago! The links in it all still work too!

      
Thank you for registering your copy of mIRC, much appreciated.

Your registration name and number are shown below. To enter
your registration you must run mIRC, open the Help menu in
the menubar, and then select the Register menu item. You can
also register by pressing the keys Alt+H+R while in mIRC.

Removed Removed
xxxxxx-xxxxxxx

Please remember to print out this email and to save it in a
safe place for future reference.

Getting started:
If you are new to mIRC, you can find a beginner's guide to
getting started at http://www.mirc.com/install.html

Useful FAQs:
The IRC and mIRC FAQS, which can be found on the mIRC website,
answer most if not all of the frequently asked questions
relating to IRC and mIRC. Recommended reading! You can also
find answers to specific questions in my personal FAQ at
http://www.mirc.com/khaled/faq.html

Mailing list:
If you'd like to be notified when a new version of mIRC is
released, you can add your email address to the mIRC mailing
list at http://www.mirc.com/mailing.html

Helpful links:
The 'More Info' section on the mIRC website has links to many
interesting IRC-related websites, including links to books on
IRC, technical information, and more.

Hint of the day:
Each window in mIRC has a system menu with useful features. You
can view it by clicking the top left corner button in any window.
See the 'System Menu' section in the mIRC help file for more
information.

Thanks again,

Khaled