<doctitle>Introduction to IRC</doctitle>
<docbody>

<hr>

<docsubtitle>Index</docsubtitle>

<a href="introdIRC.kvihelp#Whats">What is IRC?</a><br>
<a href="introdIRC.kvihelp#History">History of IRC</a><br>
<a href="introdIRC.kvihelp#ServClient">Servers and Clients</a><br>
<a href="introdIRC.kvihelp#Nick">Nicknames/Nicks</a><br>
<a href="introdIRC.kvihelp#User">Users</a><br>
<a href="introdIRC.kvihelp#Channel">Channels</a><br>
<a href="introdIRC.kvihelp#Netiquette">Netiquette</a><br>

<a name="Whats"><docsubtitle>What is IRC?</docsubtitle></a>
IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a part of the Internet that is used to
maintain text based conversations in real time between people connected
to the same IRC network.<br>
In an IRC connection, there are servers and clients. You (the client
side) connect to another computer (the server side) and send the text that
the server will send to each other client in the IRC network.<br>
When the IRC network is formed by two or more IRC servers, your text
will go trough all the servers in the network to the clients that you
want to speak to.<br>

<a name="History"><docsubtitle>History of IRC</docsubtitle></a>
Jarkko Oikarinen created IRC in 1988 in Finland as an improvement for
the UNIX 'talk' command, an old and not very powerful text conversation tool
(no more than two clients chatting at once). At the beginning IRC was a BBS
tool, it was adapted later for the Internet.<br>
In 1991, IRC was revealed as a perfect way to know what was happening in
the Gulf War, and in 1993, during Mosque crisis, IRC accomplished the same
objectives brilliantly.<br>
Nowadays, you can find IRC channels about anything you want (that's because
you can create your own channel!).<br>

<a name="ServClient"><docsubtitle>Servers and Clients</docsubtitle></a>
Server hosts are connected via a tree structure. Servers relay control
and message data to other servers and clients connected to them. Servers
are connected to other servers building a tree structure, and each server
acts as a central node for the rest of the IRC network it sees.<br>
A client is anything connecting to a server that is not another server.
Each client receives only data from the server that it is connected to,
unless it connects to another client via a DCC (Direct Client Connection).<br>

<a name="Nick"><docsubtitle>Nicknames/Nicks</docsubtitle></a>
When you connect to the IRC network, the server will give you a name known as
a 'nickname' or 'nick', so that servers or humans know who are they sending
their messages to.<br>
By default, one's nickname is one's login name, but you can change it
after your login. Every nick has to be different from the others, there
are also some restricted nicks in certain IRC networks. A nick should have
a maximum length of 30 (or 9) characters, and there are also some characters
forbidden from use.<br>

<a name="User"><docsubtitle>Users</docsubtitle></a>

There are two kinds of users on an IRC network, normal users (users) and IRC
operators (ircops).<br>
Normal users are only allowed to use channels if they are not channel
operators (chanops), and they are allowed to use and control the channel if
they are chanops.<br>
IRC operators are allowed to use channels, control channels, and they alse
should be able to perform some other things (disconnecting and reconnecting
servers of the IRC network, ejecting clients from the IRC network...).<br>

<a name="Channel"><docsubtitle>Channels</docsubtitle></a>

1.What is a channel?<br>
A channel is a group of IRC clients (nicks) being part of a 'place' in the
IRC network that will receive messages addressed to that channel, so each
client in that channel will see the same messages as the other clients.<br>
Channels are sometimes incorrectly referred to as 'rooms', due to the use of
that term in Internet chats that branched off of IRC.<br>
A channel exists when there is at least one user in there, and a user may be a
part of several channels at once.<br>
Channels names begin with # or & and may not contain any spaces (' '), commas
or control G (^G or ASCII 7).<br>

<br>
<a name="modes">2.Channel Characteristics</a><br>
- Topic: Usually a description of the channel, or something that a channel
  operator wants to show other users. It is limited to a length of 200
  characters<br>
- Modes: Channel modes control some aspects of a channel.<br>
(+ is set on, - is set off)<br>
[t] Prevent normal users from changing the topic.<br>
[n] Ignore external messages.<br>
[i] Prevent users from joining the channel (they can be invited with the
INVITE command).<br>
[m] Prevent normal users from talking to the channel<br>
[s] Make the channel secret (you will not see it with a LIST command).<br>
[p] Make the channel private, no one will see that you are using that
channel unless he/she is already on that channel or knows the exact
spelling of your nick.<br>
<br>

<a name="Ban">3.Bans</a><br>
Each channel has a ban list, which indicates which users are not allowed
to enter the channel. A mask represents each user in the ban list
(something like Nick!*@*.foo.bar); when a banned user tries to join a
channel (i.e: JOIN #channel), the server compares his address with the
masks in the ban list, and let him (or not) join the desired channel.<br>

<a name="Netiquette"><docsubtitle>Netiquette</docsubtitle></a>

What is Netiquette? Simply stated, it is 'Net etiquette. Netiquette is a
set of rules for behaving properly online.<br>
These are some notes taken from the WWW version of the book Netiquette by
Virginia Shea (copyright (c) 1994-97 Albion.com). Although it is not a book
dedicated to IRC, the rules can be applied to IRC. (www.albion.com for more
information)<br>
<br>
The Core Rules of Netiquete<br>

1.- Remember the Human.<br>
	Do unto others as you'd have others do unto you. Stand up for
	yourself, but try not to hurt people's feelings.<br>
2.- Adhere to the same standards of behavior that you follow in real
life.<br>
If you encounter an ethical dilemma in cyberspace, consult the code you
follow in real life. If you're tempted to do something that's illegal in
cyberspace, chances are it is also bad Netiquette<br>
3.- Know where you are in cyberspace<br>
Netiquette varies from domain to domain, so it is important to know where
you are. When you enter a domain of cyberspace that's new to you, take a
look around. Get a sense of how the people who are already there act.
Then go ahead and participate.<br>
4.- Respect other people's time and bandwidth<br>
You are not the center of cyberspace. Other people may have concerns
other than yours. So do not expect instant responses to all your
questions, and do not assume that all readers will agree with (or care
about) your passionate arguments.<br>
5.- Make yourself look good online<br>
Take advantage of your anonymity: You will not be judged by the color of
your skin, eyes, etc. You will, however, be judged by the quality of  your
writing.<br>
6.- Share expert knowledge<br>
Sharing your knowledge is fun. It is a long-time net tradition. And it
makes the world a better place.<br>
7.- Help keep flame wars under control<br>
Netiquette does forbid the perpetuation of flame wars (series of angry
letters, that can destroy the camaraderie of a discussion or IRC group.)
While flame wars can initially be amusing, they get boring very quickly to
people who are not involved in them.
Simply do not waste bandwidth.<br>
8.- Respect other people's privacy<br>
Of course, you'd never dream of going through your colleagues' desk
drawers. So naturally you would not read their email either.<br>
9.- Do not abuse your power<br>
Knowing more than others, or having more power than they do, does not
give you the right to take advantage of them.<br>
10.- Be forgiving of other people's mistakes<br>
Everyone was a network newbie once. So when someone makes a mistake
be kind about it. If you do decide to inform someone of a mistake,
point it out politely, and preferably by private conversation.<br>
<br>
<hr>
<docsubtitle>Notes taken from</docsubtitle>
rfc1459<br>
---<br>
IRC - Internet Relay Chat, doc/manual<br>
Copyright (c) 1990, Karl Kleinpaste<br>
---<br>
Connecting to IRC<br>
Written by Godess <Godess@undernet.org><br>
---<br>
Netiquette by Virginia Shea<br>
Copyright (c) 1994-97 Albion.com <www.albion.com><br>
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