<doctitle>Using KVIrc</doctitle>
<docbody>

<hr>

<docsubtitle>Index</docsubtitle>

<a href="introdKVIRC.kvihelp#Whats">What is an IRC client?</a><br>
<a href="introdKVIRC.kvihelp#Connect">Connecting to an IRC network</a><br>
<a href="introdKVIRC.kvihelp#Join">Joining a channel</a><br>
<a href="introdKVIRC.kvihelp#Query">Starting a query</a><br>
<a href="introdKVIRC.kvihelp#Notice">Sending notices</a><br>
<a href="introdKVIRC.kvihelp#Chanop">Channel Operators</a><br>
<a href="introdKVIRC.kvihelp#TopicMode">Changing the Topic / channel
modes</a><br>
<a href="introdKVIRC.kvihelp#UserMode">Changing user modes in a
Channel</a><br>
<a href="introdKVIRC.kvihelp#Kick">Kicking Users</a><br>
<a href="introdKVIRC.kvihelp#Info">Getting Information about Users</a><br>
<a href="introdKVIRC.kvihelp#CTCP">What is the CTCP protocol?</a><br>
<a href="introdKVIRC.kvihelp#DCC">What is the DCC protocol?</a><br>
<a href="introdKVIRC.kvihelp#Script">What is a script?</a><br>


<a name="Whats"><docsubtitle>What is an IRC client?</docsubtitle></a>

Before learning what is an IRC client, you maybe should have read the <a
href="introdIRC.kvihelp">What is IRC?</a> section, if you have read it
already, you will have realized that in order to connect to IRC, you will
need an IRC client, which is a program that acts as a medium between you
and the rest of the IRC network (the servers and the other IRC
clients/people).<br>
KVIrc is an IRC client; it handles the connection to your favorite IRC
server, and lets you join channels, start DCC chats, and talk to your
friends in a powerful and easy manner.<br>
KVIrc will transforms your text and commands (or mouse clicks) to
commands accepted by the IRC standards, and it will send that commands to
the server, furthermore it will transform the server answers to a more
human-readable language.<br>

<a name="Connect"><docsubtitle>Connecting to an IRC
network</docsubtitle></a>
Now that you know what is IRC, obviously you will want to connect to an
IRC network, you will only have to go to the "server options" dialog in
the menu bar, and choose one server, then click the connect button, and
KVIrc will try to connect the server you chose. You can connect to IRC
using the commandline too:
<example> /SERVER irc.chat.org </example>
At this moment there will be an information exchange to set up the
connection terms between your client and the server. The Server will need
some information of the client connected to register it as a (temporal)
user, these are the username, Hostname, servername and realname, in KVIrc
you can set these params in the "User Options" dialog, you must also set
your <a  href="introdIRC.kvihelp#3">Nick or Nickname.</a><br>
If everything was set correctly, and there were no errors during the
connection process, you must be chatting by now, but... where are the
people?<br>

<a name="Join"><docsubtitle>Joining a channel</docsubtitle></a>

Before joining a channel, you should know <a
href="introdIRC.kvihelp#Whats">what a channel is</a>, you can join a channel
in two different ways, you can simply type:
<example>/JOIN #KVIrc</example>
or you can open the "channels list" dialog, decide what channel do you
want to chat into, and double click on it.<br>
Now, if you are not banned from that channel or if the +i mode has not
been set, you should have entered the channel desired, now you can talk to
the people using the channel, but you may want to talk to a single user,
and not to the whole channel, why do not you Start a Query?<br>

<a name="Query"><docsubtitle>Starting a Query</docsubtitle></a>

There are several ways to talk or send messages to another user only, but
the most common is "Querying" another user, some other ways are: notices,
DCC chat...<br>
When you start a query, KVIrc starts sending private messages to the query
target, and show them in another window apart from the channels you are
using.<br>
To Start a query, you can use a command:
<example>/QUERY makih</example>
or you can click left button over the desired nickname in the nick list,
and choose "Query", then a blank window will appear, you can start writing
now, and hope the other user wants to talk to you :)<br>

<a name="Notice"><docsubtitle>Sending notices</docsubtitle></a>

You can send another type of private message: the notice. A notice is not
much more different from a private message, a notice is not as personal as
a query, and its content is more important too.<br>
You can send a notice to a single nick or to a channel<br>
To send a notice:
<example>
/NOTICE makih this is my message
/NOTICE #kvirc hello!
</example>

<a name="Chanop"><docsubtitle>Channel operators</docsubtitle></a>

Channel operators of a channel are identified by the '@' symbol next to
their nick whenever it is associated with a channel (i.e.: the user list
of a channel, WHO and WHOIS commands...), in KVIrc they are also of a
different color.<br>
The channel operator on a channel is the one that 'owns' the channel.
Thanks to this status, he can do some things that normal users cannot
do:<br>
<br>
[KICK]   Eject a client from the channel<br>
[MODE]   Change User and Channel modes in that channel<br>
[INVITE] Invite a client to an invite-only channel (mode +i)<br>
[TOPIC]  Change the channel's topic<br>

<a name="TopicMode"><docsubtitle>Changing the Topic/Channel
modes</docsubtitle></a>

If you are the channel operator, or if the channel modes are the required
(-t), you will be able to change the topic of a channel, you will cannot
change the channel modes unless you are a channel operator.<br>
To change the topic you can do a double click in the topic layer itself,
above the output zone, write the new topic, and press enter when
finalized, or you can use the commandline:<br>
<example>
/TOPIC #KVIrc This is a new topic
</example>
To change the <a href="introdIRC.kvihelp#modes">modes</a>, you can do a
double click on the channel modes layer, select the modes do you want and
click on 'commit', or you can use a simple command:
<example>
/mode #KVIrc +ni -t
</example>

<a name="UserMode"><docsubtitle>Changing User modes in a
channel</docsubtitle></a>

You can only change user modes in a channel if you are a channel operator,
the modes are:<br>
<br>
(+ is set on, - is set off)<br>
[O] <a href="introdKVIRC.kvihelp#Chanop">Channel Operator</a><br>
[V] Voice<br>
[B] <a href="introdIRC.kvihelp#Ban">Ban</a><br>
<br>
To change user modes, you can do a right click over the user on the user
list of a channel, and op, deop, voice, devoice, etc. him/her, or you can
use the commandline:
<example>
OP, DEOP, VOICE, DEVOICE, BAN, UNBAN

  /op #kvirc Mash
  Will set mode +o Mash in #KVIrc
</example>

<a name="Kick"><docsubtitle>Kicking Users</docsubtitle></a>

When you have reached the status of channel operator, you are allowed to
kick users from that channel, you can eject a user from the channel, but
it is not netiquete, you may be kicked by another channel operator.<br>
To kick a user, try opening the nick list popup and searching for the
Kick command, or type:
<example>/KICK #kvirc makih</example>

<a name="Info"><docsubtitle>Getting Information about
users</docsubtitle></a>

As long as and User is logged in the same IRC network as you are connected
to, and in much the same way that he/she (as you) entered his/her
information at login time, you can access that information if you know
the user's nick. the user information will be different depending of what
user modes that person is using.<br>
To obtain info about a nick, type:
<example>/WHOIS makih</example>
And you will see something like:
<example>
Makih is CC@195.65.45.76 * A canine man
Makih on @#si.amanece #kvirc
Makih using irc.arrakis.es [194.54.65.34]
</example>

<a name="CTCP"><docsubtitle>What is the CTCP protocol?</docsubtitle></a>

CTCP stands for Client To Client Protocol. It is sent and interpreted by
the IRC client. The IRC server does not deal with CTCP, it treats CTCP
messages as another simple message to someone.<br>
Commands are sent to another client from yours, as a normal message, the
other client interprets them and sends back to your client using the IRC
network.<br>
The format is:
<example>
/CTCP nickname/channel command (arguments)
</example>
The most common commands are:
<example>
PING:
Requests the time it takes messages to get from one client to another:
/CTCP Makih PING

VERSION:
Requests the name and version of the client that a person is using:
/CTCP Makih VERSION

CLIENTINFO:
Requests more information about someone's client:
/CTCP Makih CLIENTINFO

USERINFO:
Requests more information about a user:
/CTCP Makih USERINFO

TIME:
Requests the time according to the remote user's system clock:
/CTCP Makih TIME
</example>

<a name="DCC"><docsubtitle>What is the DCC protocol?</docsubtitle></a>

DCC stands for Direct Client to Client, It is a method of communication
used to maintain secure chats, send files or (in KVIrc and some other
clients) to maintain voice conferences using Internet.<br>
DCC is started by a CTCP command, however, once is started it is totally
independent of the IRC server.<br>
To start a DCC chat/send/talk the originator of the request will send
the DCC requesting, including the type of DCC, the address of the
originator's machine, and the port on which the originator is waiting for
the DCC to connect.<br>
You can start a DCC (chat/talk/send) by using the popups, or by typing:
<example>
SEND, TALK, CHAT

  /send Mash
will open a dialog so you can select the file to send
</example>
------------<br>
Work in progress...<br>
------------<br>

<a name="Script"><docsubtitle>What is a script?</docsubtitle></a>

KVIrc lets you customize it adding new alias, popups, or changing the
events, quit messages... etc. but It also adds themes support, so your
client can be totally different from the others.
When you have configured properly your KVIrc client, you can save your
settings in a file, called script, to send it to your friends, or publish
it somewhere.
-------------<br>
Work in progress...<br>
-------------<br>
</docbody>

