Internet Relay Chat

Introduction

Contrary to the E-mail and Newsgroups, or you can wait for hours and even sometimes for days before having an answer, the IRC allows the communication in real time. You connect to a server IRC. Then you enter one of the " rooms of conversation " according to the subject that is shown. If there is no subject interests you, you can always create your own room of conversation and wait that the another person appears.

Be careful!

It is strictly forbidden to university students to install software, including "IRC software", on computer labo equipment "temporarily".
I know that there are some sites in French but I'm short on addresses. You would be very kind to leave me the address so that I can then share it with other readers of this site.

How it works

To join you to the IRC, it's necessary you the address of a server IRC. A specialized software called a customer IRC is needed also. Some of these software offer you a list of various servers to that you can connect. The closest server from your home could indeed be also the most interesting. You will find one of the sites of query for the World Wide Web a list of servers and customers IRC who are available. try to learn the most possible the functioning before entering on a site or a "room("chamber").
In the connection to a server IRC, this one will ask you for some data. It's necessary to supply its name and Prénom (first name), its address of E-mail and its "nickname" for the site.

Definitions

Canal or Room: It's a meeting place or you can discuss with the other persons in real time. What you write in the keyboard will appear to the other participants of the channel as soon as you'll press the Enter key.
Administrator of channel: The person who created the channel is automatically an administrator. This person can also give the equivalence to the other persons. There is always one "" in front of the nickname of the administrator. One of the advantages is to " kicker " the unwanted of the channel. On Luxury hotel for example, they are called Wizards or Gods.
Nickname: You are not obliged to use your name when you connect to a server IRC. Most choose the nickname. He can have more than 9 characters and nobody accents or spaces.
K-line: You can be added to the list of the unwanted of the server IRC if you don't respect rules. In certain cases, name only the administrator IRC will remove from you the right of access but also to all the users of the domain such as all those of the Merlin server. Any time , remain polite, don't use obscene words, don't harass the users of the service and don't make nothing others than have a good conversation with the other users.

List of commands

The instructions that follow are for the IRC in mode text. All the programs "customers" have the same instructions or their equivalents. All the instructions begin with one "/". To have of the help it would be necessary to write the command / help for example.

/ help	Resources of the help on the instructions supported(born) by the server IRC.
/ list	To have the list of the available channels as well as the subject of conversation counts it of persons in each of the channels and.
/ join name_of_channel	Close a channel of discussion.
/ part or / leave	Leave a channel of discussion. You can also use / leave.
/ quit or / bye or / exit	Leave the server IRC. You can also use / bye or / exit.
/ nick your_new_nickname	Change your "nickname" on the server IRC.
/ away return_message	Being warned the other persons that you are not available for some minutes without leaving the channel. use the command / away with a message of warning. It's necessary to write / away followed by no message "to return("mean,"]come back ") in the channel.
/ whois nickname	Resources of the data about a person.
/ invite nickname name_of_channel	Invite somebody in a channel. This command is necessary if you invite somebody in a private channel.
/ kick nickname	Remove somebody of a channel. This command is available that to the administrators of the channel or those that have the equivalence. The expelled person can however return after a while.
/ topic	Poster in the list of channels that is the subject of this channel.
/ ignore nickname	Ignore all the messages resulting from a person.
/ msg nickname name_of_channel	Send a message for one person instead of all the persons on the channel.
/ query	Begin a conversation deprived with a person of the channel.
/ note	Send a message for one person.
/ notify nickname (one or off)	The server will warn to you when a person connects or leaves a channel.

Before throwing yourself into the great adventure, read as much possible data about the subject. look how the IRC works and the channels in particular before beginning a conversation.
To give you a taste of whom wait for you, there are images resulting from two software "customers" under Windows95: MS cat and Vchat.
In the entered, the software will ask you for some data. He can ask you just for your "nickname" for the connection or he can ask for more data such your Prénom (first name) and name as well as your address of E-mail. The next image shows the list of the "chat rooms" that you can enter and have a conservation with the other persons. It gives the name of the room, the number of persons at present in this one and the subject of interest of the room.

The screen below shows a conversation in real time in one of these rooms. The screen parts in three parts. The right part gives the list of persons in this room. The part of bottom is the place where you write your messages for the group or for the individual or the command of the previous list. The rest demonstrates the public conversation that there is from the individuals of the room.
He can have public conversations and also conversations deprived from the persons of the room. The command " whisper " allows you to write a message for one person.

You can now communicate with the other persons in a "virtual" environment. Or you can move to meet the other persons. It's difficult to see on this image but there are three "adversities" as well as some images.

MUD is for Multiple User Domain

The functioning of a MUD is identical to the IRC. The big difference is that you enter a game of role such as " Dungeons and Dragons ". There is an administrator of the game who reacts to the actions of the players. The group in a mission to be carried out in a domain that can be in a world of magic or even in a world of science fiction. According to their actions, the players pass of adventure in adventure or are killed. But they will return to the game under the format of a new person.

Example of a session

From the Merlin server, the students of the university can directly connect to the server IRC of the polytechnic of Montreal. At the moment, I don't know if it's possible to connect in the others server IRC. Rest to be seen. To begin the presentation, you can look at the instructions that are listed at the beginning of this page. This is only a brief explanation of the functioning on a server IRC. There are several other possible instructions. This is only to give you the base to operate on a server IRC.
From the menu of introduction of the Merlin server, select the option 7 interactive Discussion (cat irc).
Enter the command / help.
Because it's your first time on a server IRC, it's better to see the instructions and if there are supplementary instructions to be followed. From the menu of help, you can already watch the options newuser, etiquett, intro and rules to introduce you in the functioning on a site IRC.
To leave the section of help, press the Enter key.
You can enter the command of help any time to have more details of the functioning of a command.
A thing that it's better to change at once is your nickname. By default, your nickname is your account number consisted of two letters and six figures (Ex: ab123456). This is not really an interesting nickname for the other users of the server. It can certainly damage at the beginning of a conversation.
Enter instructions / nick (the nickname of your choice).
There are "very interesting" nicknames on sites. You go to see it very soon. Now, it's necessary to choose from the subjects of conversation a that interests you. For that purpose, it's necessary to use the command / LIST.
Be careful!
Just to use the command / list the complete list of every available channels gives you. To say the least, there's a lot. You can make a query from the list of channels to find a subject that interests you. For example, if to be interested to find in you a channel on Windows.
Enter the command / list windows*.
The asterisk (*) is called a " wildcard ". It can replace one or many caracters.

References

MIRC: http://www.mirc.com	Software for the most popular IRC.
PIRCH: http://www.pirch.com	Software very popular IRC.