by Helen Hawk Sun Nov 10, 2013 9:27 pmLevel One – Common Users
Basics of IRC
In order to communicate through IRC, you need a software known as “IRC client”. There are many clients, both freeware and commercial, and the choice depends on whether you’re looking for simplicity and limited features or complexity and different options.
We suggest you look around on the web and choose the one you like most.
This tutorial will speak in general, without a specific IRC client in mind. This means that general indications are given, and you must find the exact menus, submenus, windows and boxes to make things happen.
To facilitate your web search, these are some names of the IRC clients: mIRC, IceChat, Chatzilla, Pidgin, Miranda.
---------------------
Connecting to the SWC Server
The chat rooms where you will meet your Combine mates are hosted in the SWC Server.
The server being in the ocean of Internet, it has a specific address to be distinguished from other servers. In your client there is surely a place where you need to put the “coordinates” of the IRC server you want to access. After you’ve found that place, you need to specify the following:
IRC Server: irc.swcombine.com
Port(s): 6667
These are the two important data to set. If your client asks also for additional information such as description and group, you can write “SWC” or anything meaningful to you.
When you’ve finished giving these access data, you should be able to connect to the specified server.
--------------------
Joining a channel
In the IRC server, each channel name is preceded by “#” character. Try to join #exiles as your first channel.
To do this, you type /join #exiles in the command field of your client.
---------------------
Registering your nickname
Some channels are not open to all. Instead, they are accessible exclusively to users who have registered their nicks beforehand. If you want to enter #exiles-partners, for example – you must register your nick, otherwise you won’t be accepted in.
Now, please type /msg nickserv REGISTER yourpassword youremail
taking care to replace yourpassword with a password of your choice, and youremail is your valid email address.
Be careful to type the command as it is, and possibly not in a room full of people, for a good reason: if you make a mistake in the syntax of this command, you will reveal your password to anyone in the room. If this happens, don’t worry, re-type the command with a different password.
Not only the command REGISTER is useful to have access to private channels, but it is also useful because it ensures that other people cannot use your name. Stealing the identity on IRC can lead to many problems, and these can be easily avoided.
--------------------
Identify yourself
Registering your nick is the first step to get access to private channels. Before entering a private channel, you need to tell the server that you are the proper owner of the registered nickname. To tell the server that you are the right person, you need to identify yourself using the same password you used to register. Therefore, it is very important you never forget the password chosen.
In order to show your identity to the server, you need to type the following command:
/msg nickserv IDENTIFY yourpassword
The same warning of the REGISTER command is valid here: be careful not to type this command wrongly in a room with other people, otherwise everyone will know your password. Also, there is another detail you must check when identifying yourself: the nickname you are using must be equal to the nickname used with the command REGISTER. As you can see, you don't need to specify your nickname to the server in the IDENTIFY command because the server is smart, and it knows the nickname who is typing the command. But if you are using a different nickname, it won't match the password used for the other nickname, and you'll get an error.
Assignment: After registering and identifying your nick, go to #exiles and ask an operator to give you access to the #exiles-partners channel. You can distinguish channel operators by a “@” beside their nicknames.
---------------------------
A different way of expressing oneself
When you type your sentences they appear as you are speaking in the first person, or course.
If you want to speak impersonally, you need to use a specific command: /me
In the picture below, the first line was typed normally, while the second line was typed as follows:
/me falls asleep and snores.
You can also add colours and highlights to your sentences, but commands to do so vary from client to client, and we are not discussing them here.
Sometimes, you will feel the need to speak to someone privately. Giving classified information, or to get the attention of one person in particular could lead you to use the /query or the /msg command.
The /query command opens up a new separate window, where you can type your private message.
The /msg command doesn’t open up a new window, but the message you type is seen only by the recipient specified.
The correct syntax of these commands is:
/query NicknameOfRecipient yourtext
/msg NicknameOfRecipient yourtext
Of course, you must replace NicknameOfRecipient and yourtext with the relevant information.
Another command that is useful to communicate you’re away or busy, or any other mood you can imagine, is /nick.
In the picture below, the first line was typed with the command /nick Helen|afk, while the second line was typed as /nick Helen_Hawk
It is a good rule of thumb to switch to your registered nick before quitting the IRC client. As a matter of fact, you could have problems when logging back to a private channel if the nick doesn’t correspond to the nickname you registered.
There are ways to bypass this problem, but they will be explained later.
----------------
Automating the connection commands
You know the basics to spend your life on IRC, and we can tell you that it is really enough. If you have no particular needs you can live well with the bunch of commands you’ve just learnt.
However, if you feel that some tasks are quite repetitive – typing IDENTIFY and joining always the same channels, for example – and you wish to automate them, you need to go a step further.
In your IRC client there must be a place where to add the connection commands (IDENTIFY and a join for each channel), you need to look in the menus and submenus. Some have a Tool-->Options window, some others have a File-->Preferences. Explore your client and if you need help, you will surely find someone who is using the same client as you and can give more specific information.
---------------
A better comprehension of the IRC server
In order to be able to manage all the possible commands, the server delegates part of the job to a “department” and part of the job to another “department”. All the lousy job of deciphering your commands is carried out by several “departments”, technically called “services”.
For your daily life, you use only two services: the one called NickServ and the one called ChanServ.
The former allows you to register a nickname, prevent others from using it, and carry out commands to maintain the nicknames. The latter allows you to register a channel, prevent others from taking over it, and maintain the channel.
Look back at your very first commands you used:
/msg nickserv REGISTER
/msg nickserv IDENTIFY
There you can now understand what you were typing: the command /msg is to send a private message and your recipient is NickServ, the service which is tasked to parse your command and execute your will. If your command is going to affect your nick(s), then your command must start with /msg nickserv.
The IRC server of SWC is smart enough to understand an abbreviation of such command. You can abbreviate /msg nickserv by typing simply /ns. As an example, instead of typing /msg nickserv IDENTIFY yourpassword you can type /ns IDENTIFY yourpassword
There are some clients that don’t like this abbreviation, though, and if you encounter some problems using the shortened version please blame your client and not the server.
Similarly to the NickServ, we have named also ChanServ. Many of the commands directed to the Channel service are too advanced for you to use, but you need to know at least one of them.
Should you be accidentally banned from the #cmg-NR-members channel, you can unban yourself by sending a command to the Channel Server:
/msg ChanServ UNBAN #cmg-NR-members
The syntax of the command is simple: you send a private message to the channel service (ChanServ) telling it to unban yourself (you don’t need to specify your handle if it is the same as the one you’re using) in the channel #cmg-NR-members.
Here, there is an important detail to remember when talking to ChanServ. Since the IRC server is hosting hundreds of different channels, you must always specify after the command which channel that command is valid for. In the example above, if you forget to specify the channel, the command doesn’t know where the command is directed.
Like its mate NickServ, ChanServ has its own abbreviation: /cs
The unban command above can therefore be shortened as /cs UNBAN #cmg-NR-members
Assignment: Get a list of all the possible commands that the ChanServ can understand. Do so by typing /msg ChanServ HELP COMMANDS
Basics of IRC
In order to communicate through IRC, you need a software known as “IRC client”. There are many clients, both freeware and commercial, and the choice depends on whether you’re looking for simplicity and limited features or complexity and different options.
We suggest you look around on the web and choose the one you like most.
This tutorial will speak in general, without a specific IRC client in mind. This means that general indications are given, and you must find the exact menus, submenus, windows and boxes to make things happen.
To facilitate your web search, these are some names of the IRC clients: mIRC, IceChat, Chatzilla, Pidgin, Miranda.
---------------------
Connecting to the SWC Server
The chat rooms where you will meet your Combine mates are hosted in the SWC Server.
The server being in the ocean of Internet, it has a specific address to be distinguished from other servers. In your client there is surely a place where you need to put the “coordinates” of the IRC server you want to access. After you’ve found that place, you need to specify the following:
IRC Server: irc.swcombine.com
Port(s): 6667
These are the two important data to set. If your client asks also for additional information such as description and group, you can write “SWC” or anything meaningful to you.
When you’ve finished giving these access data, you should be able to connect to the specified server.
--------------------
Joining a channel
In the IRC server, each channel name is preceded by “#” character. Try to join #exiles as your first channel.
To do this, you type /join #exiles in the command field of your client.
---------------------
Registering your nickname
Some channels are not open to all. Instead, they are accessible exclusively to users who have registered their nicks beforehand. If you want to enter #exiles-partners, for example – you must register your nick, otherwise you won’t be accepted in.
Now, please type /msg nickserv REGISTER yourpassword youremail
taking care to replace yourpassword with a password of your choice, and youremail is your valid email address.
Be careful to type the command as it is, and possibly not in a room full of people, for a good reason: if you make a mistake in the syntax of this command, you will reveal your password to anyone in the room. If this happens, don’t worry, re-type the command with a different password.
Not only the command REGISTER is useful to have access to private channels, but it is also useful because it ensures that other people cannot use your name. Stealing the identity on IRC can lead to many problems, and these can be easily avoided.
--------------------
Identify yourself
Registering your nick is the first step to get access to private channels. Before entering a private channel, you need to tell the server that you are the proper owner of the registered nickname. To tell the server that you are the right person, you need to identify yourself using the same password you used to register. Therefore, it is very important you never forget the password chosen.
In order to show your identity to the server, you need to type the following command:
/msg nickserv IDENTIFY yourpassword
The same warning of the REGISTER command is valid here: be careful not to type this command wrongly in a room with other people, otherwise everyone will know your password. Also, there is another detail you must check when identifying yourself: the nickname you are using must be equal to the nickname used with the command REGISTER. As you can see, you don't need to specify your nickname to the server in the IDENTIFY command because the server is smart, and it knows the nickname who is typing the command. But if you are using a different nickname, it won't match the password used for the other nickname, and you'll get an error.
Assignment: After registering and identifying your nick, go to #exiles and ask an operator to give you access to the #exiles-partners channel. You can distinguish channel operators by a “@” beside their nicknames.
---------------------------
A different way of expressing oneself
When you type your sentences they appear as you are speaking in the first person, or course.
If you want to speak impersonally, you need to use a specific command: /me
In the picture below, the first line was typed normally, while the second line was typed as follows:
/me falls asleep and snores.
You can also add colours and highlights to your sentences, but commands to do so vary from client to client, and we are not discussing them here.
Sometimes, you will feel the need to speak to someone privately. Giving classified information, or to get the attention of one person in particular could lead you to use the /query or the /msg command.
The /query command opens up a new separate window, where you can type your private message.
The /msg command doesn’t open up a new window, but the message you type is seen only by the recipient specified.
The correct syntax of these commands is:
/query NicknameOfRecipient yourtext
/msg NicknameOfRecipient yourtext
Of course, you must replace NicknameOfRecipient and yourtext with the relevant information.
Another command that is useful to communicate you’re away or busy, or any other mood you can imagine, is /nick.
In the picture below, the first line was typed with the command /nick Helen|afk, while the second line was typed as /nick Helen_Hawk
It is a good rule of thumb to switch to your registered nick before quitting the IRC client. As a matter of fact, you could have problems when logging back to a private channel if the nick doesn’t correspond to the nickname you registered.
There are ways to bypass this problem, but they will be explained later.
----------------
Automating the connection commands
You know the basics to spend your life on IRC, and we can tell you that it is really enough. If you have no particular needs you can live well with the bunch of commands you’ve just learnt.
However, if you feel that some tasks are quite repetitive – typing IDENTIFY and joining always the same channels, for example – and you wish to automate them, you need to go a step further.
In your IRC client there must be a place where to add the connection commands (IDENTIFY and a join for each channel), you need to look in the menus and submenus. Some have a Tool-->Options window, some others have a File-->Preferences. Explore your client and if you need help, you will surely find someone who is using the same client as you and can give more specific information.
---------------
A better comprehension of the IRC server
In order to be able to manage all the possible commands, the server delegates part of the job to a “department” and part of the job to another “department”. All the lousy job of deciphering your commands is carried out by several “departments”, technically called “services”.
For your daily life, you use only two services: the one called NickServ and the one called ChanServ.
The former allows you to register a nickname, prevent others from using it, and carry out commands to maintain the nicknames. The latter allows you to register a channel, prevent others from taking over it, and maintain the channel.
Look back at your very first commands you used:
/msg nickserv REGISTER
/msg nickserv IDENTIFY
There you can now understand what you were typing: the command /msg is to send a private message and your recipient is NickServ, the service which is tasked to parse your command and execute your will. If your command is going to affect your nick(s), then your command must start with /msg nickserv.
The IRC server of SWC is smart enough to understand an abbreviation of such command. You can abbreviate /msg nickserv by typing simply /ns. As an example, instead of typing /msg nickserv IDENTIFY yourpassword you can type /ns IDENTIFY yourpassword
There are some clients that don’t like this abbreviation, though, and if you encounter some problems using the shortened version please blame your client and not the server.
Similarly to the NickServ, we have named also ChanServ. Many of the commands directed to the Channel service are too advanced for you to use, but you need to know at least one of them.
Should you be accidentally banned from the #cmg-NR-members channel, you can unban yourself by sending a command to the Channel Server:
/msg ChanServ UNBAN #cmg-NR-members
The syntax of the command is simple: you send a private message to the channel service (ChanServ) telling it to unban yourself (you don’t need to specify your handle if it is the same as the one you’re using) in the channel #cmg-NR-members.
Here, there is an important detail to remember when talking to ChanServ. Since the IRC server is hosting hundreds of different channels, you must always specify after the command which channel that command is valid for. In the example above, if you forget to specify the channel, the command doesn’t know where the command is directed.
Like its mate NickServ, ChanServ has its own abbreviation: /cs
The unban command above can therefore be shortened as /cs UNBAN #cmg-NR-members
Assignment: Get a list of all the possible commands that the ChanServ can understand. Do so by typing /msg ChanServ HELP COMMANDS
