IRC Server: irc.freenode.net
IRC Channel: #uwebd
IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. It is a communications protocol that was set up in 1988 to replace the MUT system. It is a model that is based on servers, like Freenode, who host channels. A channel is basically a chatroom, they were just around before we had web page based chatrooms. Whenever you see a name preceded by a #, that’s a channel. So #uwebd is our channel on the server irc.freenode.net. Once connected to the server (if you can’t figure out how to connect, try typing /server irc.freenode.net into your particular application’s window), typing the command /join #uwebd should get you in.
To chat on IRC you will need to have a IRC client. There are many available, and most are simple to configure and use. You can look into mIRC (good for beginners in my opinion), Trillian, Pidgin, HydraIRC, or the Chatzilla plugin for Firefox, to name a few. If you cannot install an IRC client on your machine, or cannot connect due to a firewall (IRC is assigned to port 6667/TCP), you can try a web client like Mibbit, which allows you to access IRC through a web page interface. Personally, I like Chatzilla since I can integrate it right into FireFox. If you use Chatzilla and want to open it in a tab (instead of the default popup box window it uses), just type chrome://chatzilla/content/chatzilla.xul into your address bar on a blank tab.
If none of these options work for you, you may visit the Pibb channel. Pibb is a multi-use communications platform. Our General thread there has been connected to the IRC chat room via a relay bot. What you type in the Pibb thread will show up in the IRC channel, and what goes into the IRC channel shows up in the thread. The catch is that this can sometimes have a second or two lag, which can be frustrating in fast paced conversations. Also, IRC users cannot see individual Pibb users, and Pibb users can’t tell who’s in the IRC channel. Instead, users chatting from Pibb show up through the bot PibbRelay, with your user name attached; in channel that might look like “<PibbRelay> <YourUserName> Whatever you said in the Pibb channel.” The upside is that Pibb offers an RSS feed that you can use to monitor the IRC channel for activity and also gives us a log so we can review conversations.
For more information, visit Internet Relay Chat @ Wikipedia.
i kept getting a message for a password and username so i was not able to log in this time. i’m not smart enough to figure this out. maybe next time.
Comment by nourisha — February 26, 2008 @ 1:50 pm
That’s a little unusual. Freenode is an open server (though they do ask you to register nicknames, but it isn’t mandatory), so there’s no login. You might make sure you have the right server selected.
Comment by fienen — March 10, 2008 @ 1:57 pm