The document provides an introduction to Internet Relay Chat (IRC), explaining its origins, features, and benefits, such as being group-oriented and low-bandwidth. It highlights various IRC clients available for different platforms and offers tips for effective use, including registration with nickserv and utilizing tab-completion. Additionally, it announces the official Guelph Web Maker Meetup IRC channel details for participants to engage in discussions.

1. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Introduction to IRC
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered)
Guelph Web Maker Meetup 1.0
March 16, 2011
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

2. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
What is IRC?
Internet Relay Chat
Originated in Finland in the late 1980s
Text-based group chat
Open platform (RFCs 1459, 2810–2813)
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

3. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Why should you care?
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

4. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Why should you care?
IRC is . . .
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

5. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Why should you care?
IRC is . . .
. . . group-oriented
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

6. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Why should you care?
IRC is . . .
. . . group-oriented
. . . low-bandwidth
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

7. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Why should you care?
IRC is . . .
. . . group-oriented
. . . low-bandwidth
. . . great for community access, e.g.
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

8. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Why should you care?
IRC is . . .
. . . group-oriented
. . . low-bandwidth
. . . great for community access, e.g.
Perl, Python, PHP
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

9. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Why should you care?
IRC is . . .
. . . group-oriented
. . . low-bandwidth
. . . great for community access, e.g.
Perl, Python, PHP
MySQL, PostgreSQL
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

10. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Why should you care?
IRC is . . .
. . . group-oriented
. . . low-bandwidth
. . . great for community access, e.g.
Perl, Python, PHP
MySQL, PostgreSQL
Drupal, Wordpress
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

11. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Why should you care?
IRC is . . .
. . . group-oriented
. . . low-bandwidth
. . . great for community access, e.g.
Perl, Python, PHP
MySQL, PostgreSQL
Drupal, Wordpress
Silverlight
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

12. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Why should you care?
IRC is . . .
. . . group-oriented
. . . low-bandwidth
. . . great for community access, e.g.
Perl, Python, PHP
MySQL, PostgreSQL
Drupal, Wordpress
Silverlight
Ubuntu, Red Hat, Microsoft
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

13. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Why should you care?
IRC is . . .
. . . group-oriented
. . . low-bandwidth
. . . great for community access, e.g.
Perl, Python, PHP
MySQL, PostgreSQL
Drupal, Wordpress
Silverlight
Ubuntu, Red Hat, Microsoft
W3C
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

14. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Get a client
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

15. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Get a client
mIRC
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

16. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Get a client
mIRC
XChat
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

17. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Get a client
mIRC
XChat
Colloquy
ChatZilla
Pidgin
Opera
BitchX
ircII
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

18. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Get a client
mIRC ERC
XChat HydraIRC
Colloquy XChat-WDK
ChatZilla Konversation
Pidgin Circe
Opera WeeChat
BitchX Mibbit
ircII qwebirc
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

19. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Get a client
mIRC ERC AndChat
XChat HydraIRC irssi
Colloquy XChat-WDK EPIC
ChatZilla Konversation Quassel
Pidgin Circe Yaaic
Opera WeeChat Rooms
BitchX Mibbit leetIRC
ircII qwebirc ...
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

20. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Pidgin
Open source (GPLv2/3)
Cross-platform (Linux, Windows, OSX)
Free on all platforms
Multi-protocol chat client with IRC support
http://pidgin.im/
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

21. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
XChat/XChat-WDK
XChat
Open source (GPLv2)
Cross-platform (Linux, Windows)
Free for Linux
http://xchat.org/
XChat-WDK
A free binary for Windows built with the Windows Driver Kit
http://code.google.com/p/xchat-wdk/
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

22. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
Colloquy
Open source (GPLv2)
OSX only
Free
http://colloquy.info/
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

23. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
qwebirc
Open source (GPLv2)
Web-based
Server-side: Python, Twisted, Java, Mercurial
Client-side: A browser that isn’t ancient
http://qwebirc.org/
E.g., http://webchat.freenode.net/
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

24. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
The official Guelph Web Maker Meetup IRC channel
Announcing the official Guelph Web Maker Meetup IRC channel!
Network: Freenode
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

25. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
The official Guelph Web Maker Meetup IRC channel
Announcing the official Guelph Web Maker Meetup IRC channel!
Network: Freenode
Web client: http://webchat.freenode.net/
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

26. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
The official Guelph Web Maker Meetup IRC channel
Announcing the official Guelph Web Maker Meetup IRC channel!
Network: Freenode
Web client: http://webchat.freenode.net/
Nickname: Your choice
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

27. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
The official Guelph Web Maker Meetup IRC channel
Announcing the official Guelph Web Maker Meetup IRC channel!
Network: Freenode
Web client: http://webchat.freenode.net/
Nickname: Your choice
Channel: #gwmm
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

28. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
The official Guelph Web Maker Meetup IRC channel
Announcing the official Guelph Web Maker Meetup IRC channel!
Network: Freenode
Web client: http://webchat.freenode.net/
Nickname: Your choice
Channel: #gwmm
Server: irc.freenode.net
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

29. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
The official Guelph Web Maker Meetup IRC channel
Announcing the official Guelph Web Maker Meetup IRC channel!
Network: Freenode
Web client: http://webchat.freenode.net/
Nickname: Your choice
Channel: #gwmm
Server: irc.freenode.net
Port: 7000 (with SSL) or 6667 (unencrypted)
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

30. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
A few tips
Use somebody’s nick to “nudge” them
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

31. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
A few tips
Use somebody’s nick to “nudge” them
Take advantage of the tab-completion that your client
probably offers
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

32. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
A few tips
Use somebody’s nick to “nudge” them
Take advantage of the tab-completion that your client
probably offers
Consider registering your nick with NickServ
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

33. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
A few tips
Use somebody’s nick to “nudge” them
Take advantage of the tab-completion that your client
probably offers
Consider registering your nick with NickServ
Many clients can auto-connect to networks and auto-join
channels
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC

34. What is IRC?
How do I IRC?
A few tips
Use somebody’s nick to “nudge” them
Take advantage of the tab-completion that your client
probably offers
Consider registering your nick with NickServ
Many clients can auto-connect to networks and auto-join
channels
Be welcoming
Chris Charles (@ChrisUnfiltered) Introduction to IRC