Introduction to IRC
By, Akurei
January 17th, 2001


I.	Introduction
II.	MIRC
III.	BitchX
IV.	Common IRC Commands
V.	Ircops
VI.	Services
VII.	Contact etc.


I.	Introduction

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is one of the most used chat software on the 
internet.
IRC's users are probably just about the same as the amount of users that use
America Online (AOL) IRC is alot more "interactive" than most other chat 
software
in many ways.  For example, in what aol chat can you kick someone out of a 
chan
when they are harassing you?  You cant!  In irc... you can do this.  Also, 
with
irc you can run you can pick the chat client you use, whereas with aol and 
other
software used for chat you must pick the single one provided.  The two most 
used
chat clients for irc is mirc (http://www.mirc.com) and BitchX 
(http://www.bitchx.com).
MIRC is only for windows 9x and BitchX is used for most unix operating 
systems.
Unfortunately, I have never seen an irc client for Macintosh... so if you 
have
a mac... this text really is not for you.



II.	MIRC

MIRC is a very good chat client.  It's more of the point and click type of 
chat
client whereas BitchX is a text based chat client.  In mirc, one of the very
nice features is that you can easily create your own script in minutes to do
whatever you would like.  To get to the script editor in mirc, you usually 
press
the icon at the top with the two red circles.  Although most of the 
information
here is provided within the mirc help files, I figured I would try to make 
it a
little easier for those of you who are too lazy to learn something as easy 
as
this.  I also had alot of people ask me questions on the topic of "how do I
use mirc" so next time they ask I figure ill give them a copy of the text.



III.	BitchX

BitchX is an irc client used by most unix systems.  With linux, it usually
comes with the distrobution and on the installation of the distrobution you
can manually decide whether to install it or not.  It's very small so most
distrobutions of linux install it by default.  This client is mainly text
based... And alot of people do not like that so they go with mirc. 
Personally,
I like BitchX better because of how "clean" it is.  It isn't as "jumbled" as
mirc (example: Icons EVERYWHERE).  But, if you are looking for a gui 
(graphical
user interface) irc client for unix systems, there is always XChat
(www.XChat.org) which resembles mirc in many ways.  Unlike MIRC, BitchX has
only one window.  To change the room you are speaking is, you have to type
/channel #channelname instead of clicking the channel you want to speak in 
at
the top of the mirc client.  Also, BitchX is absolutely free!  Mirc has only
a shareware liscense (which means you can only use it for a small amount of
time before you are SUPPOSED to pay the money to the programmers that made
mirc.  Although, 99% of the people that use mirc do not pay and continue
using mirc.  BitchX is also a SCRIPT.  With this script, you can easily
edit whatever features you want in BitchX... changing the whole program!
Mirc is an executable, you cannot modify an executable file.



IV.	Common IRC Commands

When I use <> that means you have to put something in there. After
every command, i will provide an example of that command.
Also, when i use the semicolon, ;,it means that im just noting something
out for you and it is not actually a command.  When i use the pound, #,
I am saying what the command does.

/server <host address>
/server irc.dugnet.net
# Connects you to an irc server that you will chat on.
; You must connect to a server to chat.

/join #<channel>
/join #hackers
# Joins a channel that you will chat on.
; All channels must have # in front of them.

/nick <nick>
/nick CrazyGuy
# You are known by your nick, when people chat to you, they will call
# you CrazyGuy, or whatever you asign your nick as.

/invite #<channel> <nick>
/invite #hacking CrazyGuy
# This command invites CrazyGuy to the channel #hacking.

/dns <nick>
/dns CrazyGuy
# This command will preform a dns on the targeted user.

/disconnect
# Disconnects you from the server you are currently on.

/msg <nick> <message>
/msg CrazyGuy Hey, whats up
# This will message crazy in a query box "Hey, whats up"

/query <nick>
/query CrazyGuy
# This will bring up a window to where you can chat with CrazyGuy only.

/whois <nick>
/whois CrazyGuy
# When you do the whois command, it gives you information about the
# person you are whoising.  Such as the modes they are using (if they
# are +o, they are an ircop (i will talk about ircops later, but they
# basically control the irc server you are using)).  It tells you what
# irc server they are using on the irc network you are on.  It gives
# you their host name, and a few other things.

/me <action>
/me looks around
# This command is just for fun... the example output would be... CrazyGuy
# looks around.

/lusers
# Tells you how many users are on the network, the server, and how many
# ircops are on the server.

/motd
# Motd means "Message Of The Day.
# Server administrators (the people who actually RUN the server) sets
# the motd.  To view it, you use the /motd command.  The motd just
# tells you about the server... tells you the name of the network
# maybe even the version of the ircd the server is running
; IRCD means Irc daemon.  All networks run irc daemons which allows
; you to chat to other people on the network.

/mode #<channel> <mode>
/mode #hackers +S
# To set channel modes, you must be an operator in the channel.
# Another words, you must have a @ by your nick (if you are using
# mirc, all you have to do is look to the left of the screen and
# see the nicks and the symbols by them).  Halfop (which is only
# used on some servers (for example irc.dugnet.net)) can also
# set some channel modes.  They can change the topic in the
# channel, they can change the number of users the channel
# can hold and much more.

Some channel modes :

/mode #<channel> +o <nick>
# This mode gives a user operator (op)
# An operator has full control of the channel.

/mode #<channel> +h <nick>
# This mode gives a user half operator (hop)
# Halfop can only do some of the things that the op does.

/mode #<channel> +v <nick>
# This mode gives a user voice.  When a channel operator sets a channel
# as +m (moderated) then users cannot talk unless they have voice,
# half op, or op.  Channels are usually not set to +m so voice usually
# just means "yer cool".

/mode #<channel> -o <nick>
# Takes the persons op away (deop)

/mode #<channel> -h <nick>
# Takes the persons hop away (dehop)

/mode #<channel> -v <nick>
# Takes the persons voice away

/topic #<channel> <topic>
# This command can only be used by hop and op... It just changes the
# topic of the chan that you are op in.

/mode #<channel> +S
# This mode sets the channel as colorless, another wor