IRC - Internet Relay Chat Program???

[David C Lawrence]

In <21198 at adm.BRL.MIL> danl at midget.towson.edu writes:
Dan> What I'm really interested in is, is it going to bury my system
Dan> or my network?

It shouldn't.  We run the server on a Sun 3/280 which serves the
netstaff for the computing centre.  It is a well-used machine but the
load level is usally very good (less than 2).  Network congestion is
not a problem either; subjectively, IRC seems to be one of our lowest
traffic items.  I have no objective numbers to present though.  We
don't feel any special commitment to keep it running in the face of
resource problems, though, so if it was a problem we almost certainly
wouldn't be running it.

Dan> I agree that it probably isn't the worlds best use of network
Dan> bandwidth.

There are many arguments pro and con for something like IRC.  I like
it as a tool to aid in my work; it gives me real-time interactive
communication in a convenient, cheap manner with people from around
the globe.  Detractors don't care for the 1-900-ish atmosphere in some
circles; I don't like it either, so I don't generally bother with
those circles.  Many people have told me though how they like it
because of the cultural education they get from people in Finland.
With Japan coming on-line, further potential for cultural exchange is
presenting itself.

Dan> How popular is it?

It is pretty popular and it's popularity is increasing.  Sun recently
came on-line and Apple is interested in it.  A list of the servers
that are running connected to ours while I compose this is appended.

Dan> What can I expect if I'm foolish enough to install it?

I wouldn't say "foolish", but I don't know the environment you are in.
In fact, I wouldn't say that you can really _expect_ anything; you
just have to give it a try and see how people there respond.

Dave

List of currently running servers: (No further information follows it)

toaster.sfsu.edu (San Francisco State University, California)
mizar.docs.uu.se (Dept. of Computer Systems., Uppsala Univ., Sweden)
emil.csd.uu.se (Computer Science Dept., Uppsala Univ., Sweden <v2.)
blake.acs.washington.edu (University of Washington, Seattle, WA.)
salmon.ee.ubc.ca (VLSI EE Server, UBC,  Vancouver, Canada)
tolsun.oulu.fi (Experimental IRC Server at tolsun.oulu.fi, Univer)
jyu.fi (University of Jyvaskyla, Finland)
tsingtao.cs.ubc.ca (EAN X.500 Development, UBC, Vancouver B.C.)
shai.sics.se (Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Stockholm )
manyjars.wpi.edu (Manyjars, DECstation 3100 Workstation at WPI)
wpi.edu (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA)
csd4.csd.uwm.edu (University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee)
galileo.apo.nmsu.edu (Apache Point Obs.)
nada.kth.se (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden)
taltta.hut.fi (Helsinki University of Technology)
otax.tky.hut.fi (Student Body of Helsinki University of Technology)
tel4.tel.vtt.fi (VTT--Technical Research Centre of Finland)
kreeta.helsinki.fi (Dept. of CS, University of Helsinki, Finland)
lut.fi (Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland)
it.lut.fi (Lappeenranta University of Technology, Dept. of IT)
naakka.tut.fi (Tampere University of Technology, Finland)
tumtum.cs.umd.edu (University of Maryland Human-Computer Interaction )
pyrite.rutgers.edu (Rutgers University)
s.ms.uky.edu (University Of Kentucky)
cfdl.larc.nasa.gov (Computational Fluid Dynamics Lab)
xanth.cs.odu.edu (Old Dominion University Norfolk, Virginia)
gateway.sei.cmu.edu (Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon)
frith.egr.msu.edu (Michigan State University, Engineering)
diamond.bbn.com (BBN Systems and Technologies Corp, Cambridge MA)
ames.arc.nasa.gov (Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California)
NET.BIO.NET (National Computing Resource for Molecular Biology)
hercules.csl.sri.com (SRI Computer Science Lab, Menlo Park, CA  USA)
anableps.berkeley.edu (University of California, Berkeley)
sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Clarkson, Potsdam, NY 13676)
BUCSD.BU.EDU (Boston University Hoopy Test Server)
CS.BU.EDU (Boston University)
oddjob.uchicago.edu (University of Chicago - Astro)
ux.acss.umn.edu (midwest usa)
saqqara.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ohio State University, Columbus)
uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Rochester NY, USA)
karazm.math.uh.edu (University of Houston)
iroquois.utdallas.edu (University of Texas, Dallas)
tavi.rice.edu (Rice University)
GARFIELD.MIT.EDU (MIT Project Athena Test Server)
cheops.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ohio State University, Columbus)
ius2.cs.cmu.edu (Nobody On Board, Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
PLAY.MACH.CS.CMU.EDU (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213)
uxc.cso.uiuc.edu (University of Illinois at Urbana)
giza.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ohio State University, Columbus)
tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ohio State University, Columbus)
orion.cair.du.edu (The University of Denver)
prism (Oregon State University Computer Science)
accuvax.nwu.edu (Northwestern Hoopy Test Server)
netserv2.its.rpi.edu (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY)