IRC (Internet Relay Chat)

[Jonathan I. Kamens]

  (Note Followup-To.)

In article <1991Mar6.200002.2563 at unx2.ucc.okstate.edu>, unx20238 at unx2.ucc.okstate.edu (Lonny L. Lowe) writes:
|>  I have searched high and low for ANY information on IRC or Internet Relay
|> Chat, and have found NOTHING.   Do any of you know how to access IRC, or maybe
|> just point me in the right direction?

  A recent posting in news.newusers.questions, addressing this question, is
appended to the end of this message.

-- 
Jonathan Kamens			              USnail:
MIT Project Athena				11 Ashford Terrace
jik at Athena.MIT.EDU				Allston, MA  02134
Office: 617-253-8085			      Home: 617-782-0710

------------------------------------------------------------------

Article: 4329 of news.newusers.questions
Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!mintaka!mit-eddie!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!bionet!agate!ziploc!eps
From: eps at toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: Telnet Sites
Summary: Bzzz
Message-ID: <1406 at toaster.SFSU.EDU>
Date: 6 Mar 91 10:09:42 GMT
Article-I.D.: toaster.1406
References: <1398 at toaster.SFSU.EDU> <bh.910305153546 at lab18.eng.auburn.edu> <1054 at caslon.cs.arizona.edu>
Reply-To: eps at cs.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Organization: San Francisco State University
Lines: 63

In article <1054 at caslon.cs.arizona.edu> tlglenn at cs.arizona.edu
	(Ted L. Glenn) writes:
>     For those of you who don't know, Brian is looking for Internet Relay
>Chat (IRC) servers. A list of servers available via telnet is:

They're NOT available "via telnet" except possibly for protocol
hackers.  These are TCP services but don't use TELNET protocol.

IRC client software is available for UNIX, VAX/VMS, and VM/CMS
systems (and possibly others)--you run that to use IRC.

Mainstream distribution: tolsun.oulu.fi:irc/irc2.6pre18.tar.Z
Experimental release: cs.bu.edu:irc/irc2.6pre18.bu.1.tar.Z

Above contain client and server code.  Most sites will _not_
be running servers, but instead connect to one of the (well
over a hundred) currently operating.

Alternative UNIX client: rvw2.hhs.ri.cmu.edu:ircII2.06.tar.Z

There are also some GNU Emacs clients "out there"--about 3
"competing" versions at last count.

No special privileges are required to compile and install client-
side software.  However, the UNIX versions require a fair
amount of experience to configure properly and actually compile.
System administrators are generally capable of handling it; many
end-users are not due to its complexity (and size, if your site
believes in miniscule disk quotas).  Note that this software is
continually in a state of development, and you would be expected
not to fall too far behind... incompatible changes are the norm
with major releases.  If you're willing to make a local support
commitment, IRC can be ... quite interesting.

Relevant mailing lists:
	irclist at tolsun.oulu.fi
		for IRC developers; patches, announcements of
		new versions, discussions of proposed features,
		etc. appear here
	operlist at cs.bu.edu
		for administrators of the IRC subnetwork;
		"human" issues rather than technical (coding)
		stuff appear here; connectivity management
		here as well

Requests for subscription should be sent to irclist-request
and/or operlist-request at the same domains--NOT to the lists
themselves.  There is also an  alt.irc  newsgroup which never
really caught on.


Another Internet chat system is Forumnet.  This makes use of
a "proprietary" server at the University of Kentucky.

f.ms.uky.edu:forumnet/fn.0.10.tar.Z
	UNIX client
f.ms.uky.edu:forumnet/vms-fn/*
	VAX/VMS client (requires TWG or Multinet TCP/IP)

Questions about this software should be directed to
sean at s.ms.uky.edu.

					-=EPS=-