A 60sec guide to using an irc client to connect to an irc server and chatroom

1. Setup

2. Connect

3. Private messages

4. mIRC and Firewalls

SETUP

• Go to mIRC's Website and download the current version of mIRC.
• Install it in directory of your choice (make sure the directory
  has no spaces in its name).
• After it is installed, run mIRC. You will get a popup saying
  it is an unregistered version. Just click anywhere on the box to remove it.

Now you should see this screen:

• Click on the ADD button. A new box will pop up with "mIRC
  add server on it".
• Enter the details shown in the picture below in to the boxes
  (there is no need to enter any info in the "password box").
  

• After you have done that click on the ADD button.
  
  You should now be back at the same screen as shown in pic1. Except now in the
  IRC servers it will say Esper, Esper.net.

Or instead of using irc.esper.net you can use the following list of servers:

(You just need to replace the irc.esper.net server in the above box with any of
the servers listed below, there is no need to change the port number (6667).)

Using irc.esper.net as the default server seems to spread the user load
out on to different Esper.net servers, so the Esper users are more balanced out
on the servers to prevent the servers becoming overloaded with connections.

• Now to fill in your details:

  • Full Name (Enter what you like in here)

  • E-mail address (It can be a made up one if you wish)
  • Nickname (Enter your name you usually use in the chat)
  • Alternative (Enter a variation of your nickname in here)

The alternative nickname is used in case you original nickname is in use,
i.e. if you have been disconnected and have reconnected to the chat before your
original connection to the server had timed out, I cover how to remove your normal
nickname when you reconnect later in this tutorial.

The invisible mode box means if a user was to do a list of all users on a channel
that you were in or a list of all users on the IRC server you would not be listed.
I usually have this box ticked, but it's your choice.

So the box info should look something like this:

• Now in the Category menu, select 'Options'

• Now do this:
  • Put a tick in 'Connect on startup'. This automatically connects
    to the server when you launch mIRC.
  • Put a tick in 'Reconnect on disconnection'. This will automatically
    reconnect you to the IRC server is you get disconnected (it will also redial your
    default internet connection).
  • Remove the Tick from Pop up connect dialog on startup. This
    stops mIRC asking you what server you wish to use every time you run mIRC.

  • In the When connecting area put a tick in the Retry box and
    change the delay to 10 seconds and remove the tick from Try next server in group.

  • And leave the Default server box alone.
    
    There is no need to use the Advanced section.

The Box should now look like this:

Next Click on the IRC menu and alter the options to look like the following
screen:

• Next click on the + next to IRC in the menu.
• Click on the Messages menu.
  
  This menu Alters the way mIRC displays certain things on screen.

  The strip codes from incoming messages is used to change
  the way you see other peoples text.
  
  i.e. putting a tick in:
  
  Bold would make Hello look like Hello.
  
  Underline would remove the line under any text.
  

  Colour removes any colour from peoples text, handy if you use a
  black background and people use a purple colour text, mIRC's default background
  colour is white and people tend to forget that when they use a custom text colour
  other people might be using a different background colour, that might make their
  text invisible.
  
  Reverse mIRC has a control code that let’s you print text in reverse
  ,i.e. hello everyone would become enoyreve olleh so this stops it from happening.

• And in the box at the bottom where it says Quit message you
  can enter a message that everyone in the channel will see when you quit mIRC.
  
  The Perform SJIS/JIS conversions is only of use to you if you use Japanese
  or another multi-byte character language.
  

  Multibyte characters
  
  This setting will improve the display, and mark/copy, of text containing multi-byte
  characters in windows.
  
  Process ANSI codes
  
  Makes mIRC interpret ANSI colour codes and convert them to mIRC colour codes.

So it will now look something like this:

If you wish to log the channels you are in and any private chats you have then,

click on the Logging Menu.

The options in this section allow you to log either the channels you are talking
in

or your private chats or log both of them.

Automatically Log has these options.

None Does not log anything

Channels Logs the chat channel you are on

Chats Logs your Private Messages.

Both Logs both the channel and your Private messages.

Strip codes removes any bold,underline,colour codes from the log
files, this removes any excess junk from the files and makes them easier to read.

Lock log files this prevents any other program from loading the
log files while mIRC is running.

Trim log files This sets a maximum size that the log files can reach.

Timestamp logs Puts the time before each line in the log.

Include Network This puts the name of IRC network in the log filename

Date filenames Puts the date into the name of the log

except status Means the status window logfile will not have the
date in its filename.

The Logging menu should look something like this.

• Now click on the Flood Menu and put a tick in the Enable Flood
  Protection box. This can help you if a user keeps repeating the same large amount
  of text in a channel. I don't know if it does much good, but usually an op will
  kick and ban a user that uses that kind of behavior.

• Now go back to the Connect Menu. Make sure it says Esper, Esper.net
  
  in the servers boxes.
  
  If it does not, click on the first IRC servers box, it usually says all if it
  is not set correctly, and scroll down the list until you see Esper listed. and
  Click on Esper.
  
  It should now say Esper, Esper.net in the boxes.

• Now click on the Connect to IRC server button.
  
  After a few seconds you should be connected to the Esper.net server...

And now for the important stuff...

So now you register your two nicknames. You NEED!!! to register both your nicknames,
i.e. I registered both Ian-U and Ian_u. The good thing about registering your
nickname is that only you can use that nickname.

This is how you do it:

• You type this command: /msg NICKSERV REGISTER
  

You should now see a line saying something like this:

Quote:

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

[07:15] -NickServ- Nickname enternickname registered under your account:


-

[07:15] -NickServ- Your password is xxxxxxx - remember this for later use.

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

Don't forget the Password!!!!!

• Now type /msg NICKSERV SET KILL ON

  This means if another person uses your nickname and does not
  enter your password within 60 seconds they will be disconnected. Or if you wish
  to have a shorter 20 second nick kill you can use this option:
  
  /msg NICKSERV SET KILL QUICK

Now you need to do the same for your alternate nickname.

• type /nick

then you do the register stuff again:

• type /msg NICKSERV REGISTER

It's best to choose the same password. You will get the same confirmation message
as above.

• Also type /msg NICKSERV SET KILL ON or /msg NICKSERV
  SET KILL QUICK
  
  for this nickname also.

Now you do this:

• Type /msg NICKSERV LINK
  

i.e. I would have been using the IAN_U nickname at the moment and would have
typed /msg NICKSERV LINK IAN-U .

And that command makes the IAN-U and IAN_U nicknames be treated as the same
nick.

• Now change back to the first nick you chose by typing: /nick
  

Now for the timesaving bit...

From now on every time your reconnect to Esper you will get this message:

Quote:

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

[07:27] -NickServ- this nickname is registered and protected. If it is your

-

[07:27] -NickServ- nick, type /msg NickServ IDENTIFY password. Otherwise,

-

[07:27] -NickServ- please choose a different nick.

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

This means you now have to identify your self as the owner of that nickname.

• So you have to type: /msg NICKSERV IDENTIFY
  

This can be a pain every time you connect, so to shorten it down type: /alias
/ident /msg NICKSERV IDENTIFY so the next time you run mIRC
you just need to type /ident.

And that will tell NickServ that your are the owner of that nick name.

However, NickServ can be troublesome at times, and will switch off them go
back on and usually kicks the kill protect nickname people off. However, there
is a way of making mIRC automatically identify you. To set this option do the
following:

• While in mIRC press ALT and R this will pop a box that
  says remote. Now all you have to do is add this line to it:
• on 1:notice:*NickServ*:*:/msg nickserv identify (password)
  .
  

  You replace the (password) with the password you used to register your nickname,
  you do not include the brackets.
  
  So the line would look something like this:
  
  on 1:notice:*NickServ*:*:/msg nickserv identify madmoose

After you have entered that line and your password click on OK and that will
activate that command. So from then on every time NickServ asked you to identify
mIRC would automatically do it for you. Now that's your nick name registered for
you.

CONNECT

To connect to a channel you type this:

/join #nameofchannel i.e.

/join #thescream

So you should have done this:

• installed mIRC
• run mIRC

• Followed the above setup option in the mIRC options Menu.
• Then you will have typed in :
  
  /msg NICKSERV REGISTER
  
  /msg NICKSERV SET KILL ON or /msg NICKSERV SET KILL QUICK
  
  /nick
  

  /msg NICKSERV REGISTER
  
  /msg NICKSERV SET KILL ON
  
  /msg NICKSERV LINK
  
  /nick
  
  /alias /ident /msg NICKSERV IDENTIFY
  
  While in mIRC pressed ALT and R and in the popup box entered
  

  on 1:notice:*NickServ*:*:/msg nickserv identify (password)

And from then on mIRC is all set-up for you.

There is a way of making mIRC automatically close your old connection, change
your nickname back to your default nickname and automatically join the chat room.
To set it up do the following:

• Run mIRC,

• Go to options

• Go to IRC, perform.
• And put a tick in the on connect perform these commands: box
  

Then enter these commands:

/msg NickServ identify

/timer1 1 2 /msg NickServ ghost

/timer2 1 4 /nick

/timer3 1 5 /join #thescream

(The identify command was added as sometimes the autoident command does not
detect the identify command when you first start mIRC, it will not cause any problems
if the autoident works and then the above command also identifies you).

So it will look something like this:

The first command identifies you to the server.

The second command waits 2 seconds then tries to ghost your original nickname
(handy if you have been disconnected).

The third command waits 4 seconds then sets you back to your normal nickname.

The fourth command waits 5 seconds and then joins The Scream! chat channel.

So if I had been using my normal nickname of Ian-U and I had been disconnected,
mIRC would automatically reconnect me, then when I was connected to the server
it would identify me to the server. Then it will remove Ian-U (as I had not timed
out yet). Then it would rename me from Ian_u back to Ian-U.

All going well, mIRC should be all set up for you.

PRIVATE MESSAGES

To send another user on IRC a Private message (only you and the selected user
can see it) you do the following:

1 Double click on the users name, and a box should pop up. So what ever
you type into this box will only be seen by the user you wish to talk too.

2 Left click on the users name, then right click on their name, and
then select query, a box should popup, and you type your message in there.

3 You can use the /msg command if
the person you wish to talk to is on IRC but not on any channels, i.e. to send
me a message you would use /msg Ian-U hello Ian and when I replied a box
should

appear in mIRC just below the icon bar and just above the channel window.

Also when someone sends you a private message you will see the name of the
user in a box just below the icon bar and just above the channel window; it will
appear next to the box that has Status in it, and also the users name should be
in a red colour to indicate that new activity has taken place in that box.

mIRC AND FIREWALLS

A few people have asked why they cannot access the ESPER.NET servers if their
firewall is running, or if they are using Microsoft's Internet Connection Sharing
Program.

The reason you might have problems connecting to ESPER when running a firewall
is, That ESPER runs an "insecure socks server" check when you try to
connect.

Your firewall will normally report this as an connection attempt from an ip address
to local port 1080 or it might even call it socks.

This is not a hack attempt and is perfectly safe to allow it to scan you.

In fact, you need to allow this scan else you cannot join any of the Esper.net
servers.

The main reason a lot of IRC servers do this scan is, if you are running a socks
server that is open to all internet users, then they can use that server to join
an IRC server and cause trouble, and when the IP address or the person causing
trouble is checked, the IP address this is reported back to them is YOUR IP address
and not the person causing the trouble.

So you would get the blame for any trouble. And the people who run the IRC server
will send a report to your ISP and the person causing the problems will get no
blame.

To get your firewall to allow you to connect to Esper you need to add a rule
that is set for.

Allowing an INBOUND TCP connection from IRC.ESPER.NET on LOCAL PORT 1080.

***Note make sure you only allow it from IRC.ESPER.NET!! do not make it a general
allow any address rule!***

Since a lot of you seem to like using Zonealarm I also posted a guide on how to
get zone alarm to work in the chat when it is set to high security. Read my post
called "How
to get Zone alarm to work in the chat" (click on the link, it will load
in a new browser window).

However, some firewalls will still not let you connect even if you have added
a rule, Tiny personal
firewall does not let you connect even if you have set a rule, and it must
be temporally disabled while you connect, but these firewalls can safely be re-activated
once you have joined the chat.

Another problem is with people who use some sort of Internet Connection Sharing
program not being able to join.

For some reason a few ICS programs will not let you join the chat and must be
disabled while you are in the chat room, as usually if you switch them back on
while in the chat you will get disconnected. The Internet Connection Sharing program
that is included with Win98SE, Win ME & Win2k has this problem and must be
disabled for you to use the chat

However, the ICS Program I use does not have this problem. It is called Kerio Winroute
Lite and is available as a 30 day trial version.

---

CREDITS

mIRC ©1995-2001 mIRC Co. Ltd.

This guide ©2000-2001 IanU for The Scream!