IRC

What is it?

IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. It is the simplest way for individuals to speak in real-time over the Internet. Nowadays, there are several methods to do this, including: audio email, audio chat (voxchat), ICQ, and so on. However, IRC has remained popular because of its simplicity and its overall effectiveness. It does what it is designed to do. that is, to provide people with a way to communicate in real-time over the net by typing their conversations.

This page describes the IRC server on Health.acor.org, and the purpose for which it was created. Instructions on how to use this server are at the end of this page. This IRC server has been set up to serve three unique populations.

• First, the growing group of people who belong to the series of email lists about cancer which are housed at ACOR.org. these folks need a place to congregate to discuss this disease and how it affects them and their families.
• Second, the growing population of support groups devoted to persons with disabilities and their needs.
• Third, any of the group projects on either ESF or ACOR's agenda who need a place to meet in real-time.

Note: this is not a server for general chatting between people who do not belong to the three groups listed above. the site is closely monitored, and spamming or flaming or abuse of this server of any kind will not be tolerated.

Connecting to IRC

If you have an IRC client on your computer, connect it to health.acor.org, port 6667.

If you have access to a Unix shell account, try a command in the following form:

irc nickname health.acor.org:6667

nickname should be the nickname you wish to be known by on IRC. If you get a message like "irc: not found" when you type the command given above, then an IRC client is not installed on the Unix system you are connected to.

For those who don't have either an IRC client on their computer or a shell account on a Unix system which has an IRC client installed, public access to IRC via telnet will be available in the future. In the meantime, you should look for an IRC client. If you are running Windows, you can find an IRC client by following the following link:

• TUCOWS (off-site link)

IRC Basics

To get started, you should look at the help for your IRC client. If you are connecting to IRC through a Unix shell account, try the following command in the IRC client:

/help intro

On IRC, everyone has a nickname, by which they are known. Chatting is usually done on channels; each channel is for discussion of a certain topic. You can also send messages to individual users.

For more information about IRC in general, you might want to read the IRC Primer by following the following link:

• IRC Primer (off-site link)

Services

We have installed a few special services on our IRC server. Each service is a program which connects to IRC with its own nickname, as though it's a regular user. Commands are sent to the services through IRC messages.

The most important service is NickServ, which keeps track of IRC nicknames and who owns them. Once you've registered your nickname with NickServ, you can recover it if someone else connects with that nickname while you're not on IRC. To register your nickname, send a message to NickServ with the word "register" followed by the password that you will use when you identify yourself with NickServ. You will only need to identify yourself with NickServ if someone else has taken your nickname, or if you wish to use the other services.

For more information about the services on this server, send a message to HelpServ with the word "help".