#musicbanter

on irc.rizon.net, port 6667


Alright. Me and Comus have now started the #musicbanter channel (chatroom) on the IRC network Rizon. The reasons are many so let's not get into that. Suffice to say instead that it's a place where anyone who want can come and chit-chat with other members of our community. Because I know most people don't really know IRC, I've made a quick and simple guide to those who are clueless. Follow this guide in 4 simple steps and you can join us in a matter of very few minutes.



What is IRC?

Before you start, you may wanna know what you're getting yourself into. IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. It's basically a realtime chat system aimed towards letting a large number of people communicate at the same time. Two people can also message with eachother in private, just like on MSN. The chat takes place in different chatrooms. #musicbanter is one such chatroom.

The IRC is not a program like MSN, but is made up of several interconnected servers. Several servers go together to form a net. IRC today is made up of many such nets. People has to connect to the same net in order to communicate, that is - they have to be on connected servers. In order to connect to such a server, you need an IRC client. An IRC client is a "chat program" that let's you connect to an IRC server and chat with others.

One of the easiest and most popular IRC clients today widely used today is mIRC. Chances are you've already heard about it and that's what I'll teach you how to use in this thread!



Step 1 : Get mIRC and start it up!

Downloading and installing the program is easy. Just navigate to this site :

http://www.mirc.com

Click the big, green "Download mIRC" button. Save the file somewhere on your computer. Run the file after downloading to start the installer. Install the program. Run it. Congratulations!



Step 2 : Enter your info!

When you start the program, you'll see a box that says it's an evaluation version and you have 30 days. Don't worry, you can use it for free forever, it's just trying to trick you. Click continue. Now you'll see a box eagerly awaiting for you to fill it with some information.




You can see how I've filled in the information in the picture above. Just do something similar. If you want a little bit more specific info :

• Full Name : It doesn't matter what you write here
• Email address : not.here.either@I.think
• Nickname : This is the name you will go by on the IRC. Your "nick" or "handle"!
• Alternative : This is an alternative nick in case the one you want is already taken.

Step 3 : Find the right server and connect to it!

In the Category list on the left in the box, you should see "server" almost on the very top. Click it! It looks like this :



You'll see an alphabetical list over available IRC networks. Scroll down the list until you find the one called Rizon. Double click it, mark the Random server that came up and then click the select to the right.

This will take you back to the previous window where you entered your information. It has a connect button in the middle of it. Click connect! Wait patiently a few seconds and you should get connected to a rizon server.


( PS! If nothing happens, check the connect button in the top left corner. If it looks like it does in this picture, you need to click it. If you are connecting or connected, the lightning icon will be broken, meaning you'll disconnect from the server if you click it

)



Step 4 : Join the #musicbanter chatroom!

When you've connected, you will get a box up asking you what channel you want to join. Just write #musicbanter in the box, then click join. In other words, do like in this picture.





Step 5 : Have a good time!

Welcome to our channel! So far, I have one eggdrop bot (programmed user) up and his name is simply Banter. Feel free to say hello to him. To message with him, do for example like this :

/msg Banter hello

That will register you as a user of the bot. This is not needed, but since he moderates the channel, it may give you some privileges.




IRC basics

If you followed the steps above, you should be on the channel as we speak. Chatting is no problem (just write something and press enter), but you might be a little confused about how to join/leave channels, change your nick and interact with other users beyond mere chit-chat. For you poor, confused people, I'll write some basics here.

On IRC, all commands are done by the following syntax - /command - In other words, you always precede a command with a /

Here are just a few of the most basic commands. Just write them into the text box like you do when you chat and press enter.

• /join #channelname ~ (f.ex /join #musicbanter) ~ Joins a channel (chatroom)
• /part ~ Leaves the channel you're currently looking at
• /nick newnickhere ~ (f.ex /nick mrpotato) ~ Gives you a new nickname
• /query username ~ (f.ex /query tore) ~ Opens a private chat with another user
• /server server.address.here ~ (f.ex /server irc.rizon.net) ~ Connects to that server

There are many, many more commands such as kick, ban, ignore, give and take operator status, whois, ip-lookup and more. However, if you're using mIRC, you can access all these commands simply by right clicking on a users name. That gives you a neat little dropdown menu where you can choose what you wanna do.

Thus, I'll wait a bit before I elaborate more on IRC commands.

If you want more help, try out the IRC Beginners Guide from Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Help

It be my music and film collection.

Originally Posted by Janszoon What? No. No. No. No no no.

Originally Posted by Janszoon Is it possible to connect to this through ChatZilla?

Originally Posted by toretorden Yup, any IRC client should have no trouble connecting.

Originally Posted by Janszoon I can't seem to figure out how to make it work.