IRC Primer

I'm not sure yet what night Cindi wants to do the weekly chats, but generally speaking, the CAH IRC channel is open 24/7. So if anyone's hanging out online, feel free to hang out in there anytime, even if a scheduled chat isn't going on. I'll probably start making that one of my regular channels to idle in :]

For the record, my vote would be Monday nights. They're usually clear for me, and Sundays aren't :/

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IRC Primer
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First off, you'll need to connect to the Dumpshock servers, where the channel is hosted. You can do this either through an IRC program such as mIRC, or through the Web IRC interface. IRC programs tend to be more reliable, as a note, and the Web IRC isn't compatible with AOL's built in browser.

Dumpshock's Web IRC is available at: http://irc.dumpshock.com/webirc/

You can download mIRC at http://www.mirc.com. There are other IRC programs out there, but mIRC is the only one I am personally familiar with, so that will be the one I use as my walkthrough. Other programs should be fairly similar though to use.

With mIRC, you'll need to configure it to connect to Dumpshock. To do this, you'll want to open up File-->Options.

In mIRC Options, under the Connect category (Should be the default category when you load it up, otherwise choose it from the menu on the left), click the "Add" button in the upper right of the box. This will open up a new option box, mIRC Add Server. In this box fill in the following fields:

Description: Dumpshock
IRC Server: irc.dumpshock.com
Port(s): 6667 (Should be the default port already listed)

Click Add to return to the mIRC Options box. There you'll need to fill in your Name, email, Nicname, and Alternate nickname in the fields,. then click "Connect".

From there you should run through the connection sequence.

To join a Channel, type /join #Channel (or just /j #Channel), without the quotes, and the name of the channel instead of "Channel". In this instance, you would use /j #CAH to join the CAH channel.

/nick <whatever> will change your nickname. If the nickname is registered, you'll be prompted to provide the password for that Nick. If it's also set protected, you'll have your nick forcibly changed to a Guest nick after a certain amount of time.

Our user base isn't overly large, so this shouldn't be a huge problem, but you never know. If a nick is already registered, there's not much that can be done other than for you to choose a new nick.

There are several "Sub Servers" that control various functions. Nickserv is the one that controls nicknames. You can use /help Nickserv to get information on the Nickname server.

/msg Nickserv Register <password> (Without the <>) will register the nickname you are currently using.

/msg Nickserv Identify <password> will identify you to Nickserv, logging you in to your current nickname.

Under File-->Options, find the IRC-->Perform menu on the left. Make sure the "On Connect" checkbox is checked. Any commands placed in this box will automatically be performed when you connect. If you are the only one that uses your computer, you may want to add in /j #CAH to that box, as well as the Identify command. This automates your login a bit to save you some tedious typing every time you log in.

Ok, I think that's it.

Bull