How to use IRC (Internet Relay Chat)

Step 2 Join a network

This seems largely difficult, but it is incredibly easy, and your choices are laid out for you. In this image, I have joined "efnet" as my primary host and server. By now you should have connected to efnet for sake of example.

IRC addresses work similarly to http "hyperlinks" (aka "links"), so that clicking on a link to an irc channel will automatically start chatzilla for you. Below, I will get you started.

Start chatzilla, and you will be faced with alot of messages. Ignore them for now and type the following into the text-box at the bottom:

/networks

Chatzilla will return this to you in the message window (or similar):

{INFO} Available networks are dalnet, efnet, freenode, hispano, hybridnet, ircnet, moznet, quakenet, serenia, slashnet, undernet, webbnet.

The networks will be like hypoerlinks, so you can just click on one to join that particular server. Here I have chosen to use "efnet" as my server by simply clicking on the name shown above. Now that I am on a network, I have the ability to join an existing "room" (the real name is a "channel", so we are calling it a "channel" from now on), or create a new one (it is best to start your own channel than to hijack an existing one). So, let's say you and your friends decide to meet on irc://efnet/instructables. Firefox users can simply type this address into the URL window in Firefox, and chatzilla will automatically connect to that address. If you have it installed, try it below by simply clicking on the link:

[irc://efnet/instructables irc://efnet/Instructables]

Congratulations, you are now using IRC. The link above is shown just as you would type it into Firefox's URL textbox (the box at the top that shows your current internet address). Remember to type an irc address as shown above. Generally, "http" means "internet", "irc" means "irc", of course, and "file" means a location on your computer. You may start to see how the internet and your computer work much in the same way.

Now, say you don't want to use irc://efnet/Instructables, maybe you want your make your own channel to chat in, and you want to call it "Jedi Knights". You can't make this work properly because "channels" (what some call "chat-rooms") cannot have spaces in the names. The ideal workaround to this is to use an underscore instead of a space, as seen below (go ahead and try it):

[irc://efnet/Jedi_Knights irc://efnet/Jedi_Knights]

Notice that I still have efnet in the address. This is because efnet is the server that is hosting your traffic (your text, files, etc). By now you might start to see how you can create your own places to chat. You need to use a valid server, but you can make up any name you want for your channel as long as it contains only regular characters such as letters and numbers, no special characters will be recognized. This helps your security because an underscore can be printed by over a hundred different key combinations (underscore is often used to display a "non-display character").

You don't even have to use efnet, just type /networks to see what networks are available, and your address needs to be prefixed with a valid IRC server as seen when typing the /networks command. You cannot simply create your own server, and doing so will not be covered here.. Click on the name and you can find or create your own channels (or "rooms"). What server you use amongst those available does not particularly matter except for their performance, and they all are generally reliable. However, you cannot go to irc://efnet/instructables, and be in the same place as irc://dalnet/instructables because you will be on a different server.