Club Moz

(EDIT: Please see Channels section for #seneca special information)

So you want to get onto IRC and start talking with the community. Great! You have come to the right place. This is a step-by-step guide on how to get connected to IRC with a few commands to get you started.

Note: If you are going to use a web service for IRC, please just click on the Channels link below and use the connection settings detailed within.

Software | Installation | Setting up the Connection | Commands | Rules | Channels

Click here for a cool little walkthrough to help get you familiar with IRC. Thanks to Dave Humphrey at Seneca College for providing this walkthrough.

Software
There are many applications out there that will let you use IRC. However, I will be dealing with a program called XChat and the Firefox extension Chatzilla. You can use whatever program you want, as the commands will be the same on all programs once you get connected to IRC. Since I am primarily an Ubuntu user, I will provide the steps for Ubuntu and Windows users. I suspect most people reading this will be Windows users.

If you are using Windows 98, ME, 2000, Server 2003, or Vista, you will want to click here to download XChat.
For Linux users, most distributions have a version of XChat in their repositories.

Installation
Windows
1. Run the installation file. If you followed the link above using Firefox, it should be saved to your desktop as xchat-2.8.5c.exe.
2. Click next on the intro dialog.
3. This will display the Choose Compenents dialog. Just leave the defaults checked and click on next.
4. This will display the Choose Installation Location dialog. Just leave the default path and click on next.
5. This will display the Choose Start Menu Folder dialog. Just leave the default and click on install.
6. The installation should commence at this point. Once it completes, click on next.
7. This will display the Completing the XChat Setup dialog. You can leave Run XChat checked and click Finish. This will finalize the installation and start XChat automatically for you. Otherwise, you should have an icon on your desktop that you can start the program from. You should also find an XChat item under your All Programs menu.

Linux (Ubuntu)
1. Click on the System menu.
2. Click hover over Administration.
3. Click on Synaptic Package Manager.
You will probably be prompted for your password at this point. Enter it and continue. Synaptic Package Manager should load at this point.
4. Click on Search. A Find dialog should appear.
5. Type xchat into the search field and click search.
Synaptic should return about 8 packages available for installation. You want to select the packages xchat and xchat-common.
6. To select a package, click on the small icon to the left of the item. It should look like a white page with a start on it. This will pop up a small menu.
7. Click on Mark for Installation. When selecting the xchat package, it should prompt you telling you that xchat-common will also be installed. This is fine. Just Mark.
You should now notice that both packages now show a white page with a curved arrow as their icon to the left.
8. After selecting the two xchat packages, click on the Apply button.
9. This will display a dialog showing you a summary of the packages to be installed. You can click on Apply at this point.
10. Synaptic should now download and install the packages automatically. When it is complete, it should display a Changes Applied dialog. You can simply click on close at this point.
11. Close Synaptic.
You should now have XChat under Applications > Internet.

Chatzilla
Coming soon!

Setting up the Connection
XChat
This process should be identical on all platforms. Having started XChat, you should now be looking at the XChat Network List dialog.
1. First, please select a nickname you want to use while connected to IRC. Please also pick four alternate names. These will be used if your first choice is already taken. As a general rule, I usually just append a _ to the end of each subsequent choices.
2. Now click on the Add button on the right side of the Network List. This should create a new entry in the network list. You can call this whatever you want, but I suggest calling it Mozilla. Simply type in the name you want and press the tab key on your keyboard.
3. Now, with your new network highlighted, click on the edit button to the right. This should display the Edit Network dialog.
4. You will see that a default server of newserver/6667 exists in the server list. With this server selected, click on the edit button to the right.
5. Now, rename newserver/6667 to the Mozilla server. The naming convention is server/port. Mozilla's IRC server is irc.mozilla.org. You can also use two different ports. If you want to connect securely, use port 6697. If you want to connect unsecure, use port 6667. Skip to step 7 if you are not going to use secure connection.
6. Check the boxes for Use SSL for all the servers on this network and Accept invalid SSL certificate.
7. In the Channels to Join box you can now type in any channels you wish to join. These channels will be automatically joined for you when you connect to the server. I find this saves a lot of time. I will go over the command to manually join a channel later. The channels should be preceded by a # and be comma separated without spaces. For example, if I want to connect to the Firefox, Thunderbird, and QA channels automatically, I would type in #firefox,#thunderbird,#qa.
8. You can now click close.
9. Finally, make sure that Skip network list on startup is unchecked and click on connect. Note: Every time you start XChat you should be displayed with that network list. Just click connect every time.
Congratulations! You should now be connected to Mozilla's IRC server and in the channels you selected to join at startup.

Chatzilla
Coming Soon!

Commands
The following is a list of commands you should be familiar with. Simply type them into the message box at the bottom of the screen and press enter.

General Rules and Etiquette
Follow these simple rules for the best IRC experience:
1. Try to keep messages as concise as possible. If you have something long to post, a code snippet for example, use pastebin.mozilla.org and paste the generated URL in IRC instead.
2. When addressing someone directly, try to use name: message format. For example, "ashughes: good morning!"
3. Every channel has its own topic. Try to keep your messages within that subject matter. For example, do not talk about Thunderbird issues in #Firefox.
4. Relax and have fun!

Channels
Here is a list of channels you should be aware of as a member of the Mozilla community:
(Remember to use irc.mozilla.org and port 6697 or 6667 for your server settings)

Notes on #Seneca
Recently, the rules for joining #seneca were changed. Users are now required to register their nick to join the channel. Fortunately, it is quite simple to register a nick.

1. Connect to IRC like you normally do
2. Click on the server tab (in my case "Mozilla")
3. In the message box (the box where you usually type messages), type /msg NickServ REGISTER password
   ** password is a password that you will need to use to access #seneca with your nick **

At this point you have two options to access #seneca. I recommend the second way.
Type /msg NickServ INDENTIFY password followed by /join #seneca every time you connect to irc.mozilla.org

- or -

In XChat:

1. Click on XChat>Network List
2. Select your Mozilla network entry and click on Edit
3. Type your password for NickServ into the Nickserv text box and click Close

You will have to reconnect to the server for these settings to take effect