Categories: Internet/Intranets

Continued from WHAT YOU NEED TO PARTICIPATE

IRC users meet in channels. The "official" definition of a channel, according to the technical description of the IRC protocol in RFC 1459, is "a named group of one or more clients which will all receive messages addressed to that channel." The definition says nothing about the content of the shared messages, but by convention, messages on a given channel are confined to one topic area. When you connect your IRC client to a server, you can see what channels are available by typing /LIST. Once you find one in which you'd like to participate--let's say the #NEWBIES channel for this example (by convention, channel names begin with the pound sign)--you simply type /JOIN #NEWBIES.

Windows-based client software will, at this point, open a new window, showing who is currently on the #NEWBIES channel. You can then begin communicating. If the #NEWBIES channel does not currently exist, the /JOIN #NEWBIES command will create it, and it will be accessible to anyone using the /LIST command (although the IRC protocol does allow new channels to be set as private, secret, or invite-only).

If you create a channel, you're given the status of channel operator, or op or chop. Your nickname is prefaced by the @ character (for instance, @Xena), and as channel owner you have special powers over that channel. If it's an invite-only channel, you can invite users to join you. You can also change the description of the channel's topic, and you can kick a user out. If you want a customized channel, you can alter the channel's mode: You can moderate the channel; specify that it's secret, private, or invite-only; limit the number of users; establish password-only access; and put together a ban filter to keep undesirables out. Obviously, this is significant power, and too many channel operators abuse it. But with thousands of IRC channels from which to choose, the easiest way to deal with power-mad channel ops is simply to go somewhere else.

When you connect to a server, it identifies itself and sends your IRC clients the message of the day (MOTD), usually a small welcoming message supplied by the server administrator. It then gives you a count of the number of users currently connected to the server, as well as the number of IRC servers on the network visible to that server. At this point, the server sends a message to all servers on the network stating your nickname and the fact that you've connected. When you send a message, the server decides what to do with it. If you're the only person in a channel, the message goes to the server and nowhere else. If you send a message to a specific user, it will go to the server and the server will route it to the user either directly or through an IRC network (see below). If the message is a general one for the entire channel, the server sends it directly to clients connected to that server, and indirectly to everyone else currently in that channel by relaying it through other servers.

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Published as Internet Tools in the 05/27/97 issue of PC Magazine.