Internet Relay Chat

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of realtime Internet chat. It is mainly designed for group (many-to-many) communication in discussion forums called channels, but also allows one-to-one communlication via private message. The IRC format is a great setting for group-chat based presentations, which is why Ubuntu Classroom presentations are held on IRC inside the #ubuntu-classroom channel. Please be aware that you may not find anyone active in the channel if you join outside of scheduled presentation times.

We've listed a few of the most popular clients and IRC server information for your platform with links on how you might set them up.

IRC Information

The Ubuntu community is currently utilizing the Freenode servers for IRC. If you are going to join a session use the following information:

• Server: irc.freenode.net
• Port: 8001
• Channel: #ubuntu-classroom

IRC Clients

The following is just a short list of the popular IRC clients you might use.

Ubuntu

• Empathy - Default IRC client on Ubuntu since Karmic.

• Xchat - A very popular IRC client. Likely not pre-installed on your system, please see the XChatHowto wiki page for more information.

• Gaim/Pidgin - Popular instant messaging software which also supports IRC. May be easier for beginners. For IRC specific connection information refer to the IRC page.

Kubuntu

• Konversation - KDE GUI based IRC client. Please see the Konversation Handbook for more information.

• Kopete - Multi-protocol instant messaging and IRC software for KDE.

• Quassel - Qt/KDE based IRC client and bouncer.

Console based

• IRSSI - Popular command line/text based IRC client. Not pre-installed. For more information refer to the Irssi tutorial page.

• Weechat - Another popular command line/text based IRC client.For more information refer to the WeeChat community documentation

Web based

• Freenode Web Client - The following link will take you directly to the channel

  • Location: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=ubuntu-classroom