Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

The IRC is 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 communication via private message.. Ubuntu uses the freenode network.

How To Connect To IRC

If you have an IRC client installed, you can type "/server irc.freenode.net:6669" to connect to freenode. If not, you can use freenode's webchat. Once you connect, choose a nick if you have not, using "/nick <nickname>", where <nickname> is your actual nickname.

Registering Your Account

Once you have chosen a nick, you need to register your account. To register it, type "/msg nickserv register password email", where password and email are your actual password and email address respectively. Then, you will recieve an email to confirm your registration. You will not be able to use your nick unless you finish the registration confirmation process. Once you click the link in the email, the registration process is finished.

Identifying with NickServ

If you have already registered your account, you will be able to identify yourself by typing "/msg nickserv identify nickname password", where nickname and password are yours, as in the registration process. After you identify, you will be assigned with a cloak, if there is anyone linked to your account, and will use the nickname as yours.

Joining Channels

You can type "/join <channelname>" to join a channel. Ubuntu core channels are:

• #ubuntu, for general support questions.
• #ubuntu-devel, for development issues. (Please, don't ask support questions here, as you will not get an answer, and will be redirected to #ubuntu)
• #ubuntu-offtopic, for offtopic discussions.

You can replace ubuntu for any of its flavors to get into the support channel for the specific flavor. Please, remember to check our IRC Guidelines here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/Guidelines. To check a complete Ubuntu channels list, go to IRC/ChannelList.

Copyright

Except where noted, this learning material is licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License