Setup an IRC chat channel for your website or project

February 3rd, 2009

Introduction

So you want a chat channel for your website or project, but you don’t want to setup a complete IRC server. Now, I tell you:
You don’t have to setup one! It’s even quite useless since there are enough free ways of setting up a IRC chat channel, with you as operator!

The guide

1. This is quite obvious: you need to download an IRC client to access an IRC network. Mac users can use Conversation or Colloquy. Windows users can use an program called mIRC. Linux users can use X-Chat.

2. When you installed the program and typed in basic things like “nickname” and “e-mail” you need to connect to an IRC network. There’ll be tons of networks to choose from by default. If you know a good network about the topic of your site, connect to that one, otherwise just choose a good and fancy name.

3. Now we’re going to do the geeky stuff. Register your nickname on the server with the following command:

/msg nickserv register [PASSWORD] [EMAIL]

You need to replace [PASSWORD] with your password and [EMAIL] with your e-mail. Don’t type the [ and ], the command will look like this:

/msg nickserv register p4ss spambox@domain.com

4. Okay, you registered your nickname! We are going to identify you. It basically means that you are going to login:

/msg NickServ IDENTIFY [PASSWORD]

5. Fasten your seatbelt! You’re logged in and now we’re going to create your channel:

/msg Chanserv REGISTER [CHANNEL] [PASS] [DSCRIPTION]

6. That’s it! Now join your channel and show off!

/join [#channel]

7. Want to make your channel even more fancy? Change the channels topic!

/topic [#channel] [topic]

II: The closing remarks

It’s possible that ‘your’ IRC server needs slightly different commands. I didn’t really write this guide to show you all the ins and outs of IRC though, but more to just point out how easy it is to setup a personal IRC chat channel, since most people think you have to setup a complete server or something.