IRC superguide

Are you a fan of digital music? Of course you are. Well, the best play to experience new tunes is via IRC (Internet Relay Chat). You may be using Morpheus now, but trust me — if you know how to use IRC, Morpheus will never run on your computer again. I myself first started using IRC about a year ago, and the thing is addictive. While you can’t do searches and instantly find what you’re looking for (on most IRC servers), you can find albums you want while just sitting back and watching them scroll in front of you. This may sound strange now, but by the end of the guide, it will all make sense.

Getting Started

First, you need a client. I recommend mIRC. It’s easy to set up and easy to use. While some other clients, such as the Polaris modification of mIRC, offer more features, mIRC is the most popular, stable, and overall good. While mIRC is not freeware, you can use it for free. Occasionally your web browser will open to the mIRC web site if you don’t register. No big deal.

Now that you have the program, you need to configure it. Open mIRC then click File / Options.

Connect

Under the Connect menu, specify whatever you want in Full Name. Don’t actually use your full name. For example, use ucla bruins own you as your name. It’s just something that other IRC users can see. Under E-Mail Address, just enter your e-mail. Now it’s time to pick your nickname. I recommend making your nickname no longer than 9 characters, since some IRC servers will truncate your nick. Don’t use a really common name. Most likely, you won’t be able to log on under it. Just experiment. Be sure to pick a secondary nick name, which is used in case your primary nick name is already taken when you sign on. Not really a big deal.

Options

Make sure reconnect on disconnection is disabled. Some servers really hate it if you use that and will ban you.

Local Info

Leave the first two boxes alone. Where is says On connect, always get:, make sure that both Local Host and IP Address are enabled. Under Lookup Method, select Server.

Identd

Make sure both Enable Ident server and Enable only when connected are enabled.

Firewall

Leave this submenu alone unless you use some funky firewall stuff. I can’t help you because I don’t use a hardware firewall.

IRC

When you first start using IRC, you don’t need to change any of the options under IRC. If you want to mess around with them, feel free.

Options

Make sure Hide Ping/Pong is enabled. Under the closing mIRC box, just check whatever you think is important. Make sure that DCC transfers is selected.

Perform

Right now this box should be blank.

Highlight

Make sure Enable Highlighting is disabled. I still don’t use it.

Messages

You can leave everything alone.

Catcher

mIRC properly configures this.

Logging

This isn’t really that important. If you want to run stats, make sure Logging is enabled and that Strip codes is selected as well. Most people don’t run stats.

Flood

If you don’t want IRC to crash, use Flood Protection. However, it slows down the listing of files. I have it turned off.

Sounds

I’m not a big fan of IRC sounds. Most of the time it just sounds like your computer is breaking. I recommend turning it off.

Requests

Just leave this the way it is.

Agents (WinMe & XP Only)

If this is enabled, it really slows down your computer. Just keep it off.

Mouse

Everything under this section comes configured correctly.

DCC

This section is super important. Be sure to read all of it. This explains how to transfer files correctly via IRC. Under DCC I suggest having the first option set to Show get dialog. Auto-accept can cause you to get viruses if you’re not careful. Under Auto-get and exists make sure Resume is selected.

Options

For most people, this is already configured correctly.

Folders

This one is also really important. Normally mIRC saves your files to your IRC directory under download, which is typically c:\mIRC\download. If you configure default by clicking edit, you can decide where to save files. It’s kinda cool. Try messing with it. Under DCC Ignore, make sure it is set to Ignore all except. This way you won’t get viruses. Now, in the blank white box below it, make sure that the following file types exist: M3U, MP3, NFO, RAR, SFV, TAR, ZIP. To add a file type if it is not there, just simply type <filename>. For example: .mp3. That’s it. Turn ignore on should be set to 3 minutes and enabled.

Fserve

Leave as configured by mIRC.

Server

Make sure DCC Server is disabled. This way nobody can access your computer.

Now you have properly configured mIRC. If you want to play around with the colors, go ahead. It’s not crucial. Now you are set to download.

Downloading

I strongly recommend connecting to EFNet if you are new to IRC. Just to File / Options again and under the Connect menu, select EFNet under IRC Servers. Just connect to any EFNet server that works. Try it out.

After that, you have to connect to a channel. To connect to a channel, simply type /j #channel. For example, /j #movies. Here are some of the channels I recommend for MP3 (get a pen): #albums, #apcfiles, #chrfiles, #egoxdcc, #ksifiles, #mp3hqdcc, #revfiles, and #twcmp3. Recently, many of these groups closed their download channels. If it says invite only, the channel is closed. So how do you download you ask? Simple.

You must communicate to a DCC bot. Most DCC bots can be identified by their name. For example, apc bots will have names like aPC|DCC00 and aPC|DCC01. REV likes to go by REV-DCC01 or REV-DCC35. It’s really simple to identify them. Most DCC bots have a little + next to their name. This + means that they are voiced and can broadcast to the channel.

So how do you talk to a bot? Well, you use the /msg command. Simply type /msg <bot name> xdcc send #<pack number>. Confusing? Here’s an example: /msg apc|dcc00 xdcc send #1. Well how do you know what pack to download? Also simple. Simply view the contents of the bot using XDCC list. Here’s how you do it: /msg <bot name> xdcc list. Example: /msg apc|dcc0 xdcc list. It’s really easy.

Just experiment a little bit and you’ll get the hang of it. If you’re having trouble, send me an e-mail. I don’t like to give my IRC nick out publicly.

Enjoy the guide and happy downloading.

Very nice. I pretty much know how to do all of this but have a hard time explaining it to my friends. Thanks!

Very usefull. First time i found something usefull about XDCC. Thanks A Lot.