Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a simple chat system. To join an IRC you connect with an IRC-client a IRC-Server. This page will explain how to quickly join an IRC and change your username. If you want to know a bit more about IRC read the wikipedia:Internet Relay Chat page.
IRC Clients
Allthough some IRC Servers provide a web-based interface, typically you'll need an IRC client installed locally in your system. There is an tremenuous amount of clients available since IRC is a very well established protocol.
Some popular clients:
- http://xchat.org Linux, Windows
- http://colloquy.info OS X, iOS
- https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/chatzilla/ Chatzilla Add-On for Firefox
- http://www.opera.com the webbrowser Opera has an in built IRC client
How to connect to an IRC with Opera
To connect to a IRC you need to know the servers address and the name of the chatroom. In this example we'll use the server freenode.org and the toom #maschinenraum
- Install Opera
- Go to Menue → Extras → Email and chat accounts → Add account... → Chat(IRC) → Select username / email / nickname