IRC New User Guide
By Richard “GameGuru” Grant
What is IRC?
Internet Relay Chat, or IRC is a protocol designed for real time textual chat. It allows users from all over the world to connect to a server and talk about their interests, share files, or simply idle and lurk. Unlike other programs like MSN, ICQ or AIM, IRC is designed for groups of users to communicate together. All users who wish to talk as a group join a single channel, or room, and once in it are able to send messages to all users in that room and read any messages from people within it.
History
IRC originated in 1988 as a means of extending BBS (Bulletin Board System) software. It originated in Finland and quickly spread across the Internet.
It was a turbulent time for IRC, networks were often dissolved not long after they were set up, mainly due to disagreements between different programmers. EFnet (currently the longest running active IRC network) was formed in 1990 and its approach to handling IRC saw it grow quickly.
In 1991 IRC saw a boom period, as many people discussed events surrounding the Gulf War, thanks to an active IRC link which allowed people to get information a week after radio and television broadcasts were cut off.
By May 1993, the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) created RFC 1459 in an attempt to define the protocol and obtain suggestions for its improvement.
In late 1994, unhappy with the limitations of WinIRC (the first windows IRC client) Khaled Mardem-Bey started work on a new client for IRC. On 28th February 1995 he released his first public version of it, and christened it mIRC. It has since grown to be the most popular windows IRC client available.
1996 saw another major disagreement appear about how further development of the IRCd should take place. EFnet was starting to struggle with the number of users and servers on its network, with most of the European servers splitting from the US servers, thus forming two major IRC networks, IRCnet (the primarily European, with Japan and Australia network) and EFnet (the primarily American network). This was known as “The Great Split“.
IRC usage continued to increase, and new networks emerged. 1997 saw the emergence of an IRC network especially for Quakeworld players; QuakeNet and quickly grew with the network being the preferred place for people to talk about the games they loved playing. As a result Quakenet is now the world’s largest IRC network, and is home to the Wireplay IRC channels.
