The IRC Command Cosmos, an advanced guide to IRC commands.
Edition 2.2, August 2002
Up to date as of u2.10.11.rc.1



The IRC Command Cosmos, an advanced guide to IRC commands.
Edition 2.2, August 2002
Up to date as of u2.10.11.rc.1



1 Introduction

1.1 Why this guide?

The average IRC-guides around tend to teach only the basics or they’r hopelessly outdated and mix IRC-commands with the IRCII 1) client commands. New features (last 10 years!) are downrigh hard to find documentation for, scattered as they are in releasenotes, newsletters or plainly undocumented.

If you are new to IRC, I suggest you go for the other guides first, (http://www.irchelp.org/ or http://www.undernet.org/) but if you’re fairly familiar with IRC and want to fetch some interesting and often usefull commands, (2.6 and 3.7 beeing highlights) you’ve come to the right guide! :-)

1) IRCII: The first client for IRC networks. mIRC is the most common client today.

1.2 What does The IRC Command Cosmos contain?

An explanation for every command on the IRC network Undernet or other nets using the latest ircu software 1), except service-commands 2) and those commands restricted to IRC-Operators only.

What you can do on IRC depends on what software the irc-network is running. Over the years, this software has been split up into several different programs, maintained separately by different irc-networks. Beeing an Undernet user by chance, finding their software-development interesting and knowing several other nets to be using their software, I aim to completely document their version. I can’t keep up with development on the other nets like EFnet and IRCnet, but even if you use these nets, you may find this guide helpfull, the nets still got a lot of in common. 3)

The guide should make sense for any client, even if my examples might be a bit skewed towards mIRC. You may need to replace /raw with /quote in my examples. This edition of the guide should be complete and up to date, as of version 2.10.11.rc.1 of ircu. (August 2002) The guide is updated once or twice a year, depending on the upcoming changes.

1) ircu: The server-software developed by Undernet and also used by several other networks. See http://coder-com.undernet.org/ for the most recent version. Some networks have developed their software starting from earlier versions of ircu. A former developer started his own branch of ircu, (http://ircu.sourceforge.net/) claiming this to be the “real” ircu. This guide however, choose not to deal with specifics for this or other branches of ircu. Still, much in this guide will apply to them as well.

2) For example X, nickserv, channelservice e.t.c

3) While the nets have drifted apart, people are using the same clients on all nets and the specifications for a client havn’t changed over the years, so they need to display a minimum of uniformity for your dear mIRC, Pirch, amIRC e.t.c to work at all. The client protocol is more or less defined in RFC1459, a document that defined the “original” IRC. There exist other documents, like RFC2812, but 1459 is the only one who can claim authority among all the various nets, even though it itself is outdated. See ISUPPORT messages (7) for another way to bridge the divide.


1.3 Is my net using ircu?

Many of the smaller IRC networks are using various versions of ircu. To test if your net does, log into IRC and type /version. if the reply starts with u2...e.t.c, it’s using a version of ircu, e.g 2.10.10. If it dosn’t, you could also type /info and see if it mentions Undernet or ircu. Some nets run software based on an ircu version, but with their own tweaks and additions which /info ought to tell you about.

1.4 Hiding the Undernet

Early in 2001, Undernet was struck with a massive Denial Of Service-attack, bringing down the channelservice and prompting several servers to leave the net. This sped up the development of a replacement for the old X and W and led to proposal CFV-165 (nicknamed HEAD_IN_SAND in the ircu code) being passed by the owners of the servers. It were decided to hide all non-essential information from users, disabling non-essential commands and generally hide all information that could be misused, as g-lines and networkstructure. The proposal took effect from ircu2.10.10.pl14

These commands are disabled:

Every /STATS (5) except P, u and W
/map (4.1.2)
/links (4.1.3)
/trace (4.1.5)
+s, +w and +g nickmode (2.5)

the names of irc-servers are hidden in /who (2.14), /whois (2.4), /whowas (2.10) and in netsplits and forced modechanges. Remote /whois dosn't depend on knowing the server and is still allowed. All other remote queries are or will be disabled.

Each act of hiding is a configuration choice in the software, so other nets using ircu will be able to choose which of these, if any, they will adopt. This guide will keep the undernet-disabled features, as other nets still use them and may still choose to do so.

CFV-165 is an internet-sociologists dream. Even though the most common complaint about CFV-165 is that it makes it harder to choose the right server so as to minimize lag between yourself and your friends, perhaps the underlying issue is how this somehow degrades irc into a confined webchat experience. It has been pointed to the well-known tendency to sacrifice freedom for security when times are tough, though you may claim someones freedom were sacrificed for the security of others (the owners of the servers)
Does less information lead to less choice which leads to less freedom? Whether this makes IRC an anarchic, feudal or technocratic society (The idea of Internet as an anarchy has passed its best-before date, has it not?) is an interesting question or the bloated whineing of script-kiddies, depending on your viewpoint. :-)
(Hey kids! A project on this may give you the grades to get YOU into the college of your choice! Visit your local library today!)

Help to selfhelp
With /map gone, http://www.undernet.org/servers.php keep a list of servers on undernet, minus the dedicated routing servers. In addition, there’s still a few commands left for the eager scripter-soul to exploit:




The tricks above suppose that the full servername (e.g oslo.no.eu.undernet.org) as seen by a user connected to it is the same name as the one propagated on the network. We shouldn't be surprised if, after the latest removals, beeing able to refer to a remote servers' name turns out as a non-essential feature in itself.
The servers already refer to themselves by shorter nicks (4.1.2) when communicating between themselves, only translating for the users using a local list of names. As remote servernames don't get displayed anymore, renaming the servers in this list would stop the above exploits with no changes in the code. This however is impractical, so these tricks ought to be around up to some given ircu-version.


In addition there’s littered with smaller glimpses of servernames in /kill, /who, /quit, /whowas netsplits, the use of local channels e.t.c in serverversions between ircu2.10.10 and 10.11. Should any of you implement the tricks above or find other loopholes yourself in 2.10.11, why not drop me a mail? (Well, to keep it to yourself and stop the ircu-coders from fixing it, but how does such secrecy fit with a hacker-mentality?)

1.5 Changes in this edition of The IRC Command Cosmos

Since edition 2.1, the following sections have changed, mostly due to changes in ircu between 2.10.10.pl14 and 2.10.11.rc.1

1.4: Updating the self-to-selfhelp to reflect ircu development
2.5.1: +w, along with +g and +s are not allowed on Undernet. (and has been disallowed for a while)
2.5.1 and 3.5.1: Nickmodes +r, +x and channelmode +r introduced for upcoming channelservice upgrades and added security through host-hiding (we’ve been waiting for this one! :-D)
2.6: Individual servers may choose to hide the idletime in a remote /whois
2.9: An elaboration on the difference between /userip and /dns
2.12: beeing able to see other users’ /silence list is not a bug, it’s a feature!
2.14: extended /who didn’t display both @ and + if a user were both op and voiced in the same channel
3.2: bugfix for /invite to local channels
3.5.1: Changing into a banned nick while in channel now properly ban you and the modes +b and +m now stops you from sending to the channel from outside, even if it is -n.
3.5.2: the propagation of topics is now less noisy
3.11: Daniel Corkill solved the /wallchops vs /notice inconsistency
4.1.4: A new /list stop feature added (Why didn’t anyone think of it before? A Coloumbi-egg)
4.2.7: A new but uninteresting serveroption in /version
6.9: A problem with characters and banning. Luckily only of academic interest.
7: Updating information about the ISUPPORT messages and adding rumours about a novel use of the passworded login
8: Addes some more weblinks and channels

The STATS section does not reflect recent changes in the ircu code after Undernet barred access to them, but I may get back to these if I find an ircu-network where they are actually viewable by users or I get around to compile ircu on my computer. Until then I must refer to the coder-com website.


1.6 Getting the latest version and contacting the author

The latest edition is always available at http://www.student.uib.no/~st01369/ccosmos/ A mirror is available at http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/misc/ccosmos.html. The last URL is probably the most permanent.
If you wish to be notified of new editions, please visit http://www.topica.com/lists/ccosmos to register. (No, I won’t use your e-mail address for anything else and I won’t give it out to anyone. :-)
Feel free to contact me with your corrections, suggestions or comments. As for quoting and noncommercial distribution: Go ahead, as long as the guides’ name and a link to its original location is kept and the text isn't altered substantially without stating so. If you'r mirroring the guide, drop me a note and I'll include a link to it.


2 People

2.1 nick

Sets your nick. Syntax: /nick yournewnick The maximum nicklenght on Undernet is 9 characters. See NICKLEN in chapter 7 for the length at your net and 6.9 for legal characters in a nick.

There’s a “nickchange too fast” floodstopper in ircu. A person could flood a channel with his nickchanges while for the same reason beeing hard to kick. You can not change your nick more than once in 30 secs, or twice if it’s been unchanged for 60 secs already.
You can’t change your nick if you’r in a channel where you’r banned, see 3.7

2.2 privmsg

Syntax: /privmsg receiver text
If the receiver is a nick, this equals talking to someone in a private window.
If the receiver is a channel and you'r in it, it equals typing something in the channel. also see the sister-command /notice (2.3)
/msg as it is called in mIRC, could also be used for external messages. (See +n 3.5). When you send a message to a channel from outside with /notice, mIRC and other clients will treat it correctly, while an external /privmsg will appear as if an invisible nick suddenly raised its voice. According to some this is still the correct way, according to others it violates the graphical user interface. Might make for a nice trick anyway..

If we take advantage of the underlying machinery, we can send one message to several destinations. Here's an example:
"/raw PRIVMSG Sabeltann,Timo,#ruminants :The grass is greener on the other side, lets move!"
Or just: "/privmsg nickorchan,nickorchan text". (Works in mIRC) Note that since we're overriding mIRC, the text you send isn't displayed in the channelwindow. You will have to /echo that in yourself with your script.
(Maybe an idea for suppressing display of text your script send to a channel. Didn't some IRC-virus implement that already?)

PRIVMSG is also taking care of the /me statements. See 6.3

The /raw (or /quote) command is how you bypass aliases and your clients interpretation of commands. Sometimes, you pass the command directly, like in /map, a command mIRC has no "idea" about what means, while in multiple sending above, we used /PRIVMSG , as /msg is a command in mIRC that it translates according to its own rules, before passing it on as PRIVMSG to the server.

Up to ircu2.10.10, there were an extra secure syntax on the form:
/msg nick[%host]@server
where host is the optional address of the nick and server the irc-server it resides on. This syntax were intended for sending your password to the channelservice bots, so that you wouldn't mistakeingly send it to someone else posing as them on another network. On Undernet, you could never change your nick into typical service-nicks anyway. (see 5.2.2)

Example:
The nick Timo has the address “*.surfers.org” and is using the irc-server “Oslo-R.NO.EU.Undernet.org”
/msg Timo%*.surfers.org@Oslo-R.NO.EU.Undernet.org Hi there! You won't see this if you don't match my criteria

This feature isn't of much use as authentication of normal users, for that refer to authentication via the channelservice bots. As of 2.10.11, it does not longer send the message, but curiously enough, will give a "no such nick" if you get the host or server wrong.
Together with the list of servers available from www.undernet.org, this supply us with a brute-force way to find a persons' irc-server.


2.3 Notice

Syntax: /notice receiver text where receiver is nick or channel.

The reason for NOTICE according to RCF1459, is to define a way to send messages that should never generate an automatic reply. The object is to avoid loops of responses between scripts/bots, for example this quite repeating conversation:
Bot1: Please send afile.txt
Bot2: Sorry, I'm turned off.
Bot1: I don't understand the command "Sorry, I'm turned off".
Bot2: Sorry I'm turned off.

A ping Query/Reply between users (6.3) is a good example of an automated PRIVMSG/NOTICE pair.
NOTICE-messages may be treated slightly different than PRIVMSG when displayed in mIRC, both in color and which window they'r displayed in. Just as PRIVMSG, you may msg both channels and person. You may send a notice to the channelops alone with: /notice @#channel text (3.11)

2.4 Whois

Syntax: /whois nick1,nick2, ...
Basic information about a nick. A central command in IRC and it pops up all through this guide. Usermodes (2.5), getting seconds idle (2.6) e.t.c Notice that the channels in the whois reply are sorted with the channel the nick joined first as the rightmost.
The full internet-address for the user is shown in the whois, also see 2.9. Some nets hide the first part of the address, as an attempt to combat attacks which involve the users' address, e.g portscanning and pinging. Then only IRC-operators may see the full address. (something like this is in the making on Undernet, see 2.5.1) Others will send an IDENTD request to verify the username. mIRC usually handles that. For more information about identd, see the IDENTD RFC. (RFC1413) or check the undernet homepage.

Example:
Debet is ~ted@modem68.johnsonconsulting.com * Accountancy RULEZ
Debet on @#spreadsheet-newbies
Debet using *.undernet.org The Undernet Underworld
Debet End of /WHOIS list.

The ~ means that no IDENT has verified the username ted and Debet is an op on #spreadsheet-newbies.
The network does not hide his internet-address modem68.johnsonconsulting.com but it hides what IRC-server he is using, an ircu2.10.10-something feature.


2.5 Usermodes

2.5.1 All the modes for a nick

Here's all the modes available for a nick.

Syntax: /mode <nickname> {[+|-]mode(s)}

i
 Makes you invisible. See "Note on invisibility" (2.7.4)
s
 Receives server notices. You receive various information sent between servers. Mostly kills and G-lines, but also nickname collisions, invalid usernames, splits e.t.c See 2.5.3 for masks for this command. (ircu only)

w
 Receives wallops. The IRCops broadcast messages with this, you might even catch an IRCop-conversation! (Almost like tuning in on the police-radio, eh? :-P ) As for the moment, "uworld.undernet.org", that is the X service on Undernet, uses the Wallops too. ircu2.10.10 has the option of disabling this for regular users
g
 [New in ircu2.10.04] You receive “HACK wallops”. After a desynch of the net, servers would start mending it and creating large amount of these wallops. This tended to flood the user and desynchs were even created to do just that. Therefore these wallops were moved to beeing “DESYNCH messages”, displayed as wallops to the user if he were +g
d
 Deaf in all channels. Ircu only. You won't "hear" a thing that's said in the channels. Private messages get trough though. Primary reason is making the job easier for service bots that dosn't want to process channel messages. Makes logging of changes in chan easier too, and would suffice as an overly brute channel-flood stopper.
x
 On a network where everyone runs ircu2.10.11 or above, you will be able to turn on this mode after logging into X on Undernet or whatever service your net would be running. setting this mode hides your hostname (your internet address) in the /whois reply and elsewhere. The hostname “modem44.londonpark.com” used by the registered user WinstonC would be masked as “winstonc.users.undernet.org”, so these users are still fully banable, even though their ISP can’t be tracked down.

Hiding your hostname will shield you against several types of attacks often carried out on IRC, but be aware that taking part in a DCC chat or filetransfer will reveal your IP-address, so turn off automatic acceptance of these if you want to use +x.
Also see use of passwords during logon (7)

In addition, there's the operator flag, (+o) that indicates an operator, the zombie-flag "!" used halfway in mending a netsplit, +k that's used by the channelservice. And +r to signify a logged-in service account, a prerequisite to set +x. (See 3.5.1 for details on +r)
No one can kick or deop +k clients from a channel, and they may also message any channel from outside, regardless of any restriction. You may /msg +k users regardless of target-restrictions. (3.10, 7) Lastly, a whois on a +k won’t show the channels it’s on.

Note that Undernet do not let ordinary users see w, g and s messages. The ability to disallow that has been around since ircu2.10.10. (see 1.4)



2.5.2 Finding peoples modes

You'll spot a +d in the who and whois reply.
Example:
"/Who mowgli" returns: mowgli Hd* mow@ppp-21.treetop.jungle.br :3 Baloo-Bot TM
Hd means the user is Here (as opposed to Gone, i.o.w away(2.11)) and that mode d (deaf) is on. The * tells us he's an IRCop. :3 means the hopcount is 3. (4.1.5)
In the /whois reply, a +d is spotted by a - after a channelname.
Example: mowgli on -@#Junglechat (+d mode and op on the channel.)
+o is spotted in whois by "nickname is an IRC operator"
+i is spotted by doing "/whois *nickname" and seeing if the right person pops up. If he/she dosn't, the nick is invisible.
+w and +s can't be seen by normal users. (+w due to a recent Undernet patch)


Note:
For address and away, also see /userhost (2.9)

2.5.3 Server notice masks

From version 2.10 of the ircu serversoftware, a masking option of users s-mode has been implemented, so you can decide which types of notifications you’r interested in. +s is disabled for users of Undernet though.
This section is based on documentation supplied by Ghostwolf.

Syntax: /mode <nick> +s [+/-][mask]

Mask
 Name
 Description
1
 SNO_OLDSNO
 unsorted old messages
2
 SNO_SERVKILL
 server kills (nick collisions)
4
 SNO_OPERKILL
oper kills
8
 SNO_HACK2
 desyncs
16
 SNO_HACK3
 temporary desyncs
32
 SNO_UNAUTH
 unauthorized connections
64
 SNO_TCPCOMMON
 common TCP or socket errors
128
 SNO_TOOMANY
 too many connections
256
 SNO_HACK4
 Uworld actions on channels
512
 SNO_GLINE
 glines
1024
 SNO_NETWORK
 net join/break, etc
2048
 SNO_IPMISMATCH
 IP mismatches
4096
 SNO_THROTTLE
 host throttle add/remove notices
Operators only:
8192
 SNO_OLDREALOP
 old oper-only messages
16384
 SNO_CONNEXIT
 client connect/exit

If you want more than one of the masks, you simply add the numbers. To later add or remove a mask from your s-mode, use + and -.

Examples:
To be notified upon net join/breaks, you would type /mode yournick +s 1024.
Later you’r eager to be notified when your server fills up, so you type /mode yournick +s +128.
Now you are notified both about “too many connections” and “net join/break”

Another day, you’r feeling bored, and want to watch new g-lines (5.1.2) in addition.
You type /mode yournick +s 1664. (Since 1024 + 128 + 512 = 1664)
But this is too much, so you drop the g-lines with /mode yournick +s -512. (/mode yournick -s +512 works fine as well)

/mode yournick +s 8191 let you have it all

Standard if no mask supplied: SNO_OPERKILL, SNO_GLINE and SNO_NETWORK.
/mode yournick +s will give you kills done by operators, G-lines and netsplits/joins


2.6 Getting seconds idle

The idle time is how long the nick has been silent towards its IRC-server. In other words being quiet. Only the server that the nick is connected to "knows" this. Knowing the idle-time is usefull if you wonder if the person has left the keyboard without putting on an away-message, or might just be ignoring you. It could also be used successfully as a "silent ping" as it can give you the lag from you to the nicks' server. Just count the seconds it takes from you send the command to you receive the reply, and divide with 2. That's how many seconds it take for a message from you to reach the persons server. (another approach outlined in 4.1.5)

Syntax:
/whois nick nick or /whois fullservername nick where fullservername is the nicks server.
the first syntax is available from ircu2.10.00, the second works only below 2.10.10.pl14. What technically happens, is your everyday whois-request beeing transmitted to a remote server.

Examples:
Xerxes is on stlouis, we're some other place: /whois stlouis.mo.us.undernet.org Xerxes
We get a whois with Xerxes' idle-time:
Xerxes is johnbg@ppp52.netomania.com * John Bertram Garfunkel
Xerxes on #Creedence #Japanese.baseballcards @#old_boats
Xerxes using StLouis.MO.US.UnderNet.org StLouis' Gateway to the UnderNet
Xerxes has been idle 50min 12secs, signed on Thu Aug 1 15:35:23
End of /WHOIS list.

Note:
* If you and the nick is on the same server, a common /whois will do the same.
* The chatting in a DCC-chat dosn't go through the IRC-network, and so is not detected by idle-time. An alternative "ping" could be to use the CTCP finger (/ctcp nick finger) as atleast mIRC supplies an idletime for the whole program in the reply; but this isn't "silent".
* It's standard to only nullify idle-time when nick uses PRIVMSG. That is, sending a message to a nick or a channel. /notice does not qualify. See server options (4.2.7) to determine if the server is using the standard setting.
* away-messages arn’t broadcasted when a netsplit is mended. You must do a remote whois to see it.
* admins have the option from ircu2.10.10 and onwards, to hide the idletime when requested remotely.

2.7 Searching for people

2.7.1 Searching by address

Example:
/who *.fiddledep.gov
This lists all visible nicks using the Fiddle Departments’ internet-connection. The command is usefull for finding people from your own host and geographical area and finding people who tend to change their nicks often.

Example:
Your ISP gives people from your area DNS-addresses ending with "smalltown.wasanet.se" for example modem30.ppp.smalltown.wasanet.se Typing /who *.smalltown.wasanet.se may then reveal people from your area.

2.7.2 Searching by nick

You can use wildcards like * and ? in a whois-query also. Here are some examples:
/whois *sam* will give you nicks like Samantha, Sam47, Sam or Tarsam.
/whois ??. This displays everyone with a nick of 2 letters, like Ma and V2.
Undernet will not give you more than 251 nicks back from one query to stop you from flooding yourself.

2.7.3 Searching it all

The first line in a whois-reply might look like this:
Xerxes is johnbg@ppp52.netomania.com * John Bertram Garfunkel
using wildcards, we're able to search for anything in that line. Even the Namefield.
"/who *garfunkel*", "/who *netomania*", "/who *xerx*", "/who john*" and "/who *funk*" will all reveal his name if he is visible.
"/who fullservername" lists people using that irc-server. (wildcards allowed) so if he's on sandiego.ca.us.undernet.org, /who *diego* would reveal him and others as well. (Use /lusers with servername, as described in 4.1.1 if you'r just going to count people on a server.)

Note:
This shows that beeing visible and writing "I'm from Essex" in the namefield might not be such a good idea if some jerk is mass-messaging everyone that matches "/who *sex*". Again, be aware that the namefield IS searchable.
See section 2.5.2 (Finding peoples modes) for explanation of details in the "/who nickname" output. Also note that "/who" searches each of the "information fields" (nick, login, real name, host name and server name) separately so you can't filter simultaneously, you must do an individual search for each field.
That means if you’r looking for jane in sweden, you’ll have to look at the outputs of “/who *jane*” and “/who *se*”.
“/who *jane* *se*” would ignore *se* and “/who *jane*se*” would search one and one field and match on the namefield “I’m Janet, now go stare at someone elses whois!” but would NOT match username janet with address *.se

2.7.4 Note on invisibility

Invisible people won't show up when searched for with /who, /who #chan and not on /whois with wildcards, unless you can see them already by sharing a channel.
The intent is that no one is to find you if they don't know your exact nickname.
I believe that in the future the searchmethods described here might become practically obsolete, as some servers already have the policy of putting people automatically on +i, (which do save the clients a lot of trouble). You can hide by changing nick, people can't mass-message everyone on your ISP and your' not visible from outside a channel. Today roughly half the nicks on Undernet and most on Efnet is set invisible.

Note: If a nick is on a secret channel (3.5) they won’t show up on a wildcard /whois, even if they arn’t set invisible

2.8 Finding an IRCop

An IRC operator is a person with +o mode. (2.5) The op goes around fixing channelops, kicking users and maintaining the net.
Don’t expect help if you’r banned from a channel (Atleast that’s Undernet policy)
The standard way to find an operator is to type /who 0 o (zero o). This lists all non-invisible opers on the net.
Before you message them, check their idle-time. (2.6) Most of them idles for days.

If this dosn’t work, the operators of your server might list themselves in the /motd (4.2.1), possibly with e-mail.
By now, you have found everyone who wants to be found, proceed on your own risk:

/stats O (5.1.4) reveal the nicks of operators on your server. (Ofcourse they could just change nicks after logging in)

/trace (4.1.5) has a loophole that reveals online ops.

Local channels are sometimes used by operators on your server. (3.2)

Join typical oper-hangouts and do the /who 0 o again. The +i dosn’t apply when you share a channel. (please observe channel rules)

Apropos operators
A common question we get in helpchannels is: How do I become an IRCop? At Undernet, you’d have to be a friend or co-worker with a server administrator or start your own server to get op. Starting your own Undernet server is out of the question unless you work at a big ISP. This also applies to other big networks.
Whatever the reason for your hunger for power is, be it fame, revenge, groupies or tax deduction, you’d have a better chance at one of the really small networks. Then again, who in their right mind would give op to a total stranger who comes in and just ask for it? As a last resort you can always start your own network! (8.2)

2.9 userhost / userip

Returns a nicks hostaddress or IP and if it's away or not.
Syntax: /userhost nick nick ... (max 5 nicks)
Example:
sending: /userhost RAmona Sssala
reply: RAmona=-mummy@crypt.pyramid.eg Sssala=+snake@cage.zoo.com where -/+ = away / not away
sending: /userip RAmona gives the reply: RAmona=-mummy@994.193.192.24

Why UserIP:
Userip were implemented in ircu2.10.01 because more and more users have "virtual hostnames", that allow the person to use any sort of hostname withouth a common domain. E.g modem5.snowbiz.com one day and modem5.snowwomen.org another day, making it harder to ban these people. A ban by IP-adress would have been very effective in this case, and that is exactly what has been implemented. The ban-code has been changed so that you can ban an IP-adress even if the server has resolved his/her address as a hostname. The IP-ban has also taken effect for SILENCE (2.12) and K-lines (5.1.1)

Example:
123.321.254 is the IP of the DNS-name "m5.camping.com". Before 2.10.1, you could ban the users' IP, but if it was resolved by irc- server to the DNS-name, the person would slip through. Not so anymore.

But ofcourse you need to ban the ISP. Using a dialup-account, he gets slightly different IPs every time he logs on.
So what’s the IP of the ISP? /dns in mIRC tells me that m1.camping.com has IP 123.321.250 and it seems to end at m200.
I set the bans to 123.321.* ,123.322.* and 123.323.* knowing I’ve banned the ISP, hoping I havn’t banned others. Banning an ISP to stop a person is a brute approach anyway if it’s a large ISP, and most people that are banned give up withouth putting much effort in getting around the ban, so I havn’t bothered finding more elegant ways to do this, but I think you can use regular IP-masks in this ban. (If you know a more accurate way to ban an ISP, i hope to hear from you)

Isn’t /dns in mIRC and /userip practically the same? Usually so, but not necessarily. When a user connects, the irc server first gets the IP-address of the user and uses it to resolve the DNS-address which it puts in the /whois reply. When queried with a /userip request, it will reply with the original IP-address. mIRC on the other hand, takes the DNS-address it finds in /whois and tries to translate it back to an IP-address. By that time, the records mapping IP-addresses to DNS-addresses could have changed, or your client and the IRC server receives different replies to a DNS-lookup for some obscure reason. In short, you risk getting the wrong IP-address, so use /userip for added reliability.

Also see +x (2.5.1) for the upcoming ability to ban a user when logged in on the channelservice

2.10 Whowas

Syntax: /whowas nick [count]
If someone just left IRC or changed their nick, and you didn’t get their address, the server keeps a buffer with the nicks that disappeared the last seconds. Count is how many nicks it should return. Every matching nick if not supplied. No wildcards are allowed so the count were only usefull in special cases. For how many nicks the server keep in whowas, see /stats z (5.3.5)

2.11 away

Syntax: /away [insert cunning remark about doing laundry here]
Sets an away-message that will be displayed in your /whois reply and shown to people who try to contact you.
See chapter 7 for the maximun lenght of your away-message (It's 160 by default on Undernet)
See 6.5 for the issue of netsplits and 2.5.2 and 2.9 on spotting the mode while missing the cunning remark.

2.12 silence

mIRC has a very customizeable command called /ignore that will filter out everything coming from certain nicks or addresses. What it dosn't do though is stopping the noise from coming through your connection. This means you could be flooded off even with ignore on. Therefore, Undernet has implemented the /silence command. When it is used, the network won't even send you the unwanted data.

Syntax:
/silence [+/-]nick!name@host.host.dom (nick or host alone allowed)

Example:
/silence +uglyguy!~jacktr@modem54.styx.net silencing nickname uglyguy with matching address.
/silence +*!*@modem54.styx.net Anyone from his address. (In case of clones)
/silence +*!*styx.net Anyone using his ISP. (For repeated attacks.)
when +/- are omitted, + is asumed. A setting is removed by "/silence -setting". E.g: /silence -*!*styx.net.
/silence will display your silence settings. /silence nick will display the known silence-settings of that nick. That is a feature, not a bug in fact.

You don’t get an error-message if you message someone that has silenced you, but if you suspect you’ve been silenced, type /silence nick and you may find yourself listed.

When Alice is silenced by Bob, but Alice tries to message Bob nontheless, the message reaches Bobs server, which then replies to Alices’ server that Bob has silenced Alice, and that there’s no need to relay further messages from her. Every server from Bobs to Alices including now knows about the silence, and those on those servers who type /silence Bob will see his silencing of Alice.
This openness means that people on the same server as Bob sees ALL his silence-settings.

On Undernet, you have a maximum of 15 lines of silence-settings. Doublecheck with your logon in chapter 7
Overlapping silences are removed. Example: /silence +*.dadaism.net will remove silencing of *modem4.dadaism.net since it is now reduntand. Beware that /silence -*.dadaism.net would also remove the modem4 silencing.
Removals are propagated immediately to other servers.

Silence settings must be set every time you log on. This can be done automatically with your client. For more information about flooding and how to defend against it, see the undernet website or the helpbot in #class on undernet.

See 2.9 (userhost / userip) for how to silence people with virtual hostnames.

2.13 ISON

ISON is the command used for the notify list in mIRC.
Syntax: /ISON nick1 nick2 nick2 ...
The server replies with ISON: nicksthatexist
One string of nicks sent should be no longer than 512 bytes.

Example:
you send: /ISON Susanne MadMex Martha29 ZyGoT and users with the nicks Susanne and Zygot is online.
reply: ISON: Susanne Zygot


2.14 WHO with advanced parameters

/who gives part of the same info as /whois.
ircu2.10.02 gave the WHO command a new look and in ircu2.10.05, even more adjustments were made.
As an example, the extended WHO will let you count people away in your channel and how many servers away they are, with a single command to the server. Searching and filtering are also more customizable than before, but still keeping backward compatibility.

Syntax:
WHO <mask1> [<options> [:<mask2>]]
Which gives:
WHO <mask> <options> or WHO <some garbage> <options> :<mask>
The second syntax will allow a space, and is therefore good for matching the infotext. Case is not significant anywhere.


The mask:
It defines the search criteria. I'll get back to what you'r searching in.
There are two ways to define it:



Note:
If you'r not familiar with masking, * means "any string, even of zero lenght" and ? means "one character". the mask "ge*" would match both "get" and "geronimo!" while "l?ve" matches "love" and "live", but not "legislative".
"i??*" matches "inventory" and "inn", but not "is".

In the case of IRC atleast, "0" works as a *.

If you wish to match IP-numbers in the single mask, there's 3 ways to do it.
(This part is quoted from the WHO documentation in the ircu2.10.05 release notes, which you can find at www.coder-com.undernet.org)





Options:

Syntax:
[<flags>][%[<fields>[,<querytype>]]]

Flags:
The flags define which parts of the available data you’d like to search in.
Each flag is one letter. First, the various userinformation:

n
 Searching nicknames to match.
u
 UserID. (As in nick!user@host)
h
 Hostname. (Still as in nick!user@host)
i
 Numeric IP.
e
 Servername. (The canonic name of the IRC server a person is using) Use /links (4.1.3) if you'r unsure about canonical names
r
 Info text. (Formerly known as "realname" )



If you don't specify any of these flags, the default "nuhs" is used. (Everything except the numeric IP and realname)

In addition, it's possible to search for for usermodes, (overview in 2.5.1) but there's only support for one of them:
o
 Operator (Yup! the same as in 2.8)


Fields:
When the WHO-command has found a bunch of persons, then this tells it which fields
of the userinformation should be returned to you.

c Include the last channel the person joined, or first common, if the person is +i.
(If no common channel exist among you, a +i user won't be shown.)
d How many servers away the nick are. (hopcount, also see 4.1.5)
h hostname
i Numeric IP
n nick
r Info text
s servername
u userID (with eventual ~)

f Include all the flags you passed on earlier
t Include querytype in the reply (see below)

The fields are always returned in the same order.


Querytype:
Usefull for scripts. The querytype, an integer, is passed on with the WHO. If you specify t in Fields, the lines in the reply will start with this number (query or request type field of the output). Works like a note to itself. "Oh! This is my who-query, do so and so with it."

Note to scripters: If no %fields are specified, the who reply are in numeric 352. If %fields are specified, numeric 354 are used instead, because a non-standard 352 tended to confuse clients.

A WHO-query could end up matching everyone and flood you off with the reply or exhaust the server. To avoid this, the maximum number of lines in the reply is 2048/(n+4) where n is the number of Fields you've specified. A default query gives max 186 lines.

The reply:
Beside the nick in the reply we will gett various letters indicating:
H / G
 Here or Gone, indicating if the nick is set /away or not
*
 The nick is an IRC-operator
@
 The nick is a channel-operator on the last channel it joined and still is on
+
 The nick is voiced on the last channel it joined and still is on
!
 The nick is zombie on a channel
d
 The nick is set deaf

Examples:

We send: /who 0 o%fn to get a list of operators. The reply is this:
Napoleon H*
McMini H*
Sodapunk H*@
Tordivelen G*@
Aquagirl H*
Q-Beck G*
* End of /WHO list.

Each line presents one nick and the corresponding flags. Tordivelen is both gone and a channel-operator in the last channel he joined.

/who #Luggage_Claim %dct,9 could return this:
9 #Luggage_Claim 3
9 #Luggage_Claim 3
9 #Luggage_Claim 1
9 #Luggage_Claim 3
9 #Luggage_Claim 3
9 #Luggage_Claim 5
9 #Luggage_Claim 3

"9" is the query type field, The rightmost numbers are the hopcount for each nick. Most of the folks seem to be 3 hops away.


Note:
If you'r using a mIRC copy older than 5.3, you'll have to send channel-whos as "/raw who #e.t.c..."
On EFnet and possibly other nets but not Undernet “/who *” lists everyone on the last channel you joined and still is on (the first channel in your whois-reply) If you’r on no channels or on Undernet, “/who *” will flood you.

If you’r say, swedish and joins a channel, you may want to type “/who #channel *.se” to list every swede in the channel.
This a mIRC feature but works fine on non-ircu nets. However, with newer ircu you must a script to do this filtering manually as the extra parameter messes up the /who at the server.

Before ircu2.10.11, the extended /who did not correctly display the + if a user were both Op and Voiced in the same channel.



2.15 /quit

Waves goodbye to the net. See 3.4 for the quitmessage.

3 Channels

3.1 join

Syntax: /join #channel1, #channel2, ... or /join channel key.
Separated with a comma, you can join several channels at once, saving you some typing. (But if you want to save typing, perhaps IRC isn’t the right place? :-) On Undernet, you’r limited to beeing on 10 channels at the same time. (See 7 for the limit on your net)
See 6.9 for allowed characters in a channelname and 3.5.1 for keys. The maximum lenght of a channel is 89 characters plus the #.

3.2 Local channels

A channel with the "&" prefix instead of “#” (e.g &chat) is a channel that is local to your server. People from other IRC-servers can't join, can’t find it in the channel-listing and can't spot you'r in it, unless they retrieve a remote whois. (2.6)
This feature might have been usefull when a server served a geographically limited userbase exclusively, for instance a specific university, but today you can connect to most servers in a net regardless of where you are. Operators on a server might stick around in a &channel, since LOCOPS and OPERS have equal powers over it, (see 4.2.7) and operators can toy around with the channel directly while the ability to toy with global channels would have messed up the security. There, they have to go through Uworld. (A service on Undernet) Don’t be surprised if this feature disappears one bright day in the middle of the night. In ircu2.10.11, you can no longer send an invite for a local channel to someone on a remote server. (That makes sense :-)
Prior to ircu2.10.11, there were also a bug making the server propagate the topic of a local channel to other servers. If a local channel with the same name existed on a server directly linked to the first one, there may have been “leaks”, but this is unconfirmed

3.3 The modeless channel. Equality by simplicity

As of ircu2.10.02 you can start a “modeless channel” This is a channel with the prefix “+” instead of #. (e.g +chat)
Such a channel can’t have any channel operators and its mode is always set to +nt.
From this, “no topic”, “no /invite”, “no external messages” and “no bans” logically follows.

The purpose for this invention is “to create an enviroment where all users are equal and not tempted to fight about ops”. Flooding should be dealt with by either leaving the channel or using /ignore or /silence. (2.12) Making it topic-free and non-invite is to avoid flooding by topic-changing or mass-invite, or any gibbering over what todays topic should be.

3.4 /part and /quit with comments

You can put a comment along when you quit irc which is visible to fellow channelmembers, with the command /quit, and as of ircu2.10.02 you can send a comment along when you /part a channel too. Perfect for getting the last word! :-)
Syntax:
/quit comment
/part #channel comment or /part #channel1,#channel2, ...

The maximun lenght of a quit-message is governed by TOPICLEN in chapter 7, and is 160 characters by the time on Undernet.
A part message could be a maximum of 65 letters and truncated with a '...' at the end if it's longer.
When a message to the channel wouldn’t have been allowed to be sent, as in cases of ban or moderated channel,
these message won’t be sent either. See 3.5 (moderated) and 3.7 (ban) for more about this.

A client-independet way to leave all channels at once is “/join 0”.

Quitting with a linebreak “//quit char$(13)” drops the parenthesis. u2.10.11.rc.1 does not display them anyway unless a reason has been specified.



3.5 Channelmodes

3.5.1 All the modes for a channel

First, a quick summary of the channelmodes:

syntax: /mode <mode> [parameter]

b <mask>[<reason>]
 To ban someone and display the reason.
o <nick>
 To op someone
v nick
 Voice someone (Speaks through ban and moderations and get a nice + by their nick)
I
 Channel is invite-only
l <limit>
 Channel is limited to <limit> participants at the same time
n
 No messages/notices is allowed to be sent to the channel from outside.
m
 Channel is moderated. Only ops and voiced people can talk.
t
 Noone but the ops can change the channeltopic
p
 Channel is private
s
 Channel is secret
k <key>
 Set a password-key (any text) necessary to get into the channel.
r
 ACCOUNT-limited channel


You are probably more than familiar with these already, so I’ll just summarize my comments on them:

b:
 See 3.7 for novel use. The maximum number of simultaneous bans in a channel on Undernet is 30. See MAXBANS in chapter 7 for the limit at your net. You can easily clear a banlist by typing "/mode #channel +b-b *!*@* *!*@* ?"

Before ircu2.10.11, a nick-ban (e.g slobodan!*@*) wouldn’t take effect if the user changed into the nick inside the channel. Also, a ban did not stop external messages from a banned person from entering a -n channel.
n:
 Most channels should set +n to have total control on who's talking in the channel, ircu prior to 2.10.11 let outsiders slip through +m and +b
p and s:
See 3.5.3 for the difference between these two
m:
 "only ops and voiced people can talk". Before ircu2.10.11, +m didn’t stop messages from outside, now +m equals +mn

As with +b, +m censors your optional /part and /quit comments in the channel. (See 3.7) (ircu specific) and beeing in a +m channel without a voice, “censors” your quitmessage from every other channel your on too.
If that sounds confusing remember you'r quitting the net not just the channel, so sending two quitmessages about you to a person that shared two channels with you (say one +m and one not) would be like saying: "He left the net, and then he left the net again without beeing there." It wouldn't make sense.
v and o:
 You can have voice and op at the same time, but then mIRC and extended /who prior to ircu2.10.11 will only display the op @, not the voice +.
k:
 If you are not a channeloperator, the key will from ircu2.10.10.pl15 be displayed as * when you try to retrieve it from inside the channel.
r
 +r on a user, though you can’t see that it’s set, signifies that the user has logged in with his/her account name and password on whatever service the network supports. For instance Undernet’s channelservice “X”.
+r on a channel means it’s restricted to users having usermode +r, that is, beeing registered at the channelservice.
The +r usermode together with a hidden character string persist as long as you’r connected to the IRC server, so that the channel service can recognize you even if your server splits off and rejoins the net. No need to login to X all over again.

The account name were for a short while visible in /whois, but this were discontinued. It is still easy to receive by “/msg X verify nick” though. A +r channelmode can be overridden with an invite, in fact +r is equivalent to +i if there’s no +r enabled servicebot around. (X were not +r enabled by August 2002, but it’s coming up.)

3.5.2 /Topic and retrieving channelmodes

These commands retrieve the same info as you get when you doubleclick in the channelwindow.

/mode #channel Retrieves the modes (Also when it was created when using ircu)
/mode #channel b the bans (Prohibited when you’r outside the channel)
/topic #channel the topic (Prohibited when you’r outside a +s channel)

What information is available varies from net to net. The channel-limit is shown from ircu2.10.01 and above and topic-retrieval
outside channel is also a fairly recent addition. Now it also displays when the topic were set and by whom
The key is ofcourse not available from outside. If you'r inside the channel, you probably already know the key, but it won't be displayed unless you have op. If not, someone could fetch it by sneaking into a channel during a netsplit. But since the synchronization during a netjoin will remove a channelrider's op, he won't see the key.

The maximum length of a topic on Undernet is 160 characters, the maximum for your net can be found by the variable TOPICLEN in chapter 7. For the issue of topics and netsplits, see 6.5

Tip: If you just want to know if a channel exists, please do a /mode #chan, instead of quick join/part visits.

Note: As of ircu2.10.11, topics beeing set without beeing changed is no longer displayed to the client. It should make the topicsetting of X on Undernet less annoying. It is still done behind the scenes, as topics are not automatically refreshed when the net reconnects after a netsplit.

3.5.3 Difference between +p and +s

A channel can have +p (private) or +s (secret) mode set. The difference isn't obvious:

“Secret” means Top Secret. Its existance is secret (not present in any listing), and you beeing in it is secret. (It dosn’t show up in a whois on you and you can’t take a /names #chan on it) As an extra secrery, a wildcard whois won’t return you. (see 2.7.4)

“Private” means privacy for you. The channel shows up in the channellisting, but people can’t tell you’r in it, unless they’r in the channel themselves.

p and s are mutually exclusive. Trying to send mode +ps will thus result in +s, +sp will result in +p.
Prior to ircu2.10.10, +s channels could show up in /list on rare occasions. The bug has been fixed from that version.


3.6 /invite will find a way

syntax: /invite nick #channel
Invites a person to your channel. It is nessecary to invite the person if the channel is set “invite only” (3.5).
You need to be an op in the chan to do it.

Applying to ircu2.10 and above:
When you invite a person into a channel, you’r overruling the channel limit and any ban. Give him a voice (+v) and he can speak through the ban too.

Applying to ircu2.10.10 and above:
Typing /invite with no parameters lists the channels you are currently invited to

Up until ircu2.10.11, you could invite people into non-existing #channels. The bug has been fixed

3.7 "Shutting their mouth." Powerfull chanops-feature

(Partly ircu specific.)
This feature is IMHO an important one, but not widely known. The feature is as follows:

If you ban a person in your channel, but dosn't kick him, two things take place:

1: the nick looses his/her freedom of speech in your channel. The nick can't speak in the channelwindow, and neither do a channel-notice nor a channel-ping. Even the optional /part and /quit comments are censored.

2: He/she is unable to change nick as long as beeing in your channel. This hinder nickchange-flooding. (also see 2.1)

This is usefull for a number of things, and could improve protection-routines of scripts and ops. You can have "auto-ban on flood" turned on in your script without beeing afraid of kicking a friend that's playing some ascii-art to the chan. Another idea is to implement it as a "last warning" before getting kicked, or a nice way of stopping peoples annoying /timer messages when they'r away from the keyboard, but still letting them stay.

And if you have some annoying person in your channel, you have the ability to shut his/her mouth, letting people get on with their chatting, or talking back if they feel like it, and the person, his right of babbel taken away and now ignored by everyone, leaves the channel himself. :-) In some way, it's better than to give them the attention of a kick.

NB: Any ban is overridden by a +v (see 3.6) and the /quit comment is censored for all channels (3.5.1)
A ban will not stop a person from sending external messages to the channel, use a +n mode for that.
Atleast up to ircu2.10.10.pl14, if you set a ban on a nick (bannednick*!*@*) then if somebody entered and changed their nick into bannednick, they would slip past the ban. If bannednick were an op however, the ban would kick in immediately if he were deopped. I suppose this is a bug.

3.8 kick

Removes a person from your channel. (need to be op in chan to do it) You can put a reason along if you like
Syntax: /kick #channel person [reason] The maximun lenght of the reason is 160 characters on Undernet. See KICKLEN in chapter 7 for the lenght at your net


3.9 names. Listing the inhabitants

Displays a list of nicks in a given channel.
Syntax: /names #channel1,#channel2, ...

Examples:
/names #soap.opera,#talkshow.
Displays everyone in #soap.opera and #talkshow, and all visible nicks (2.7.4) if you'r not in the channels.

In ircu, it is processed as two /names queries, and will show a person twice if in both channels.
/who #soap.opera,#talkshow (2.14) however, lists the person only once.
The list of names will be sorted according to when they joined the channel, with the newest member at the beginning.

Notes:
Wildcards dosn’t work. Sending the query to a remote server, (/names #chan server) is prohibited on Undernet, but is mentioned in RFC1459, so others might allow it. (Practical use related to “local channels” (3.2) )
“/names 0” floods you off trying to list every channel on the net. prior to ircu2.10.11, typing /names were enough to do this.


3.10 Cnotice/Cprivmsg. A "too many targets" exception

New in ircu2.10.02, +v ability added in 2.10.05
Syntax:
/CNOTICE <nick> <channel> <message text>
/CPRIVMSG <nick> <channel> <message text>

What and Why:
Undernet implemented an anti-flood measure in ircu2.10, so that you can’t message more than so and so many people in a short interval. (20 per 2 minutes on Undernet but 10 immediately when you logon). This caused problems for those that NEED to do this, for instance bots in gaming channels. Because of this, CNOTICE/CPRIVMSG were implemented. If you’r a channel operator or has voice (+v) you can mass-message people in your channel using CNOTICE and CPRIVMSG without getting the “too many targets” error.
The restrictions on number of targets should not be confused with the restriction on how much data that is allowed to pass to and from the client in a given time before it starts lagging or the client-server connection is dropped altogether. To avoid this, your bot should somehow pace the information it sends out, not pushing a hundred lines of text at once.

Note: Regardless of your status in a channel you can always /msg +k services without worrying about running out of targets (2.5.1)
Also see /wallchops (3.11) and the logon procedure (7)

3.11 Wallchops

From version 2.10 of ircu, this early attempt at an ad-hoc solution to a special case of the problem mentioned in 3.10 were added.
This sends a mass message to every channeloperator in a channel. It is supposed to replace any “message the ops” script you might have.

Syntax:
/raw wallchops #chan or /notice @#chan Sending a NOTICE in both cases.

These are two ways to send the same command. Restrictions apply as for any /notice. But if you'r using mIRC and type /wallchops directly, you are in fact using mIRCs own wallchops. mIRC will demand that you'r an op in the channel for you to use it.
Thanks to Daniel Corkill for pointing out this to me.

4 The net

4.1 Network structure and overview

4.1.1 lusers

/lusers lists basic global and local info.
Example:
There are 9450 users and 8163 invisible on 44 servers
37 operator(s) online
2 unknown connection(s)
10025 channels formed
I have 692 clients and 2 servers

The first line should be read as 9450 visible and 8163 invisible, making a total of 17613 users online.
The number of operators includes local ops that won't show up in /who 0 o and invisible ops.
You may filter /lusers by servername:

Examples:
/lusers sandiego.ca.us.undernet.org (when beeing on sandiego) could return:
There are 301 users and 391 invisible on 2 servers
[...] I have 692 clients and 2 servers
/lusers *.no.eu.Undernet.org when beeing on sandiego could return:
There are 355 users and 237 invisible on 1 servers
[...] I have 0 clients and 0 servers
Meaning 355+237 users on the 1 *.no.eu.undernet.org server currently online. Ofcourse none of those users is then on the sandiego server, hence "I have 0 clients".
/lusers *.eu.undernet.org or just *.eu.* shows the total number of european users.



4.1.2 map

An ircu-only command that gives a nice view of how the servers is connected to each other. Blocked on Undernet
Syntax: /map

Example:
Part of the net as seen from Oslo-R:
P:Oslo-R.NO.EU.Undernet.org (0s) [2050 clients]
|-Y:Oslo1.NO.EU.Undernet.org (5s) [875 clients]
`-F:Gothenburg.Se.Eu.Undernet.org (0s) [4 clients]
|-Q:Amsterdam-R.NL.EU.Undernet.org (57962s) [1 clients]
|-7:Graz.AT.EU.Undernet.org (1s) [2535 clients]
|-D:Caen.FR.EU.Undernet.org (3s) [921 clients]
`-O:Flanders.BE.EU.Undernet.org (0s) [1710 clients]
`-AN:Brussels.Be.Eu.Undernet.org (4s) [40 clients]

Same part of the net as seen from Caen:
D:Caen.Fr.Eu.UnderNet.org (0s) [924 clients]
`-F:Gothenburg.Se.Eu.Undernet.org (0s) [4 clients]
|-Q:Amsterdam-R.NL.EU.Undernet.org (57959s) [1 clients]
|-7:Graz.AT.EU.Undernet.org (12s) [2764 clients]
|-O:Flanders.BE.EU.Undernet.org (0s) [1704 clients]
| `-AN:Brussels.Be.Eu.Undernet.org (1s) [39 clients]
`-P:Oslo-R.NO.EU.Undernet.org (0s) [2051 clients]
`-Y:Oslo1.NO.EU.Undernet.org (0s) [873 clients]

Oslo1 is connected to Oslo-R, lulea is connected to Oslo-R and Amsterdam. e.t.c
It is possible for a server to be configured so that it won’t show up on /map.
The letters before the servername correspond to numeric nicks in the server-server protocol, and dosn’t tell us anything worthwile. That however does the ping-time and the number of clients following the servername!

Notice the tree structure. There is only one path between two given servers and no loops. Those with more than one connection to other servers are called hubs, the others leafs. The tree is a fundamental property of irc networks as we know them. It makes them less robust then the internet it's on top of but is advantageous for propagating messages. other structures may be more robust and but we risk loosing the common "world" in which all users and channels reside, and then we may as well sit around in our own private microsoft network-chatrooms. (http://www.msn.com/) For a discussion of the disadvantages of the tree or star topology, see http://www.newnet.net/nnmeshed.html.

4.1.3 links

LINKS displays the same information as map, but in another format, and with extra sauce.. uhm extra data! LINKS is a common IRC-command. The server mask option can sort out hosts like *.eu.undernet.org (all european hosts) Blocked on Undernet
Syntax:
/LINKS [[<remote server>] <server mask>]

Example:
/LINKS *.nl.eu.undernet.org displays every server in Netherland.

An output of /LINKS in mIRC might look like this:
SanDiego.CA.US.Undernet.org (0) P10 CONNECTnet UUnet/MCI server
Dallas-R.Tx.US.Undernet.org (1) P10 Dallas Undernet Hub
Dallas.Tx.US.Undernet.org (2) P10 [127.0.0.1] Dallas Metroplex IRC Client Server
Los-Angeles-R.CA.US.Undernet.Org (2) P10 [198.245.27.2] Internet Chat Systems IRC Server
los-angeles.ca.us.undernet.org (3) P10 [198.245.24.80] Decade Communications IRC Server
Uworld.undernet.org (3) P9 [198.245.24.240] Cordinator
auckland.nz.undernet.org (3) P10 [202.14.100.6] Internet Company of New Zealand
protocol.undernet.org (3) P10 [198.245.24.190] [protocol.undernet.org] Software
Chicago-R.IL.US.Undernet.org (2) P10 [206.54.224.160] Nap Net Chicago IRC Hub
ann-arbor.mi.us.undernet.org (3) P10 [irc.cic.net] "Use the source, luke"

The number in parenthesis is the hopcount, P10 is the current server-server protocol and Sandiego was the server that replied to LINKS. The tree-structure is depicted by preceding spaces, probably making links output easier to handle for a script than maps’ output. (4.1.2)

4.1.4 list, with extensions

Syntax: /LIST gives you a list of the channels on the net and let your client to the filtering
Ircu has implemented an extended list-command that let you filter in ways the built-in lister in mIRC and other clients won’t let you. Help for this command is brought up with "/raw list help" and I quote:

Usage: /QUOTE LIST parameters
Where parameters is a space or comma seperated list of one or more of:
<max_users ; Show all channels with less than max_users.
>min_users ; Show all channels with more than min_users.
C<max_minutes ; Channels that exist less than max_minutes.
C>min_minutes ; Channels that exist more than min_minutes.
T<max_minutes ; Channels with a topic last set less than max_minutes ago.
T>min_minutes ; Channels with a topic last set more than min_minutes ago.
Example: LIST <3,>1,C<10,T>0 ; 2 users, younger than 10 min., topic set.

Example:
/raw list >20,C>120 will bring up channels that have existed more than 2 hours and has more than 20 users. When it's finished, you would in mIRC rightclick in "channels", apply match and hide parameters, and press "apply". We see that ircu does not support filtering on channelnames or topics, that is a purely client-side feature.

u2.10.11.rc.1 and above supports "/list stop". This aborts a listing in progress. "/raw /list" while listing will have the same effect.

4.1.5 trace


With parameter:
/TRACE nick is used to look at the path between you and another nick.

Example: Beeing on the Oslo-server, typing "/trace Concord":
Link u2.10.00.bans3 Concord lulea-r.se.eu.undernet.org
Link u2.10.00.bans3 Concord Amsterdam.NL.EU.undernet.org
Link u2.10.00 Concord Regensburg.DE.EU.undernet.org
Link u2.10.00 Concord Baltimore-R.MD.US.Undernet.Org
Link u2.10.00 Concord Chicago-R.IL.US.Undernet.org
Link u2.10.00 Concord ann-arbor.mi.us.undernet.org
User 5 Concord[quail-2.slip.uinb.edu] 18

What it shows is that a message from me to Concord has to go through 6 server-server connections, before getting to his server. (giving hopcount=6) The last line tells he's in class 5 on his server, and beeing idle 18 seconds. (u2.10.00 is the servers’ ircu-version)
Compare with the "/who Concord" reply: "Concord H conc@quail-3.slip.uinb.edu :6 Cristopher Watson" :6 means he have a hopcount of 6, relative to you.

Note that each line is sent from its respective server and this is a great way to hunt down where the lag in a connection between you and your friend is. Say if the Regensburg line is shown, and it takes a long time before the Baltimore line is printed, it means the connection between Regensburg and Baltimore is lagged. Then you consult /map (4.1.2) to find a server away from the Regensburg-Baltimore link. If this dosn’t turn up the lag, it could be sitting between him and his server, in case the difference between a “/whois nick nick” (2.6) and a ping would give you his lag.


Without parameter:

Typing /trace with no parameter will give you something on the form:
Serv <class> <nS> <nC> <name> <ConnBy> <last> <age>
Possibly displayed on more than one line.

Where:
class
 Class the server is in
nS
 Number of servers reached via this link
nC
 Number of clients reached via this link
name
 Name of the server linked
ConnBy
 Who established this link
last
 Seconds since we got something from this link
age
 Seconds this link has been alive

Example:
Beeing on sandiego, the start of the /trace reply look like this:
Serv 10 41S 20227C Dallas-R.Tx.US.Undernet.org[208.145.192.1] *!*@SanDiego.CA.US.Undernet.org 1 250589

The connection is in connection class 10 (See Y-lines 5.1.5) 41 servers are reachable via this link, resulting in 20227 reachable clients.
The link is to Dallas and was established by Sandiego itself. It’s 1 second since we heard from the server and the link has been active for 250589 seconds. (About 3 days)

The rest of the output will be likewise lines for other server-server connections (if any) possibly followed by
lines identifying operators. (Oper 1001 TNTgal[some.address.here] 6, would mean operator TNTgal in class 1001 idle 6 secs)
Buggy as it may be, people in the action of logging in on the server shows up too.
The latter part of the /trace output may seem awkward, but it helps to know that an operator typing /trace would list all people on his server, we’re just watching the censored edition.



4.2 Specific server

4.2.1 motd

Brings up your servers' "Message Of The Day". (The text you get each time you log in) As of ircu2.10.05, the server could be configured not to send the MOTD by startup, but who wouldn’t want to?
"/motd fullservername" brings you the MOTD of a remote server. On Undernet, there is supposed to be a small MOTD
on every server that is sent when it receives a remote MOTD-query. This is done to preserve bandwidth.
It’s easy to show different MOTD to different people according to their address. For instance one in the native language. In ircu2.10 you may also do this according to their connection class (5.1.5)

4.2.2 time

Shows the time, according to the servers' clock, and hours away from GMT
Syntax: /time [servername if remote]
Example: Thursday July 27 2000 -- 17:57 -06:00
This server is located 6 hours behind GMT. If you debug, you’ll find that the server also sends a line with a number in the unixtime format. as mentioned in stats-g (5.1.2) This isn’t displayed in mIRC. If your machines’ timezone setting is correct, your script could use that line to calibrate your systemclock.

4.2.3 admin

Returns administrative info.
Syntax:
/admin <servername> or just /admin for your own irc-server.
It could be used with wildcards, but returns only first matching server.

Example:
Administrative info about London.UK.eu.Undernet.org
Aladdin Internet's IRC server
Undernet IRC Server
sam@salabim.co.uk

4.2.4 help

Syntax: /raw help
This sends "HELP" to the server, giving a list of commands it will understand.
See 4.1.4 for /raw list help

4.2.5 info

Version and copyright info, along with credits to those who have contributed to the coding of the IRC-software.
/INFO server is disallowed but it's the same on all servers anyway.


4.2.6 version

Returns the version of the serversoftware running. Use /version servername for remote queries.
It can include wildcards, but returns only first matching. Makes for a shorter command. E.g /version london*.

Example:
u2.10.10.09. SanDiego.CA.US.Undernet.org B9eEFfIKlMOopStUW
This one is running ircu version 2.10.10.09 The letters at the end is its server-options. (4.2.7)


4.2.7 Decoding serveroptions in "version"

Serveroptions are those letters at the end of a version-reply. They indicate various settings. Few of them affects us, but it’s nice to know what they mean, isn’t it? :-)

Terms used
An IRC-operator can be set to two levels, with the modes FLAG_OPER or FLAG_LOCOP set. You can spot an OPER by the uppercase O in the /stats o (5.1.4) reply, and a LOCOP by the lowercase. A LOCOP dosn't get his mode propagated to other servers and so is not seen by the rest of the net as an operator and therefore cannot act on clients connected to other servers, e.g killing.
Local clients is both users and the connection to a nearby server in the net.
I will use the terms OPER and LOCOP so as not to confuse with "local operator" which could mean any operator stationed on your irc-server. The term "remote operator" in this guide means an OPER on a server other than yours.

Valid Serveroptions in ircu2.10.11
A
 Assertion checks enabled
B or b
 The size of the bufferpool.
C
 CMDLINE_CONFIG is defined
D
 DEBUGMODE is defined
e
 LOCOPS can use /REHASH
E
 Opers can use /REHASH
f
 Operators can set modes on local channels
F
 Operators bypass the no. of channels limit
H
 HUB is defined
i
 Show operators invisible users local to the server
I
 Show OPERS all invisible users.
k
 Opers can use /KILL on local clients.
K
 Opers can use /KILL on any client
l
 Operators can walk through modes on local channels
M
 IDLE_FROM_MSG is defined
O
 server has defined USEONE
p
 Oper passwords are crypted
P
 Link paswords are crypted
Q
 /stats M works
q
 Server does memory allocation/dealloation checks
R
 RELIABLE_CLOCK is defined
s
 LOCOPS can use /RESTART
S
 Opers can use /RESTART
t
 OPER_REMOTE is defined
U
 Server uses poll()
v
 VIRTUAL_HOST is defined
W
 BADCHAN is enabled
x
 local BADCHAN is enabled
Y
 Server uses syslog()
 


The meaning of the letters
When followed by [OUTDATED], it means ircu has thrown the setting overboard. It is kept here as a reference for other networks.

Assertion checks enabled A

Bufferpool b/B
If BUFFERPOOL is less than a million bytes, you get b. If it’s more, B is used.
After that, it divides the number so that only the two first digits are shown.

For nets with older ircu, here’s how it was done prior to ircu2.10.7:
---------[OUTDATED]-------------------------
MAXSENDQLENGTH M[0-9>][0-9]
Specifying 0.1Mb up to 9.9Mb of MAXSENDQLENGTH, shown as ">" when larger than 9.9Mb Default value of the "max senq. lenght" in Y: lines (5.1.5) and used for deciding RAM-allocation.

INT_BUFFERPOOL B[0-9>]
The digit represents BUFFERPOOL/MAXSENDQLENGTH and represented by ">" when larger than 9.
BUFFERPOOL = Max RAM-size of all the sendqueues, all in all.

MAXSENDQLENGHT defines the max-size of each sendqueue, and INT_BUFFERPOOL a number to multiply, giving BUFFERPOOL which is how much ram is reserved for ALL the queues.
In our example, the version-reply says "M10B8". Which gives MAXSENDQLENGTH a value of 1.0Mb and INT_BUFFERPOOL 8. INT_BUFFERPOOL * MAXSENDQLENGHT = BUFFERPOOL
8 * 1.0Mb = 8Mb

It is only a multiplier for the RAM allocation, it dosn’t tell us that there’s exactly 8 queues, but it tells the max of one single queue.
See "/stats l" (5.3.2) for a queue

For the sourcecode sniffers: INT_BUFFERPOOL is gone, BUFFERPOOL is independent and MAXSENDQLENGTH is renamed to DEFAULTMAXSENDQLENGTH in present ircu.


Chrootdir c [OUTDATED]
Server using Chroot(). Added security if running under root. All files accessed must be in directory defined as DPATH.
Standard: Not set.

cmdline_config C
allow config-file to be specified on command line. (when running the server)
Standard: Undefined

Do_id d [OUTDATED]
Maybe a "server using identd" setting. Not used in ircu anymore, but lingers on in the /version code.


Debugmode D
when having problems, the software is recompiled with this one defined. You’r unlikely to get on a server in debugmode.
Standard: Not set.

Oper_rehash E (y)
Locop_rehash e (y)
If locop_rehash are set, locops are allowed to execute the REHASH command. If only Oper_rehash are set, only Opers are allowed to do it. (This command can never be done remotely). E and e could be set both at the same time)

OPER_MODE_LCHAN f (y)
Allow operators to set modes on local channels (3.2)

OPER_NO_CHAN_LIMIT F (y)
Allow operators to bypass the maximum no. of channels allowed for a client.


HUB H
Set if server is a hub in the network tree

Show local invisible i (y)
Show all invisible I (y)

If “i” then operators can see invisible users local to the server. If “I” then OPERs can see invisible users on all servers.


OPER_KILL K (y)
Allow operators to KILL (disconnect) users.

LOCAL_KILL_ONLY k
"k" restricts OPERS to KILL users logged in on their own server.

Example:
With "k" set on sandiego.undernet.org, an OPER on that server is disallowed to kill a nick logged in on chicago.undernet.org. He can only kill users that's using sandiego. On the other hand, the chicago server might have "K" set, allowing their OPERS to kill users anywhere on the net, including sandiego.
Some networks (not Undernet) demand "k" to be set for new servers. If you find the unlikely configuration of no K-letter, it means this servers' operators can't KILL anyone, not even on their own server.

Since a LOCOP isn't recognized as operator by the other servers, he/she could never do a remote KILL anyway.


OPER_WALK_THROUGH_LMODES l (n)
let operators walk through modes on local channels

Note: in previous versions, l meant “server checks for clones”, with a number following, indicating how many connections from the same IP were allowed. see chapter 7 and the I-lines (5.1.3)


Least_idle L [OUTDATED] (but not removed from /version code)
Looks for the least idle person logged in on the server. Used for SUMMON, that can contact people on the same machine as the server. Syntax is /SUMMON <user> [<server>] but i assume it’s operator-only and long gone from any net.

m4_preproc m [OUTDATED]
The server reads its configuration file via another program, instead of reading it directly.
Standard: Not set.

Idle_from_msg M
Idle-time is nullified only from privmsg. (/msg and channelchatting) If not set, all but the serverping (PING? PONG!) will reset your idle-time. /notice isn't a privmsg.
Standard: Set.
Also see "Getting seconds idle" (2.6)
NO_OPER_DEOP_LCHAN o (n)
Prevent operators from beeing kicked or deoped on local channels.
USEONE O [OUTDATED]
The syntax in the I-lines (5.1.3) were changed in ircu2.10.05, removing the use of the token “ONE”.
With USEONE defined, the server admin can keep using “ONE” in the configuration, though it’s not recommended.

Npath N [OUTDATED]
NPATH is a variable containing the path to a backup file for NOTE, a utility that’s not around anymore.

Crypt_oper_password p
Oper passwords are encrypted
Standard: set

crypt_link_password P
Link passwords are encrypted (C-lines)
Standard: not set

Passwords are encrypted with makpasswd in UNIX (as used in the unix "passwd." file) They are stored in the O and C lines, but won't be visible when you say, do a "/stats O"

DEBUGMALLOC q 
Server does Memory allocation/deallocation checks. This is a kind of "memory book-keeping".

MEMLEAKSTATS Q
when both DEBUGMALLOC and MEMLEAKSTATS is set, we’ll get "Q" and /stats M (5.3.7) will be working.

RELIABLE_CLOCK R
The admin sees the machine's clock as reliable and ircu is asuming he's right.

Oper_restart S (y)
Locop_Restart s
Allow local OPERS and/or LOCOPS to restart the server. Setting S restricts the command to OPERS. RESTART could never be done remotely. S/s is the same as R/r in older ircu-code. (before 2.10.01) "s" would mean all operators on the server, so a setting of S and s at the same time would be redundant and mean the same as just s.

Oper_remote t (y)
When set, it allows operators to connect to the server and gain operator status without beeing on "the same network" as the machine running the server, which means an operator could log on from a dialup-account on the internet, like any user.

IRCII_Kludge u [OUTDATED]
Controls whether or not \n is used to terminate lines.

Poll() U
Server uses Poll(). It depends on the system the server is running on if it's chosen or not.

VIRTUAL_HOST v
Turns on some gear that's used when there are two or more servers on the same machine.
Standard: not set

Valloc V [OUTDATED]
Use the valloc() function, which caused problems on some systems.
Standard: Not set.

BADCHAN W (y)
Without much ado, Undernet has added the capability of banning a channelname in ircu2.10.10. Technically this is done by stopping people from joining it.

LOCAL_BADCHAN x (n)


If this is set, any OPER can ban a channel. If it isn’t set, only uworld can carry out the ban. (x is not allowed on undernet)



Trying to join a badchan’d channel will give you the same error as if you 
were banned from it. The Badchan should somehow show up in the g-line list.



The Badchan feature were implemented to block channels used by viruses/trojan 
horses to communicate with their creator. This relies on a fixed channelname and 
could thus be easily overcome by the virus-writers. Blocking a channel is accomplished 
in several other ways not requiring special settings, but this feature may be 
appreciated in those networks with a policy on allowed channels, a practical impossibility 
for larger nets.



Unixport X [OUTDATED]

a variable used to setup a Unix domain socket to connect clients/servers to. Like 
port 6667 I suppose.

standard: Set.



Use_syslog Y

Server using syslog(). The server sends "vital" messages about the server through 
syslog. Things like system errors and events critical to the server beeing logged.

Standard: Not set.



v28PlusOnly 8 [OUTDATED]

Means the net has only 2.8 or higher server versions.









 

 5 STATS. Query for retrieving various data 
  and statistics 

A command that gives you access to large amounts of information is STATS. How 
is the load on the ports divided? who is banned and why? how many is away? and 
many other things.

Syntax:

/STATS [<query> [<server>]]



Stats on remote servers are partly disabled, for that “sense of achievement” 
in bandwidth saving. Undernet has also sadly disabled most of these locally, to 
stop attackers from seeing the network structure and other weak spots. Because 
of this, the information present about the stats replies here may be inaccurate 
for newer versions of ircu





I refer to “lines”. These are literally lines in a configuration file 
on the server.

The data are all kept in the same format for programming reasons, so some fields 
will be blank for some lines. 

c, h, i, k, l, m, o, u and y queries are common for all networks, the others are 
ircu implementations. Case sensitive only when stated. 

In addition, ircu.2.10.10 started implementing F-lines, socalled feature-lines 
to keep track of all the configuration and compile-time options and choices ircu 
allow. These lines are also responsible for the oper-only commands /set /reset 
and /get. Non-operators arn't allowed to view F-lines but I mention them here 
to avoid confusion.



 

 5.1 Who's allowed in and how. 

 

 5.1.1 k K-line 

Returns a list of banned usernames and hostnames. (Kill-lines) Helps you determine 
why someone can't get in.



K:<host/IP mask>:<optional reason>:<username 
mask>:-1

the optional reason can be entered plainly using quotes or, when preceded by a 
!, be the path to a textfile that contain the reason.

(versions prior to 10.05 could only allow reference to a filename, without !)

As of ircu2.10.11, the <host/IP mask> field can filter on your infotext 
(realname) when preceded by $R

The -1 is a field who should be a port by the standard syntax, set to -1 since 
it dosn't make sense in this context.



Examples:

K * user 0 -1

K *.ppp.some.mr Go_away ~tagger 0 -1

anyone matching "user@*" is banned. (guaranteed fake ID) anyone matching ~tagger@ppp.some.mr 
is also banned.



K *.compuserve.com !klines/us * 0 -1

Anyone from compuserve is k-lined, server looking up a file and replying with 
its contents, say “Please use a us-server".



K * K-lined because of clones ~victor

anyone matching ~victor@* is k-lined, just displaying the text "K-lined because 
of clones"



K $R*sub7* you are infected with a trojan * 
0 -1

Will k-line anyone with infotext (see 2.14) 
mathing *sub7* 



If you happen to find a lowercase "k"-line, it works as other K-lines, except 
it contains an IP-address that will K-line the user even if his IP happen to resolve 
to a DNS address. This is part of the protection against "virtual host" misuse, 
as described in "userhost/userip" (2.9)

k 192.168.* !klines/martians * 0 -1





Stats K has remote capabilities:

Syntax: /stats k fullservername mask

You have to pass along a mask, and you cannot force all lines “the wildcard 
way”. From ircu2.10.01 you can replace fullservername with a nick. (meaning 
the nicks server)



Notes: 

the ~ is added by the server when it wasn't able to verify your address. (Which 
it does by IDENTD) 

Ircu also performs checks on your username outside the k-lines. Mixed case can 
trigger it

the 0 and -1 at the end are just unused fields.

In addition to all this, there’s some fuzzy features. A server might add 
G-lines to its K-line list automatically and allowing opers from other servers 
to set its k-lines. It shouldn’t make much difference though. There's also 
an attempt at "timed K-lines" for balancing the load from near and abroad as the 
peak-hours shift across the globe.







 

 5.1.2 g G-line 

shows G-lines.

They work as K-lines except that they ban for the whole undernet (Global-lines) 
and they expire automatically after a given period of time. 



Example:

G **@fish.baccalao.com 970523933 [Super] large 
trout slapping [3]

G *timmy@grasshoppers.org 970574400 Banned due 
to clones.



The format is simple: Address, number, reason. The number is based on a startingpoint. 
the "epoch". It's a LONG number that tells the number of secs since 01:00 1. jan 
1970 GMT time. if you try /debug in mIRC you will find it used in whois-replies. 
(signed on.. e.t.c) and also in pinging. For the whois, your program automatically 
converts the number to your timezone and translates it into readable format. 

When the date/time specified by number is reached, the G-Line is lifted. A G-line 
usually lasts for a few hours or a week, but could easily be set to last forever. 
(Well, over 30 years atleast.) Also see (6.5)



Note that the number used will not be the same as the number used for date/time 
in e.g Excel, because Microsoft chose another startingpoint. (There were no Microsoft 
in 1970 :-)



Lacking a command to add k-lines on the fly, a form of g-lines not propagating 
to other servers, socalled local global-lines (sic!) were made available. Then 
in principle you could do away with the k-lines.





How do one translate the LONG number to a normal date/time format? I got this 
handy alias for mIRC from Rainman:

First make this an alias: /unixtime /echo $active 
$$1 = $asctime($$1) and then you type say, /unixtime 
970574400 and get the output: 970574400 
= Tue Oct 03 14:00:00 2000 You may type //echo 
$asctime(970574400) if you don't know how to make aliases.







 

 5.1.3 i I-line 

A list of the hosts that is allowed to connect to the server as a client.





I:<IP mask or 
garbage text to force resolving (e.g NOMASK) >:<digit>:<hostmask>:<port>:<class>



Example:

I nomatch * *@*tea-house.com 0 4

I *@*.se * *@*.se 0 20

I *@*.fi * *@*.fi 0 20

I *@*shoeshop.com 5 *@*shoeshop.com 0 20

I *@* * Unresolved 0 1

I *@* * *@* 0 1



On the last two lines, you can see that the server will in general allow anyone. 
Even if the server can't get your DNS address (Unresolved) But In the K-line list, 
your host or domain might be k-lined because you should use a closer server. (European 
clients will experience this a lot on us-servers and vice versa.) 



Take notice of the 2. field from left <digit>. In versions earlier than 
ircu2.10.05, “ONE” here meant that only one connection were allowed 
in from the same IP-address, when sorted under this I-line. From 10.05 they can 
put a * to mean unspecified, or a digit, 1 to 9, to limit the number of clients 
connecting. In the example above, shoeshop.com are allowed to have 5 connections 
from the same IP-address, where the connections are counted globally. (Its 
total number connections to the IRC-network) The old “ONE” only looked 
for clients connected to this very server. 

To ease it for lazy server-admins, ;-) one can compile ircu to still accept “ONE” 
in the I-lines. If so is done, a “O” shows up in the /version reply. 
(4.2.7)

At the same time, the <digit> field is the field to put in the password 
for operator connections. That won't be displayed ofcourse :-)



The <port> field is usually empty, hence the 0. But it's not port 0. If 
in use, it probably restricts the connection to use only the specified port. 



Example:

Your favourite server has got the following line and you are under the *.de domain: 
“I *@*.de 2 *@*.de 0 20”

If you already had two connections to Undernet, possibly on other servers, this 
exact server would not let you in. Another server with a different setup, might 
still let you in.



Q: What if I match more than one I-line?

A: If the administrator has put the lines in the right order, you should be matched 
to the I-line with the most specific mask. (“*.yourprovider.com” is 
more specific than “*.com”)



Q: Don't I and K lines "collide" sometimes?

A: As a thumbrule, the leftmost, or most specific identification can override 
the other. 



This depends on the admin setting up the lines correctly



Example:

A European server might K-line the whole *.edu domain, but put *.someuniversity.edu 
in I-line. Someuniversity will then get in, so the "someuniversity." inclusion 
is overriding the .edu exclusion.

A *!*someperson@someuniversity.edu K-line will in turn override the universities' 
general I-line.

Also the common "*!~user!*@*" K-line will override the common *!*@* I-line, that 
allows anyone in general in.

If a server has the same mask in both an I and a K line, the K override the I.



I-lines can be fetched remotely. Same syntax as for k-lines (5.1.1)







 

 5.1.4 o O-line 

This one returns a list of hosts from which normal clients may become operators.





Example: 

o *@*.sol.no * discotom 0 10

o *@*.sn.no * discotom 0 10

O *@*.online.no * McSyrup 0 10

O *@*.sol.no * McSyrup 0 10



Big O in the list means a global op, small o means a local op. Local ops can't 
act outside the server, and on Undernet they can't use Uworld. Ops can also see 
invisible people, but the "local ops" can only see those invisible on their own 
server. Your local "local ops" (locops for short) is shown in the "/who 0 o" command, 
along with the global operators.

The ops listed in the example are put in connectionclass 10. (5.1.5) 
the * is for the hidden password, 0 is just empty.



see 4.2.7 for more about the Op-status.



 

 5.1.5 y Y-line 

y shows Y (Class) lines from server's configuration file

These classes are used to decide how many are allowed to connect from different 
places on the internet. A european server for example, might allow, say a maximum 
of 100 us-users, and would therefore put all *.com *.edu *.net and *.org users 
in a class with a maximum of 100. Another use, is putting the operators in a dedicated 
class, so that they'r sure to get in, even if the server should be full.





The syntax is:

Y:<class>:<ping freq>:<connect 
freq>:<maximum links>:<sendq size>:<current no. of links>



Example 

Y 0 120 600 1 2000000 1

Y 70 200 120 10 4700000 3

Y 20 180 0 300 400000 60

Y 10 180 0 100 400000 4

Y 5 180 0 50 400000 25

Y 4 180 0 400 400000 368

Y 3 180 0 200 200000 153

Y 2 180 0 200 400000 200

Y 1 180 0 400 400000 42



In this example, class 1 can take up to 400 users, with a max sendque of 400000. 
But has only 42 users. The ping-frequency is allowed to be as high as 180. ping-frequency 
is how long you can be silent before a ping is sent. If all classes were filled 
up, this server would have 2370 clients. I choose to call the possible clients 
in a class "seats". We might guess that class 70 and 0, both with few seats, special 
ping-frequency and high sendq size, is dedicated to server-server connections.

In O-lines (5.1.4) we read that for this 
server, class 10 is where the operators are placed.



Where the classes are saved:

Who goes in which class is defined in the I:lines. here's an example from a norwegian 
Undernet-server:



I *@*.org * *@*.org 0 3

I *@*.net * *@*.net 0 3

I *@*.edu * *@*.edu 0 3

I *@*.com * *@*.com 0 3

I *@*.se * *@*.se 0 20

I *@*.fi * *@*.fi 0 20

I *@*.dk * *@*.dk 0 20

[...]



All americans are grouped in class 3, while people from the neighbouring countries 
goes in class 20. According to the y:lines above, the neighbour-countries has 
300 "seats" dedicated to them, and us-citizens 200. 

Further down we find:

I NOMATCH * *@*.telepost.no 0 4

I NOMATCH * *@*.online.no 0 4

I NOMATCH * *@*.telenor.no 0 4

I NOMATCH * *@*.sol.no 0 2

This means 600 "seats" are reserved for these hosts. (see y-lines) (NOMATCH forces 
the address to be resolved. The server dosn't want to be fooled) Coincidentally, 
these are domains belonging to the ISP running the server! ;-)



To Determine your class: use /trace yournickname.

Example: "User 3 Napoleon[modem15.lePPP.eifelnet.fr] 
30" means nickname Napoleon belongs to class 70, beeing idle 30 secs.







 

 5.2 Server-server connections 

 

 5.2.1 c 

Returns a list of servers which the server may connect to or allow connections 
from.



Example prior to ircu2.10.10:

N *@130.240.16.107 * Lulea-R.SE.Eu.Undernet.org 
0 80

C *@130.240.16.107 * Lulea-R.SE.Eu.Undernet.org 
4400 80



Example, current ircu:

C * * London.UK.Eu.Undernet.org 0 80

C * * Amsterdam-R.NL.EU.Undernet.org 0 80

C * * Oslo1.NO.EU.Undernet.org 0 70

C * * Gothenburg.Se.Eu.Undernet.org 4400 80



Earlier servers had two lines “C” to connect TO, and “N” 
to accept connection FROM.

These are merged into one today. The IP of the server is also masked, along with 
the password ofcourse, for security reasons.

The two last numbers are unixport and class to connect to. You’ll find the 
same port in /stats y (5.1.5)

if the port is ommitted (0 as here) the server will not try to connect to that 
server.

That means that the server in this example can accept connections from london, 
amsterdam, oslo1 and gothenburg, 

but will only try to connect to Gothenburg itself. This is part of defining the 
tree-structure.







 

 5.2.2 U (uppercase) 

showing U:lines. Listing of servers allowed to act as “services”. 
Uworld is running x on Undernet

Example:

U Uworld.undernet.org Uworld,X,NickSvr,NickSaver,NickServ,LPT1,LPT2,AUX 
* 0 -1

U Uworld2.undernet.org UWorld2,W,ChanSvr,ChanSaver,ChanServ,COM1,COM2,COM3,COM4 
* 0 -1

U Uworld.EU.undernet.org EuWorld,E,protocol,StatServ,NoteServ,Undernet 
* 0 -1

As of ircu2.10.05 U-lines accept “nick jupes”. In effect, noone but 
uworld can use the above nicks. 

This includes W and X, but most of the nicks are “juped” to stop various 
nasty exploitations by users taking the nicks.





 

 5.3 Statistics-related 
  commands 

 

 5.3.1 m (lowercase)

Gives you a list of commands supported by the server, number of times they've 
been used, and the bytes consumed by the command.

For commands that havn’t been used, type /raw help



Example: 

PRIVMSG 4752355 184344091

NICK 848063 49075863

QUIT 580331 17961034

[...]





Example:

Sending a PRIVMSG between servers. Toma2 speaking in #SoupConspiracy. Everything 
before PRIVMSG is prefix

:Toma2!MisterL@ppp54.conspir.gov PRIVMSG #SoupConspiracy 
:The Soup has arrived

For more information about Privmsg, read the IRC RFC, (currently RFC1459) or try 
out the /debug command in mIRC. 



It’s hard to guess the average message-lenght. PRIVMSG, as you can see, 
consists of much more than the actual msg, but combined with the number of users 
and the t, p and l-query, we might guess out how much people talk and if 
a servers' users tend to talk to each other mostly, or is chatting around "out 
there", because a long prefix is only added while sending outside the server.



You may also use /quote help (4.2.4) 
to list available commands

 

 5.3.2 l 

Shows a table with server-server connections and some people in the act of logging 
in. 



Sample: 

Connection SendQ SendM SendKBytes RcveM RcveKBytes 
Open since

baltimore-r.md.us.undernet.org 121 166840 6592 
1043968 49922 000004536

0 1 0 2 0 000000002

0 2 0 3 0 000000025

NickJagger 0 1 0 2 0 000000009



The 2nd line is a server-server connection, the 3 last are people logging in. 
(USER and PONG havn’t been carried out yet)

ircu previous to 2.10.08 would also show statistics for the ports on your server: 


[...]

SanDiego.CA.US.Undernet.org[*.6666] 0 7809826 
743927 998848 45499 001529427

SanDiego.CA.US.Undernet.org[*.6667] 0 287381731 
24655221 30384980 1297028 001529427

[...]

The 2. line would be the sum for all ports. You can get much of the same info 
from /stats p (5.3.3)

On even older ircu, port 6667 wasn’t shown, but you could easily find its 
values when you subtracted the other ports from the sum.



Explanation:



  
 
     Send M/Q

    		
     Sent/Qued messages

    		
  

  
 
     Send/Rcve M

    		
     Sent/Received 
      messages

    		
  

  
 
     Send/Rcve KBytes

    		
     Kilobytes sent/received

    		
  

  
 
     Open since

    		
     Number of seconds 
      it has been open. The other numbers are counted from this moment.

    		
  





 

 5.3.3 p 

Show you the ports this server accepts connections on, and how many is on each. 
A must when choosing ports :-)



Sample:

[...]

P 6670 8 C active

P 6669 41 C active

P 6668 148 C active

P 6667 354 C active

P 6666 25 C active

P 6665 30 C active

P 6664 23 C active

P 6663 30 C active

P 6662 23 C active

P 6661 9 C active

P 6660 227 C active

P 31337 0 C active 

P 7777 144 C active

P 7000 113 C active

P 4000 0 S active

P 1025 0 C active

P 10321 0 C active



C = open for users.

S = open for server-server connections only.



This servers MOTD said ports 6660 to 6670 were open for users. In addition, mIRC 
lists port 6668, 7000 and 7777 as valid ports for this server. 6667 is the standard 
IRC port. Sure lagging against the server isn’t a big problem usually, but 
it’s something appealing about the luxury of having a port all by yourself. 
:-)



From ircu2.10.10 there’s an option for hiding a port from this listing, 
so don’t be suprised if the admin keeps the good ports to himself. Ports 
can also be reserved to ops by setting password on them. (Port 31337 
in this example rings a bell?)



stats p can be done remotely:

/stats p servername [mask] will 
return the 3 first matching ports, or 3 first if no mask.





 

 5.3.4 t (lowercase) 

Various statistics about the server.



Example:

accepts 1622557 refused 1590021

unknown commands 17031 prefixes 84

wrong direction 54 empty 660

Client Server

connected 28292 4

bytes sent 2425789.450K 423214.786K

bytes recv 189255.273K 506019.371K





 

 5.3.5 z 

shows memory usage and count data structures. What it means to us: More statistics! 
:-D And many of these are global statistics too. Here you can count how many is 
set away, number of bans, number of users in whowas-buffer e.t.c. The format is 
“number(bytes used)”



Example:

Client Local 284(260144) Remote 14619(2865324)

Users 14858(1664320) Invites 7(140)

User channels 31169(623380) Aways 1042(46145)

Attached confs 285(5700)

Conflines 598(40307)

Classes 9(252)

Channels 9661(2451957) Bans 9990(428434)

Channel membrs 31169(623380) invite 7(140)

Whowas users 810(90720) away 11(489)

Whowas array 1000(80000)

Hash: client 26669(106676) chan 16001(64004)

Dbuf blocks 426(867336)

RES table 4096

Structs 81920 IP storage 24624 Name storage 
55151

Total: ww 171209 ch 3503911 cl 5465153 co 40307 
db 867336

End of /STATS report



Output from /lusers at the same time:

There are 7932 users and 6926 invisible on 42 
servers

30 operator(s) online

9661 channels formed

I have 274 clients and 1 servers



Explanation for the statistics:

If you summarize local and remote clients, you get 42 more than the number of 
users. This is due to the server-server connections beeing counted as clients, 
but not as users. Conflines and attached confs are configuration lines. the nine 
classes-lines are the ones retrived with the y-query.



away-messages:

The example above says 1042 people is marked as away, but note that this is slightly 
misleading, as away-messages isn't exchanged during a rejoin after a netsplit. 
(Not up to and counting ver 2.10.10 atleast). So sometimes, to find a persons 
away-message, you need to direct the whois-query to his server, 2.6. 




User channels and Channel members:

This is about datastructures, or relations between channel and user.



An example:

You have two users, Nat and Tim. Nat is on channel #a and #b, Tim beeing only 
on #b. This gives us three user-channel "relations": 

"Nat on #a", "Nat on #b" and "Tim on #b". You could also say that the number is 
the sum of occurences of "user X on channel Y".

These relations are contained in two separate lists, the "User channels" beeing 
a list of channels the user is on and "Channel members" constituting a list of 
users the chan has. 

Simplified, the lists might be like this:

User channels list: Channel Members list:

NAT #a (Nats' relations) #a NAT (The relations of channel a)

NAT #b #b TIM (The relations of channel b)

TIM #b (Tims') #b NAT



sum: 3 sum: 3

The sum should usually be the same for both.

The lists are used to "channel" data between the users, hence the name channels.

NAT says something in #b, "User channels" verifies she can speak there, the server 
looks in the "Channel Members" list, sees that TIM is also on #b and channel what 
NAT said over to TIM.

(I suppose that data like "#b is a secret channel, has this and that topic" is 
kept in a separate list, and not copied for every member of it, and ditto for 
the modes of a nick.)



Fun with statistics:

We have 14858 users, 9661 channels and 31169 occurences in each list 

This tell us that each user is on average on 2.1 channels at the same time (31169/14858 
= 2.1) and that each channel has on average 3.2 users. 
(31169/9661 = 3.2) 



(Yes, the numbers can be different. Imagine an extreme case of a net with thousand 
channels and 2 users, where one of them has joined all channels, the other is 
on none. You get “on average there is 1 person on each channel” and 
“on average a person is on 500 channels”)



 

 5.3.6 w 

Access statistics from main served domain.



Example:

-Oslo-R.NO.EU.Undernet.org- Minute Hour Day 
Yest. YYest. Userload for:

-Oslo-R.NO.EU.Undernet.org- 6.00 6.0 7 0 0 sol.no 
clients

-Oslo-R.NO.EU.Undernet.org- 565.91 610.3 675 
0 0 total clients

-Oslo-R.NO.EU.Undernet.org- 500.36 534.8 640 
0 0 total connections



This server is run by the sol company, so they like to keep some statistics about 
their own users. 



 

 5.3.7 M (uppercase)

Various memory-leak statistics.

 

 5.3.8 r and x 

Two queries available when the server is in DEBUGMODE. r shows resource usage 
reports, x shows usage of lists

Not to be confused with R-lines which ircu does not support.



 

 5.3.9 u (lowercase) 

Telling you how long the server has been up (since last reboot)



Example: 

Server Up 1 days, 7:09:21

Highest connection count: 1087 (1085 clients)











 

 6 Discussions 

 

 6.1 A look under the hood 

You might want to see what is transmitted between you and the server to better 
understand what's going on. mIRC has the command /debug on|off that saves a log 
in debug.log. In the log you will encounter "numeric replies", those numbers at 
the beginning of the lines. They are for example used in the /whois replies to 
identify the contents of each line. The common numeric replies are listed in chapter 
6 in RFC1459, but I'd advice you to instead have a look at this webpage: http://www.ircworks.com/jeepster.htm 
which contains a helpfile for numeric replies, also network-specific for Undernet, 
Dalnet and Efnet and give you good examples on ways to use them in scripts.



 

 6.2 Privacy and anonymity on IRC

As a thumbrule you shouldn’t trust irc or internet for that matter when 
it comes to your privacy and anonymity.

Some networks can send invisible listeners into any channel, some even record 
everything you say and do. Never trust a network that dosn’t give out their 
sourcecode. Personally I wouldn’t trust a network that put restrictions 
on what you can talk about either, as that easily justifies “violations” 
of privacy. It’s easy to eavesdrop on internet conversations and irc in 
particular. You may use DCC chats to bypass the irc-network, but if privacy is 
of great importance for the conversation at hand, consider a substitute for IRC, 
preferrably one with heavy encryption. 

As for anonymity, I’d say you are anonymous if people can’t track 
down your true identity. Your identity could be revealed by your IP address. This 
is the address of your computer when it’s on Internet, and can be translated 
into a corresponding DNS address. (Say modem50.ppp.village.net) Some nets mask 
your ID for other users, but on most nets you can see peoples address in the /whois 
reply. Even if your net masks it, they themselves have access to it, and could 
possibly hand it out. When you accept a DCC chat or filetransfer, you also reveal 
each others address. When someone has gotten your address, they ask your internet 
provider “who used that address at that time?” and if the ISP comply, 
your true identity is revealed. If IDENTD is used, your userid at your provider 
may be shown in a /whois, and a simple finger at your provider may reveal your 
identity. If you’r chased by lawyers, secret service or ECHELON itself, 
expect to be tracked down in more sofisticated ways.

http://www.user-com.undernet.org/newsletter/archives/2000/newsletter03-00.html 
- bouncers features an article on “bouncers”, relay-servers that 
you can route your IRC chat through, making it appear on IRC like you originate 
from that server and not your machine. Much like anonymous mail forwarding. On 
the other hand, bouncers are a golden chance at listening in on IRC conversations. 
How far can you trust the bouncers, or to rephrase: How far can you throw Manhattan? 




What can the operators see according to current ircu?

Operators can not see messages between users, they can not monitor the talking 
in a channel without joining it and they can not join a channel without beeing 
seen. 1) 

Apart from that, you should assume that the operators can join any channel regardless 
of restrictions, find you regardless of +i mode (2.5.1), 
see the secret channels you are on and who is in there with you. 2)

If you have a special operator in mind, the version-reply (4.2.7) 
should give you sufficient information about his powers.



But, that’s when we’re all playing by the rules. Perhaps the admin 
has tweaked ircu? perhaps he is packetsniffing his own machine? Tapping IRC chats 
are easy, and it isn’t harder with ircu than any other serversoftware.




    
  
  1.  I once were on a net where it was said they had a bot that could join a 
    channel “invisibly”, and monitor for indecent words.
    
  
    2. 
  
  2.  The ability to see inside +s/+p channels were added in ircu, but I guess 
    other nets could have opted for this too.
    3. 






 

 6.3 What's a ping? Meet CTCP 
  and DCC

A ping files under what we call CTCP (Client To Client Protocol) commands. 

Essentially, sending a PING to a nick is an everyday PRIVMSG and the reply sent 
back is a NOTICE. A PRIVMSG is a message to a nick or a channel, so /ping #channel 
is a valid way to ping everyone in that channel.

The time and IP is determined with a LONG-number, (see G-lines(5.1.2)), 
and the PRIVMSG/NOTICE line also contain some special characters. The /me command 
is also a CTCP command. (Called ACTION) 

You may convert between regular and long IP in mirc by typing //echo 
2 $longip(IP-address)



The DCC (Direct Client Connection) is initiated via CTCP but has its own life 
after that.

For more information, have a look at http://www.doco-com.undernet.org/, 
they have both the DCC and CTCP RFC with good explanations. (Believe me, how CTCP 
work isn't hard to grasp at all) Type /ctcp 
nick clientinfo to see what commands the nick will respond to.

Beeing on a LAN or using a firewall, you may have run into problems with DCC. 
http://www.ircworks.com/ics.htm 
discuss the problem and possible solutions.



A small trick:

Typing /raw PRIVMSG BlondeBunny :DCC CHAT chat 
413460262 8888 will trick BlondeBunny into initiating a Telnet session 
with the roleplaying server furry.org on port 8888. The character is 01 in hex, 
(most easily retrieved by copying from the debug.log in mirc) This could have 
been used for say, checking your mail via mIRC, but alas! Several clients disallow 
attempts/accepts of connections lower than 1024, stopping those with malicious 
intents. You may manage to connect to port 25 on a mailserver via mIRC, but a 
port 23 telnet dosn't seem to work (Anyone out there who managed this through 
mIRC? Please drop me a mail)



Note:

Typing "/raw ping garbage" does a serverping. That's the ping that makes those 
"PING? PONG!" lines in the status-window, checking to see if you'r online. It’s 
not related to the CTCP ping. The serverping before ircu2.10.11 had a “remote” 
capability, see 1.4.



 

 6.4 What’s lag and bandwidth?

Bandwidth is about how much data the servers manage to squeeze in on their lines. 
If there's much data passing through, its going slow. The result is lag, that 
it takes a long time before you see what people typed. The easiest way you can 
reduce your lag when you'r chatting with someone, is to initiate a DCC chat. The 
text is then passed directly between you, not through the irc-network. Also, you 
won’t be affected by a netsplit in DCC-chats

For channels, you may want to use close servers. (4.1.2) 
The source of the lag can be traced down using /trace (4.1.5) 
and a remote whois (2.6)

 

 6.5 Desyncs after a netburst

A netburst is the “reconnection” of the network after it has had a 
split.

During the netburst, most information in the network like who’s on which 
channel is synchronized. A timestamp as the one in the g-lines (5.1.2) 
is used to decide between conflicting information. If for instance, two people 
have the same nick, the one who got it first keep it, the other one is kicked 
off the net. This is exploited by services like X on Undernet by setting the timestamp 
to 0 (1. january 1970) thus overriding all other settings 
withouth violating any IRC protocol.

As of P10 (4.1.3) 
the away, silence, topic and invite information is not synchronized, to 
save bandwidth. Silence (2.12) has its 
own synch-system and common sense tell people to do the invite (3.6) 
over again. The average channelservicebot will synchronize the topic as well. 
To get hold of the away-message after a split without joining the persons server, 
you’d have to use a remote /whois (2.4)

 

 6.6 Obscure commands

I believe that most commands in this guide can be usefull or interesting to someone 
out there. The commands below however, is absolutely uninteresting. But, this 
guide should contain every command reachable by the user, so here goes:

/raw dns: Displaying Something about DNS-caching data. (Hurray! it’s 
gone in ircu2.10.10 :-D)

/hash: I don’t even know! Grrr.. (Drat. The bugger is still around 
in 2.10.11 :-[ )

But ofcourse, you can pretend for your friends it’s something much more 
interesting. Use your imagination and mail your ideas to me, I’ll add the 
best to the guide in the next edition.

 

 6.7 What’s Uworld, X and Cservice?

uworld is a service running on undernet. Acting as a server, it can set modes 
for a channel and by that helping opers fix channels more easily. It also helps 
administering g-lines. It has no services for regular users, but if you ping or 
msg it too much, you might set off its G-line floodprotection. Cservice is another 
service running. It’s the one responsible for the X channelbots you’ve 
probably encountered if you frequent Undernet.



 

 6.8 Summary of Undernet anti-flood 
  measures.

A network will want to minimize the number of ways people can harass others on 
it. A common loophole were to take advantage of net-splits to gain op in channels 
and cause “nick-collisions”, to kick people off the net. This loophole 
has been eliminated on Undernet with the use of “timestamps”, but 
flooding, the most common way to cause a DOS (Denial Of Service) or just causing 
annoyance prevails. Flooding is to send a lot of unwanted data to something, so 
that their connection is lost, their channelwindow is filled with garbage or they’r 
otherwise harassed.



I’ve mentioned the floodstoppers throughout the guide, Here’s a summary 
of how other people and the server is stopped from flooding you:




Apart from this, the net takes action against you flooding it, by restricting 
remote calls to servers and hiding the network structure. Cservice also has floodstoppers 
built in.



 

 6.9 Characters on IRC

For chatting in channels, anything that can be translated to ASCII gets through. 
(ASCII is a standard way to express characters) Note however, that since the parts 
of the ASCII table may be country-specific, your ASCII-art may not turn out as 
well for others. Fancy fonts will only show up on your own computer. You can use 
character map (charmap.exe) in windows to view the ASCII table.



Channelnames: After the initial #, & or +, all characters except NUL (\0), 
BELL (\007), CR (\r), LF (\n) a space or a comma 

Colons in channelnames are valid for ircu but may be reserved for other purposes 
on other nets.



Nicks: The allowed characters are a to z, A to Z, 0 to 9 and [ ] { } [ ] { } \ 
| ^ ` - _

This is the same as saying that ’-’ and the characters ’0’ 
to ’9’ and ’A’ to ’}’ in the ASCII table are 
allowed. 

The first character in a nick cannot be a ’-’ or a number.



The characters { } | ^ are considered the lower case equivalents of [ ] \ ~ respectively. 
This is said to be because of IRCs scandinavian origin, but while scandinavians 
will notice that Æ,Ø,Å is forced lowercase in channelnames, 
Å and Ä is not equivalent with each other or with any of { } | ^. This 
bear the mark of a backward-compatible ircu feature, and how non-american letters 
are treated on IRC may vary between nets.



A weird side-effect happens when trying to ban people with these characters in 
the name.

Trying to ban the nick “ac\dc”, *|*!*@* will work where *\*!*@* fails. 
*ac\dc*!*@* works just fine too.



 

 7 The logon procedure 

Connecting and beeing on IRC is nothing but a telnet session. The telnet address 
being the servername and the portnumber for example 6667. Here's what to do if 
you want to try an unpolished tour on IRC:

You connect to the address, with the right portnumber, using a telnet client. 
(“telnet.exe” in windows works fine) Follow these steps: 



On undernet this may scroll up:

NOTICE AUTH :*** Looking up your hostname

NOTICE AUTH :*** Found your hostname, cached

NOTICE AUTH :*** Checking Ident 



If mIRC, and not your ISP handles IDENTD requests, it might be necessary to have 
mIRC running at the same time. (see 2.4 
for IDENTD) or the server, if it is more forgiving will still let you in, only 
putting a ~ before your username in the /whois reply.

Regardless of whether the lines above came up or not, we continue:



First you type: NICK yournickname

Then you'll get a line saying: PING :somenumber, 
answear with: PONG samenumber. (If 
you don't get a PING, procede with USER)

The PING-PONG that you may have seen in your status-window while online is the 
server checking to see if you'r still logged in, while this initial Ping-Pong 
is to stop IP-Spoofing. The machine the server sent the PING to must be the same 
as the one who sent a PONG back, since it knew the number. It also stops a few 
attacks by assuring the server that it's someone who wants to do IRC at the other 
end, as IRC supposingly is the only protocol going PING-PONG in this way.

In fact, to somehow stop people abusing web-proxies, sending the command POST 
to ircu2.10.11 during login will disconnect you.



Now follow up with the command: USER username 
"hostaddress" "someservername" :Yourname (Keep the ".) 

The username will be overridden by the IDENTD username if available, hostaddress 
and someservername is ignored but must be present. After that, various information 
scrolls up. (Some ircu specific here)



Irc operators or administrators would here issue their password for special access. 
There are talks about using the password to log into the channelservice (X on 
Undernet) and set yourself +x (2.5.1) 
before you fully enter the net, so that your address is not visible to anyone 
during even a brief moment of the logon, but this is somewhat in the future. (2003 
or later).



If you’r connecting to undernet and using a firewall on your machine, the 
firewall may alarm you at this moment that someone in pinging your ports. This 
is not related to the IDENTD but is Undernet checking for malconfigured Wingate 
and Proxy servers (see http://help.undernet.org/proxyscan/)



Time to be greeted:



Welcome to the Internet Relay Network Alex

Your host is irc.clockworkorange.co.uk, running 
version u2.10.11.rc.1

This server was created Fri Jun 23 2002 at 13:28:57 
MET DST

irc.clockworkorange.co.uk u2.10.11.rc.1 dioswkg 
biklmnopstv bklov



After this warm welcome, some pearls for clients:



WHOX WALLCHOPS USERIP CPRIVMSG CNOTICE SILENCE=15 
MODES=6 MAXCHANNELS=10 MAXBANS=30 NICKLEN=9 TOPICLEN=160 AWAYLEN=160 KICKLEN=160 
are supported by this server

CHANTYPES=+#& PREFIX=(ov)@+ CHANMODES=b,k,l,imnpstr 
CASEMAPPING=rfc1459 NETWORK=UnderNet are supported by this server



These ISUPPORT messages are an attempt at telling the client (mIRC, Pirch e.t.c) 
more about the server they connect to, so that they can switch on or off features 
depending on the net they’r on, instead of beeing bound to the archaic IRC-protocol. 


The first five indicate that these commands are available on this net, followed 
by the maximum number of “/silence”s for one user, max number of modes 
and channels for one user, max number of bans in one channel e.t.c

In ircu2.10.10, "TOPICLEN" also controls the lenght of your QUIT and AWAY comment, 
as well as the operator's /KILL message. In 2.10.11 the length of the AWAY messages 
were split off as a separate setting, while QUIT is still controlled by TOPICLEN.

You may observe a channel having more bans than the "MAXBANS" limit. This is purely 
an effect of merging after a netsplit.



CHANTYPES indicate the three types of channels, +modeless (3.3), 
#ordinary and &local (3.2). This 
only tells the client that these three characters are in use as channel prefixes, 
they do not convey the difference between these channels. PREFIX should be read 
as “o-mode in a channel (channel operator) is shown by a @ beside the nick, 
v-mode (voice) by a +.” (3.5.1). 
mIRC assume that these prefixes are sorted according to the power they possess.

Chanmode is on the form CHANMODE=A,B,C,D where:

A = modes that take parameters and may add or remove nicks or addresses from a 
list (the banlist for instance)

B = modes that change channel settings and take a parameter when they are set 
or unset (setting the key for the channel)

C = modes that change channel settings, but which take a parameter only when they 
are set (setting the limit for instance)

D = modes that change channel settings, but take no parameters and all unknown/unlisted 
modes.



CASEMAPPING refers, far as I know, to the what character map should be used on 
this network. rfc1459 refers to the “standard” for irc. (6.9)



Later on follows the output of /lusers (4.1.1) 
followed by the server bragging about its personal record on connections, before 
we move on to the MOTD and after its words of wisdom we’re almost done:



irc.clockworkorange.co.uk- on 1 ca 1(2) ft 10(10) 
tr



where:

on = Number of globally connected clients including yourself from your IP-number.

ca = Connect Attempts, You have tried once, after 2 sequential connects you get 
throttled. 

ft = Free Targets. This is how many different people you may contact at once, 
also see 3.10

tr = Targets Restored. Your targets are kept for 2 minutes or until someone else 
from your IP logs on. This stops you from “refilling” your free targets 
by reconnection.



The example tells you that there’s one connected client from your IP number 
on the net, and this is your first connect-attempt in a while. You have 10 free 
targets and no targets restored. (also see 3.10)

People joining a channel on invite will receive an extra target



Local host: dialup-1984.ppp.bb.gov (192.117.116.115)

Informing you what the server believe to be your IP and matching DNS address. 
Since ircu2.10.11, hostnames containing characters other than a-z A-Z 0-9 _ . 
and – are disallowed. Allowing them could potentially mess up both clients 
and scripts





A logon example:

NICK LouiseL

PING :209491250 

PONG 209491250 

USER llane "ppp-21.metropolisnet.com" "irc.server.org" 
:Louise Lane



What you specify in "someservername" dosn't seem to be crucuial, probably just 
a leftover from archaic IRC standards.

When you want to get out, type QUIT. (A nice way to learn the commands needed 
to chat, is using /debug [on/off] in mIRC.)



Note: 

You get no text displayed the moment you connect and the server does not echo 
the commands, so you will have to turn on local echo in your telnetclient. 



 

 8 Other resources 



 

 8.1 Undernet Channels 





  
 
     #class

    		
     Holding classes 
      to teach about IRC. (how to defend against flood, basics of IRC, e.t.c) 
      Several teachers are available for questions during the class. When there's 
      no class, there's a bot there with various helpfull textfiles.

    		
  

  
 
     #opschool

    		
     School for operators 
      using X.

    		
  

  
 
     #cservice

    		
     Helping you with 
      X and other cservice-related subjects.

    		
  

  
 
     #ICMP

    		
     Teaching you 
      how to avoid flood and other Denial Of Service (DOS) attacks like nukes 
      or ICMP attacks.

    		
  

  
 
     #ZT

    		
     "Zero Tolerance." 
      Helpchan for those suffering from channel-takeovers.

    		
  

  
 
     #backorifice, 
      #dmsetup

    		
     Good channels 
      for help with irc viruses

    		
  

  
 
     

    		
     

    		
  

  
 
     #help, #irc_info, 
      #irchelp, 

      #irc-help, #helpdesk, #userhelp, #userguide

    		
     Various english-speaking 
      helpchannels, mostly on the subject of IRC itself, but #help may help or 
      redirect you on most issues.

    		
  

  
 
     #hjelp

    		
     Help in norwegian

    		
  

  
 
     #aide, #ircaide

    		
     Help in french

    		
  

  
 
     #ircayuda

    		
     Help in spanish

    		
  

  
 
     #irc_ajutor, 
      #rohelp

    		
     Help in românã 
      (from Romania?)

    		
  

  
 
     #hjelp

    		
     Help in norwegian

    		
  

  
 
     #destek

    		
     Help in turkish

    		
  

  
 
     #mircscripts, 
      #mirc-scripts, #scripters, #scripts

    		
     Making your own 
      scripts in mIRC

    		
  

  
 
     

    		
     

    		
  





 

 8.2 Web resources



General information

http://www.undernet.org/ is the startingpoint 
for getting to the Undernet resources, among them http://www.user-com.undernet.org/ 
Its “documents project” has all kinds of documentation. The CTCP and 
DCC RFC, the old IRC RFC (RFC1459) an IRC FAQ (old) and guides for the operator 
and channelservice commands, which I havn't covered. Also Beginner-help, newsletters, 
e.t.c Definitely worth a visit. If you want to dig deep in ircu, visit http://www.coder-com.undernet.org/, 
the home of the ircu serversoftware.



http://www.user-com.undernet.org/documents/quitmsg.html 
A short and good FAQ about the meaning of all kinds of quitmessages.



http://www.irchelp.org/ Another source for 
FAQs, help, e.t.c Its advantage is presenting the IRC as a whole,

As it cover the 4 main nets in the texts, (Dalnet, Undernet, Efnet and Ircnet) 
you get a better sight of IRC 

as a whole.



http://www.irc.org/ An interesting site both 
for general help and technical issues



When browsing the websites above, you'll run into outdated information now and 
then. If some of the guides are confusing, it might be because they were written 
for IRCII users. (The origianl unix client) and mix irc commands with client specific 
commands. 



Links to some major nets may be found at http://www.mirc.co.uk/servers.html. 






Setting up servers



http://www.ircdhelp.org/ Impressive site 
for those interested in setting up and running irc servers

http://serverwatch.internet.com/ircservers.html 
Reviews of irc serversoftware. 

Imagine setting up your very own little net :-)



One server able to run on windows is http://www.wircds.com/. 
The site also contain a couple of helpfull things for the budding serveradmin 
like a configuration-file generator and a list of DNS services.



http://www.raptorircd.org/ is an open-source 
ircd based on ircu. After reading this guide, you may find their userdocumentation 
familiar. ;-)



Regarding encrypted traffic on IRC, UnrealIRCD at http://unreal.tspre.org/is 
one server which has implemented encrypted communication. Epic at http://epicssl.sourceforge.net/ 
is said to be the first client to support server-side SSL connections.



One server that runs on IPv6 networks is IACD at http://trash.net/~reeler/iacd/



Internet chatsystems at http://www.chatsystems.com/ 
has implemented a server that only accepts connections through a web-interface. 




A web-based client can be found at http://cgiirc.sourceforge.net/. 
It supports IPv6 networks and could be a workaround for restrictive firewalls. 




Another web-based client can be found at http://www.undernet.org/webchat.php







Scripting and client issues



http://www.ircworks.com/jeepster.htm 
is a great resource for those interested in taking advantage of numbers in the 
numeric replies. They'r listed and explained, and there's instructions about how 
to make the numbers do lots of usefull things in your scripts. (6.1) 
A must for advanced scripters



http://www.ircworks.com/ics.htm 
A discussion on how to deal with DCC through LANs and firewalls