Date: 2023-05-01
Last update: 2025-03-05

Long live netcat! IRC clients suck too much
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Notice: IRC server is no more at morena.rip

Connect to the great IRC server, nc can be replaced with telnet
$ nc domain.tld 6667

Tell the great server your sweet nick
$ nick boby

Tell the server your username and :realname
Parameters: user mode unused :realname
$ user boby * * :boby

Join channel #morena
$ join #channel

Send message to the channel. The message has to start with ":"
$ privmsg #channel :Hello there from the netcat!

Send private message to somebody (in this case to nick vladimir)
It is the same as with a channel, just replace with a nick
$ privmsg vladimir :hello monster!

Leave that wonderful channel
$ part #channel

Leave this IRC server in one nice shot
$ quit


If you see "PING :SOMETHING" reply with "PONG :SOMETHING"
"SOMETHING" has to match. This is the way how a server tests if your
client is still connected. Some servers send it like every 2 minutes.
If you don't respond with PONG you will be disconnected. IRC clients
respond this automatically without noticing you.

Write all commands without any prefix like '/' what is usually
the case in IRC clients. Just a command like privmsg, join, part ...

If you need help with any command, on the sane server you just type
"help [command]". For example, "help privmsg". You will get help
from the ircd.
After you joined a channel, you still have to type:
"privmsg #channelname :message" all the time. You can join to more
channels.


Why all this gibberish? For fun or necessity. Imagine you install your
new cool operating system, just to discover you have no idea how to
install any package. Boom, you open telnet or nc, connect to your
favorite IRC network and ask helpful, kind and great people out
there how to install an IRC client ;/

Use telnet or nc - netcat for this purpose. You will get pure
IRC experience. Maybe you will find out, that most IRC clients don't
really add much of value.

What else do you need on a computer, right?

IRC clients that suck:
sic, ircII, EPIC5, Swirc, catgirl, rirc, Irssi, WeeChat, glirc,
Emacs clients and GUI clients like HexChat, Srain, Polari, Quassel,
Konversation, Textual.

Each client mentioned above fails in his own area. Please keep
in mind, that IRC servers as IRC clients are mostly trash.
Irssi is usable. The rest suck so much that they don't deserve any
place here at all.

More about IRC clients maybe next time ;/

Netcat is powerful tool, it can be used for IRC, Gopher, HTTP, NEX,
Finger. You can even send an email or create a simple chat or web
server with it.

NEX with netcat:
$ echo 001 | nc morena.rip 1900

NPS with netcat:
$ echo "hello there" | nc morena.rip 1915

Finger with netcat:
$ echo | nc morena.rip 79

Gopher with netcat:
$ echo 001 | nc morena.rip 70

Web with netcat:
$ printf "GET /001 HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n" | nc morena.rip 80

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Truth is not something outside to be discovered, it is something
inside to be realized.