This blog post is a How-to in using IRC Chat Clients.

You have some choices in how to connect from your computer to our IRC session on Freenode.Net. The easiest is using a browser to connect to http://webchat.freenode.net where you will be prompted for a Nickname (username) and a channel to connect to. I do not recommend putting a channel name at this point but clicking on "Connect" after entering a Nickname. By not entering a channel (group) name, it will take you to a status window where you can see if your Nickname is already in use (does it belong to you?).

If the Nickname is owned by you, you can not "identify" yourself as its owner by the command /msg NickServ identify password. The password is the one you provided when you registered the Nickname and it is case sensitive.

If the Nickname is not owned by you and is available, you can register it with a password by using the command /msg nickserv REGISTER password [email address]. Don't loose that password! Having a registered Nickname with a password secures your idenity on Freenode, although you should not consider it secured 100% as it is sent in clear text, not even the little asterisks to cover it while you type it. Also, you will get an email from the NickServ requiring a verification task to be performed in order to complete the registration process.

If you have used a nickname that belongs to someone else, you can change it with the command /nick new_nickname.

More on Freenode commands can be found at http://www.deepspace2.org/nickserv.htm and http://www.wikihow.com/Register-a-User-Name-on-Freenode

After you have successfully connected with a unique Nickname (one that is not in use by someone else), now you can join a channel. To join the Idaho Linux Users Meetup, you would enter the command /join #idaho-linux-users. Different IRC clients handle where you put in the channel name that you wish to join and connect to but they all generally require that the # sign be used in conjunction with the channel name idaho-linux-users, hence the form #idaho-linux-users.

Other options for connecting to the Idaho Linux Users Meetup are to use one of the many IRC clients that are available. If you need to connect using that other operating system, ie Windows, ICEChat and mIRC are a couple of good choices. I have used ICE Chat with good success as it is very rich client with a lot of options for alerts and logging a session. On the Linux Gnome Desktop, Xchat is the recommended client. Note: Xchat -gnome is not recommended as it appears to be a bit problematic but is installed by default sometimes. To use the standard Xchat client, it is recommended that you remove Xchat - gnome and install the standard Xchat client.

Final note, regardless of what IRC connection you use, be sure to always issue a /quit in the channel window to disconnect from the session to make sure your nickname is freed up for next use.

Basic freenode.net configuration information that you need for all chat clients:

Nickname (registered is preferred).
Nickname password, can also be used as the "server password" Passwords are case sensitive.
Real Name.
Userid or local ID - Can be your nickname or your local computer userID.
IRC Server: irc.freenode.net is the default
IRC Port: 6667 is the norm but 7001 and 8001 can also be used.

Note: Router cached DNS (DNS information that you get from your local router) can be problematic in the way irc servers work is that they use DNS to provide load balancing to the many irc servers located around the world and if the information in your router DNS cache is stale, you may not be able to connect to an irc server. It is recommended that you at least use the external DNS servers that your router gets it DNS information from or use public DNS servers like OpenDNS and others. You generally need to edit your network connection to specify the DNS server address(s) manually and not use the automatically supplied DNS address of your router.

Setting up the XChat-GNOME IRC Chat Client:

1) When you first fire up XChat-GNOME, it will automatically log you in to Freenode and the Ubuntu Channel. Your credentials will be your local username on the machine, unregistered and without a password.

2) While connect to the Ubuntu Server, go into the Edit | Preferences | Networks, select the Ubuntu Server from the list, edit, and uncheck "Automatically connect to network." Click on Close. Next, select Freenode from the server list, and Edit. Enable the "Automatically connect to network" and also enter your nickname password, if you have one. Then on the Users and Channels tab, enable Use these user settings, enter your preferred nickname and Real Name.

3) Close the Preferences window and the IRC client window.

4) Restart the XChat-GNOME IRC Chat client. It should automatically connect you. Note the name shown at the bottom of the screen, it should be yours. If it is not, then your nickname was not accepted, and you should go back over the nickname setup above.

Setting up the XChat IRC Client:

The XChat: Network List a bit different that the one in XChat-GNOME IRC and you when you first open it, you have the opportunity to define your "Global Information" with a selection of nickname choices along with your username and real name. If you scroll down the network list, you can make the same settings for Freenode that were made above in step 2 above. Uncheck the User global user information so that you can define your user information while editing Freenode and enable Automatically connect to network.

There are some attached screen shots which you can download and view by logging into boiselug.org website.

Pidgin IM (Buddy) setup:

1) On starting Pidgin, you must set up an account as shown in the attachment. When you close the account setup, the Buddy List will open and show you connecting. Once connected, if all goes well, the NickServ window will open and should show you connected with your preferred nickname. If there are problems with your nickname, you should resolve those issues before continuing so that you have a valid, preferably a registered, nickname.

2) At the bottom of the NickServ window tab, you can enter /join #idaho-linux-users and enter the idaho-linux-users channel room..

Once you have Pidgin configured and working, you can import your Pidgin account setting for Freenode into the Empathy IM Client where you can enable it and it should work. You do not have to /quit the room when using Empathy, closing the chat window is all that is needed.

Konversation, a KDE application is also a very good Chat client and can be installed on GNOME desktop. Configuration is very similar to what I have covered with the XChat and IM client configurations.

If you have any questions or problems with setting up your Chat client, fell free to email me at clintin@hotmail.com