Guide to using #AGN Chat

AGN now has an official IRC chatroom, located on the Bladerock server! For those who already have IRC clients, simply point them towards #AGN on the server "irc.bladerock.org". For those who do not, simply click the "Chat" button in the toolbar at the top, or click here. All you've got to do is select your nick (chat username) and click go (or press "enter" on your keyboard), and you will be immediately connected to the chatroom through the free service "Mibbit." And now, for your convenience, a list of a few commands that might be helpful to newcomers:

• /nick *newname* - For changing your nick while in a channel. If your nick is "Bob" and you wish to change to "Jim," type "/nick Jim" and your name will be changed. Remember: IRC nicks do not support spaces or special characters.
• /msg nickserv register *password* *email* - For registering your nick. Registering your nick has a few benefits, such as being able to register channels, be added to a channel's access list, or to prevent someone from stealing your username.
• /msg nickserv identify *password* - Once your nick is registered, you will have to "identify" every time you select it. This allows you to access the benefits a registered nick offers. Tip: It is suggested that you type this in the status window (the "Bladerock" tab) instead of in a channel, should you accidentally mistype the command and send it to the channel. This will prevent your password from being inadvertently leaked.
• /msg nickserv ghost *username* *password* - If someone is using your nick but you have registered it, you can type this to "ghost" the user, forcibly disconnecting them from the server so that you can reclaim your nick. Useful for when someone is impersonating you or trying to prevent you from claiming your primary identity.
• /msg nickserv group *username* *password* - This allows you to connect several nicks to your primary nick so that you do not need to register them individually. For example, if you want "Jim" to be linked to "Bob," simply type "/msg nickserv group Bob thisismypassworddonotsteal" and the job is done.
• /join #*channel* - Used to join channels apart from #AGN, such as #lobby.
• /part #*channel* - Used to leave the designated channel.
• /quit *quit message* - Allows you to disconnect from the server with a custom message attached.

(Asterisks denote a custom field that you must supply yourself, though you must remove the asterisks when typing in these commands.)

For a list of other helpful commands (including some listed above): Click here.



Mibbit is not the only way to access chat. It's a good introduction, but there are other clients out there that offer far more variety and options in using IRC. Below you will be presented with two tutorials for the more well-known IRC clients: mIRC and X-Chat. Either client provides much smoother management of IRC, as well as more comprehensive features that make your chatting experience a much more enjoyable one, but we won't get into those here.

And so, without further ado...

Instructions for setting up mIRC:

First, download mIRC from this link: http://www.mirc.com/get.html

Now, install the files and run mIRC. The first thing you will see when you open the program is this box:

http://sotw.purezc.com/TS/ircclient/image1.png

The "Full Name" and "Email Address" fields do not have to be entered accurately. The "Nickname" field, as well as "Alternative," however, are necessary. Obviously, you enter in "Nickname" the nick you desire to go by in chat. "Alternative" is what you will go by if the first name is in use already.

Next, click the "Servers" option under "Connect." It will take you to here:

http://sotw.purezc.com/TS/ircclient/image2.png

The server #AGN is located on does not exist in this list. You can delete all of these manually, but it will take a lot of clicking the "Delete" button, so for now, simply click "Add" and fill in the information seen below:

http://sotw.purezc.com/TS/ircclient/image3.png

If your nickname is registered, you may enter the nick's password in the password field. The "Group" field is to be ignored.

Now click "Add." You should be taken back to the list of servers, and "Bladerock" should be highlighted like so:

http://sotw.purezc.com/TS/ircclient/image4.png

Click "Select." You will be returned to the window where your name, email, nick, and alt nick are asked for. Before you click "OK," click the "Options" option beneath "Servers." You should arrive at this page:

http://sotw.purezc.com/TS/ircclient/image5.png

"Connect on startup" will not be checked by default. Check this option so that you will not have to manually connect to the server when you start.

Click the "Connect" option above servers again, click "OK" once there, and you should be connected to the Bladerock server. If you're using a Windows computer, you may see this message from your firewall:

http://sotw.purezc.com/TS/ircclient/image6.png

If so, simply click to "Allow access." (NOTE: The options may be "Unblock" and "Keep blocking" on an XP computer. In this scenario, select "Unblock.")

Now, a dialogue titled "mIRC Favorites" should appear, and it should look like this:

http://sotw.purezc.com/TS/ircclient/image7.png

Select "#AllNiteCafe," scroll to the bottom of the list, hold in the Shift key, and select "#Worldchat." Then click "Delete." There! You've easily deleted a huge list of useless channels that probably don't exist elsewhere anyway! Why couldn't deleting the useless list of servers have been this easy?

Now that that is done, click the "Add" button to add your own channel to the list. To use #AGN as an example, fill out the following information exactly as it appears in the image:

http://sotw.purezc.com/TS/ircclient/image8-AGN.png

Click "OK." Feel free to repeat this for any other channels on Bladerock that you frequent. When you are finished and return to the favorites list, you can uncheck "Pop up favorites on connect" so that the Favorites dialogue does not appear every time you open mIRC. When this is done, click "OK." You should immediately connect to Bladerock and join #AGN, and then you can begin chatting!

(NOTE: If you do not connect automatically, find the connect icon: http://sotw.purezc.com/TS/ircclient/connecticon.png Click this, and you should connect. If you followed the instructions properly, you should not have to do this when starting mIRC in the future.)

If all went right, you will have connected to Bladerock and joined #AGN, as well as any other chatrooms you wish to join. I hope this guide has been helpful to you, and happy chatting! :)

NOTE: After thirty days using mIRC, it will ask you to register your copy. Do not panic; this is absolutely unnecessary. Just click "Continue" twice and you will be able to continue using mIRC for free. ;)

Sephiroth's Instructions For Setting Up XChat:

First of all, you will need to download XChat. A free version can be found here: http://www.silverex.org/download/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sephiroth

When you first install XChat and run it for the first time, you will get a dialog similar to this:

http://sotw.purezc.com/TS/ircclient/xchat1.png

First thing you want to do is fill it out, it usually comes pre-set based on your OS's username you are using.

To set up the server, you could either clear the networks list, or simply hit Add

http://sotw.purezc.com/TS/ircclient/xchat2.png

And type in Bladerock as shown:

http://sotw.purezc.com/TS/ircclient/xchat3.png

Now, to add a server to the network, select it and hit the Edit... button. You will get a dialog like so:

http://sotw.purezc.com/TS/ircclient/xchat4.png

Under Servers for Bladerock, you'll want to left-click the newserver/6667 entry to make it editable, and you should change it to:
irc.bladerock.net/6667

Check the Auto Connect to this network at startup box, and under favorite channels: enter #AGN

If your nickname is registered with NickServ on the IRC network you can enter your NickServ password where it says "Nickserv password."

Here's what mine looks like when finished:

http://sotw.purezc.com/TS/ircclient/xchat5-AGN.png

Click on the close button with done, and back in the server list dialog, you can check the Skip network list on startup checkbox, click on the connect button there.

Feel free to start chatting!

NOTE: For Linux users, XChat can usually be found via your usual package manager that you use, and Mac OS X users may want to look up "XChat Aqua."

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We hope these guides will be helpful to you in some way, and that you enjoy chatting on IRC. :)

so are you trying to kill the cyber2k room? looks like I'll be the only one there, then.

Well, from how it looked, it seemed as though we couldn't get ownership of the channel.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rydia

Well, from how it looked, it seemed as though we couldn't get ownership of the channel from how it looked.

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This. I logged in and I think Kryten was the only one there. Probably just best to move to the new one until we hear about access to the old one. And by then, might be best to stay here anyways.

You could just abandon the cyber2k room entirely. If nobody is in it after awhile, the server might destroy it

Chat gained like three levels tonight. You guys need to get in here.

I just got this working, so if anyone has a better method, let me know.

-Download the IRC999 app for free.

-Add a new server.
-Title: Bladerock
-Hostname: irc.bladerock.net
-Port: 6667
-Password: *Account Password Here*
-Nickname: *Your nick for chatting*
-Username: *Your IRC username*
-Realname: I don't think you need anything here. I entered my real name, but it shouldn't matter.
-Char Set: UTF-8. Just use the default.

-Add a new channel
-Channel: #AGN
-Password: Don't enter anything here.
-Auto Join: Enter this if you want to automatically join the channel.

Click back to the Channel List and click Done. Click on #AGN and chat!

I had to register to get this to work. I would only receive errors when trying to connect otherwise.

If there is anyone else out there who uses Trillian, you can also access the chat room because there is an IRC client built into that program. If you aren't familiar with Trillian at all look into it. It's a fantastic program that combines all your chat programs like AIM, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, etc into one. At any rate if you use that and need help setting it up let me know.

I edited the post to reflect the current server address.

The quick-link to chat at the top of the forums now works again also.

Beautiful. Thanks.