SmIRC 0.62b
Connecting to the IRC network
The first step is to connect to an IRC network. Selecting 'Connect to server'
from the 'IRC' menu in a channel window opens the following dialog.
NOTE: because SmIRC's appearance can be customized in its the resource
file, your mileage may vary, and this illustration may be very different
from what you may see.
The server parameters are on the right. The list on the left is a saved
list of connections whose parameters have been previously saved. Clicking
on the list sets up the parameters of the saved connection. SmIRC comes
with a short list of servers. You can add your own to the list. Just put
something into 'Connection:' that's not used already, fill in the rest
of the stuff, and click 'Ok' to connect to the server. All the connection
parameters will be saved under the name entered in the 'Connection' field.
Sorry, there is no 'DELETE CONNECTION' button, just yet. To get rid
of a predefined connection, just edit the $HOME/.smirc/config
file.
The parameters are as follows:
-
Connection - The name of this connection. This is optional, but
if you put something here, all the parameters will be saved under this
name, and can be recalled later. Leaving this field blank will not save
the connection parameters. To change the parameters of an existing - predefined
- connection, click on the connection name in the list, and make the required
changes. When 'Ok' is clicked, the new values will overwrite the previous
ones for this connection.
-
Server - The name of the server.
-
Port - The port number for the connection. This can be specified
as "nnnn-nnnn", where nnnn is a port number, and the second
number is greater than the first one. SmIRC will pick a port number between
the first one, and the last one, at random, for each connection attempt.
This is very usefull with servers that accept connection on a range of
ports. When you save the connection parameters for this server, this will
cause SmIRC to pick a port number, at random, for each connection attempt
to this server.
-
Nick - The nickname you will use on IRC.
-
Alt nick - If the nickname is already used by somebody else, this
field will specify an alternate nickname to use, in this case. If this
one is also used, you will see a "Nickname in use" error message, when
you try to connect. Enter a "/NICK newnick" command, where newnick
is another nickname, to complete the connection process (and hope it is
not used as well).
-
Password - In certain rare instances, you may be required to provide
a password. Do it here. The password will not be shown on the screen. Also,
the password is not saved in the predefined connection list. You will have
to enter the password each time.
-
Real name - Just a short description who you are. This description
will come up for anyone who does a /WHOIS command on your nickname.
After filling in all this information, click the CONNECT button.
Click CANCEL, instead, to close the dialog window without attempting
a connection.
Connecting to a server may take a little while. It is very possible
that the server may be busy. If you used a predefined connection for a
server that listens on multiple ports, and you saved the port range, just
trying that connection again should try a different port on the same server.
Connection is a two-step process. First, the actual network connection
must be established to the server. Then, the connection must be registered.
This means allocating, and reserving, the nickname to be used for the IRC
session. Messages will appear along the way. You can also use the title
bar of the server window, as guidance. Normally, it shows the copyright
message, but after a connection is established, and registered, the title
bar is changed to read "nickname on server" where nickname
is the nickname currently used. If the nickname is changed, the title bar
will be updated.
If the connection, and registration, succesfully completes, this generally
brings about a lot of output from the IRC server - message of the day,
welcome message, and other stuff of this nature. If the connection or registration
failed, an error message of some sort goes up, and you can try again.