IRC in 2024!?

Not_Oles · March 4

It's been like 30 years since I last touched IRC.

I want to set up my own IRC server, and an IRC bouncer, and an IRC client. 🤠

How to start? Best, simplest, 100% open source, run on Linux or *BSD: IRC server, bouncer, and client?

Nothing against existing server servicess, but I want to self-host an IRC server, just for fun. Also, for right now, just IRC; no need for integration with other messaging services.

AuroraZero · March 4

Hell yeah bro bring back the old days!!!!

treesmokah · March 4

Server;
modern - https://github.com/ergochat/ergo (with built in bouncer for your users and other cool shit)
classic - https://www.unrealircd.org/

Bouncer;
https://wiki.znc.in/ZNC

Clients;
GUI - https://hexchat.github.io/ https://konversation.kde.org/
CLI - https://weechat.org/

This is the software I used, all of it is nice.
Also can't mention IRC without mentioning I2P, a great way for anon chatting on IRC
My favorite implementation of I2P: https://github.com/PurpleI2P/i2pd

SocksAreComfortable · March 4

The Lounge is a really nice modern client that you can host on a very tiny vps (easily alongside other things). Have never messed with the server part of things so not sure on that part!

GeekWanderer · March 4

Take a look at these guys, interesting approach to user run network: https://ircnow.org

Joseph · March 5

How does IRC compare to Discord?

Joseph · March 5

Are EFNet, IRCNet, Undernet and DALNet still going strong?

Not_Oles · March 5

Guys, how about the Simple IRC Client (sic) from suckless.org?

Not_Oles · March 5

@Not_Oles said:
Guys, how about the Simple IRC Client (sic) from suckless.org?

"The suckless client sic provides a good tiny irc client but it is a bit too hardcore to use it on a daily basis. First, sic input is driven by a standard fgets and hence, no line editing goodies are supported except the ones provided by the tty kernel driver (^U ^H and friends). Second, sic will mess up the output if a message appears while typing a line. Third, sic does not multiplex channels (but it is a feature!). Finally, I wanted my client to provide infinite scrollback."

-- https://c9x.me/irc/

chronos@penguin:~/src/irc$ ls
irc.c  Makefile  README
chronos@penguin:~/src/irc$ make
cc -std=c99 -Os -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=201112 -D_GNU_SOURCE -D_XOPEN_CURSES -D_XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED=1 -D_DEFAULT_SOURCE -D_BSD_SOURCE    irc.c  -lncursesw -lssl -lcrypto -o irc
chronos@penguin:~/src/irc$ ls
irc  irc.c  Makefile  README
chronos@penguin:~/src/irc$

Now all I have to do is read about libera.chat and actually try it. But, it's getting late here. 😴 So maybe tomorrow.

Neoon · March 5

Still using IRC on a daily basis.
People are more helpful and nicer than stackoverflow.

Mumbly · March 5

IRC server: InspIRCd or UnrealIRCd
IRC services: Anope or Atheme (chanserv, nickserv, botserv, hostserv...)
Web gateway: thelounge (all people won't use IRC clients nowaday) - link it with IRC server

Mumbly · March 5

@Joseph said: Are EFNet, IRCNet, Undernet and DALNet still going strong?

Nah, only us, old farts, idle there.

Not_Oles · March 17

Guys, what do you think about this? It runs on NodeJS! Thanks! Tom

https://github.com/realrasengan/dwebchat

IRC (formerly dwebchat)

This is POC for Internet Relay Chat. This is the IRC that was meant to be built, but IPv4 destroyed the ability for everyone to be a peer online.

How it Works

Everyone is a server, and everyone is a client.

Private messages send directly from person to person (client <-> server).

Channels are relays hosted by users - if you own the name 'joseon' then you own the channel namespace 'joseon' and 'joseon/'

Protocol is RFC1459

Mumbly · March 17

If you want to run self hosted IRC server I am suggesting you to use some proper solution (InspIRCd or UnrealIRCd as example) in constant development not some hobby projects that come and go.

somik · March 17

@Not_Oles said:
Guys, what do you think about this? It runs on NodeJS! Thanks! Tom

https://github.com/realrasengan/dwebchat

IRC (formerly dwebchat)

This is POC for Internet Relay Chat. This is the IRC that was meant to be built, but IPv4 destroyed the ability for everyone to be a peer online.

How it Works

Everyone is a server, and everyone is a client.

Private messages send directly from person to person (client <-> server).

Channels are relays hosted by users - if you own the name 'joseon' then you own the channel namespace 'joseon' and 'joseon/'

Protocol is RFC1459

How did you even find this? According to commit history, this was created just last week!

Not_Oles · March 17

@somik said: How did you even find this?

The author posted it to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39730938

I saw it there.

rasengan 21 hours ago | prev [–]

While this is a POC, it 'works' in the sense that you can send and receive messages, join channels, and communicate in said channels.
(JOIN, PART, PRIVMSG, NOTICE, QUIT, NAMES are implemented)

All users are both clients and servers. Nobody owns the network. Names are authenticated against Handshake and so are TLS certificates and signatures.

Channels are owned by the person who owns said namespace - for example, if your name is bob, then you own bob and bob/*

Tl;dr:

This makes it impossible for anyone to take over your IRC.

sirbribri 19 hours ago | parent | next [–]

Would it prevent what you did to freenode?

rasengan 17 hours ago | root | parent | next [–]

Nobody will own IRC once this is finished. :-)

skorous · March 17

@Not_Oles said:

@somik said: How did you even find this?

The author posted it to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39730938

I saw it there.

rasengan 21 hours ago | prev [–]

While this is a POC, it 'works' in the sense that you can send and receive messages, join channels, and communicate in said channels.
(JOIN, PART, PRIVMSG, NOTICE, QUIT, NAMES are implemented)

All users are both clients and servers. Nobody owns the network. Names are authenticated against Handshake and so are TLS certificates and signatures.

Channels are owned by the person who owns said namespace - for example, if your name is bob, then you own bob and bob/*

Tl;dr:

This makes it impossible for anyone to take over your IRC.

sirbribri 19 hours ago | parent | next [–]

Would it prevent what you did to freenode?

rasengan 17 hours ago | root | parent | next [–]

Nobody will own IRC once this is finished. :-)

Trust rasengan at your peril. There's a reason for the "Would it prevent what you did to freenode?" comment.

It is interesting that it auth's against Handshake thought.

TheDP · March 18

@skorous said: rasengan

LOL, haven't heard/seen that name for some time.

Last I saw him was when he dropped by a private channel I'm in, somewhere in 2021.

Not_Oles · March 18

@skorous said: Trust rasengan at your peril. There's a reason for the "Would it prevent what you did to freenode?" comment.

Link please! I saw that and looked on Google, but didn't find anything helpful.

Not_Oles · March 18

@Not_Oles said:

@skorous said: Trust rasengan at your peril. There's a reason for the "Would it prevent what you did to freenode?" comment.

Link please! I saw that and looked on Google, but didn't find anything helpful.

Oh! NVM! I got it now.

Thanks!

Not_Oles · March 18

FWIW I seem to have ircII running well enough to connect to Libera and also to a local ngIRCd. Maybe I will try a couple other clients and servers too. It's a re-beginning. . . .

Otus9051 · March 18

Sign me up!!!

Not_Oles · March 18

Looking at UnrealIRCd and Ergo.

Not_Oles · March 18

@Otus9051 said:
Sign me up!!!

Thanks! Not quite ready yet, but you certainly can get on when it is.

Otus9051 · March 18

@Not_Oles said:

@Otus9051 said:
Sign me up!!!

Thanks! Not quite ready yet, but you certainly can get on when it is.

If you need help with anything, I'm available then.
Have a month off because the last session at school ended, 10th grade from April.
I've had a bit of experience wirh IRC Servers (makes me think, what did I not have experience with?).

debaser · March 18

@Joseph said:
How does IRC compare to Discord?

I always see Discord as the modern IRC equivalent. And you could argue that Twitter/Threads/Bluesky (aka the text based social media) are too as some IRC channels were not just about real time chat.

I'm not that young, but probably just a bit too young to fully understand IRC. I dabbled in it when I was at high school, but never fully embraced it.

rcy026 · March 18

@Not_Oles said:

@skorous said: Trust rasengan at your peril. There's a reason for the "Would it prevent what you did to freenode?" comment.

Link please! I saw that and looked on Google, but didn't find anything helpful.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/q6k9md/ircfreenode_this_is_not_a_hostile_takeover_says/

Andrew was a really nice guy until he got rich, then something happened and he lost it completely.

cornercase · March 18

You may need to compile ircII yourself to get the latest security fixes. I found this was very easy to do under Debian, however (even making my own .deb).

This is a great news blog for monitoring IRC developments: https://www.ilmarilauhakangas.fi/

havoc · March 18

I suspect much of that crowd is using Lemmy these days.

Not_Oles · March 19

Trying isssi. . . .

Not_Oles · March 19

@Not_Oles said:
Trying isssi. . . .

isssi doesn't seem to work. Maybe irssi might work.

Edit: irssi works well enough to connect to Libera. . . .

IRC in 2024!?

Comments

IRC (formerly dwebchat)

How it Works

IRC (formerly dwebchat)

How it Works