This can cause problems when users using different clients and/or different platforms want to converse.Īll client-to-server IRC protocols in use today are descended from the protocol implemented in the irc2.4.0 version of the IRC2 server, and documented in RFC 1459. The protocol specified that characters were 8-bit but did not specify the character encoding the text was supposed to use. However, the de facto standard has always been to run IRC on 6667/TCP and nearby port numbers (for example TCP ports 6660–6669, 7000) to avoid having to run the IRCd software with root privileges.

IRC was originally a plain text protocol (although later extended), which on request was assigned port 194/TCP by IANA. Most IRC servers do not require users to register an account but a user will have to set a nickname before being connected. There are many client implementations, such as mIRC, XChat and irssi, and server implementations, e.g.

Users access IRC networks by connecting a client to a server. An IRC server can connect to other IRC servers to expand the IRC network. IRC is an open protocol that uses TCP and, optionally, TLS. Shown are two IRC channels and a private conversation with the software author. Xaric, a text-based IRC client, in use on Mac OS X. Logs of these and other events are kept in the ibiblio archive. It was previously used in a similar fashion during the Gulf War. IRC was used to report on the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt throughout a media blackout. Oikarinen found inspiration in a chat system known as Bitnet Relay, which operated on the BITNET. IRC was created by Jarkko Oikarinen in August 1988 to replace a program called MUT (MultiUser Talk) on a BBS called OuluBox in Finland. As of April 2011, the top 100 IRC networks served more than half a million users at a time, with hundreds of thousands of channels operating on a total of roughly 1,500 servers out of roughly 3,200 servers worldwide. Client software is available for every major operating system that supports Internet access.

It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file sharing. Internet Relay Chat ( IRC) is a protocol for live interactive Internet text messaging ( chat) or synchronous conferencing.

Irc client