IRC in 2024!?

Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer
in Help

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.

I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

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Comments

  • AuroraZeroAuroraZero Retired

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

    URL Shortener | YetiNode | Come join us on the MetalVPS IRC channel!!! | Don't be a jerk, let YetiNode do the work.

  • treesmokahtreesmokah
    edited 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

    Thanked by (3)babywhale Not_Oles sh97
  • SocksAreComfortableSocksAreComfortable

    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!

    Thanked by (2)skorous Not_Oles
  • GeekWandererGeekWanderer

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

    Thanked by (1)Not_Oles
  • JosephJoseph

    How does IRC compare to Discord?

  • JosephJoseph

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

  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

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

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

    @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. :)

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • NeoonNeoon OG

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

    Thanked by (3)carlin0 Not_Oles Brueggus

    Free NAT KVM | Free NAT LXC

  • MumblyMumbly
    edited 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

    Thanked by (1)Not_Oles
  • MumblyMumbly

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

    Nah, only us, old farts, idle there.

    Thanked by (2)TheDP Not_Oles
  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

    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

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • MumblyMumbly
    edited 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.

  • somiksomik OG

    @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!

    Artificial intelligence is no match for our natural stupidity.

    Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

    @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. :-)

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • skorousskorous OG

    @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.

    Thanked by (1)Not_Oles
  • TheDPTheDP OG
    edited 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.

    Thanked by (1)Not_Oles

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  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

    @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.

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer
    edited 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! :)

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

    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. . . .

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • Otus9051Otus9051

    Sign me up!!!

    Thanked by (1)Not_Oles

    youtube.com/watch?v=k1BneeJTDcU
    All of my VMs: https://nodecheck.net/s/otusibrc/

  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

    Looking at UnrealIRCd and Ergo.

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

    @Otus9051 said:
    Sign me up!!!

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

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • Otus9051Otus9051

    @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?).

    youtube.com/watch?v=k1BneeJTDcU
    All of my VMs: https://nodecheck.net/s/otusibrc/

  • debaserdebaser OG

    @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.

  • rcy026rcy026

    @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.

    Thanked by (2)Not_Oles skorous
  • cornercasecornercase

    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/

    Thanked by (1)Not_Oles
  • havochavoc OGContent Writer

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

    Thanked by (1)Not_Oles
  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

    Trying isssi. . . .

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer
    edited 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. . . .

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

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