PHP Freaks

PHP Freaks has its own IRC server at irc.phpfreaks.com. You may connect using your favorite standalone client, or you may use our IRC web client from your browser.

We have three public channels:

#chat (web client access)

This is for general chat with your fellow PHP Freaks members.

#help (web client access)

For receiving help, or helping other people.

#spam (web client access)

A rules free channel. Entry at your own discretion.

You may also be interested in some realtime statistics of the server.

SSL

The server supports encrypted connections using SSL on port 9999. The certificate is self-signed, so your client may ask you to accept it. Download our root CA certificate and add it to your trusted list to prevent this.

How you connect on the encrypted connection differs from client to client. The web client does not support it. In XChat you would connect like this:

/server -ssl irc.phpfreaks.com

Check your client's manual for more information.

Using IRC

Basic usage of IRC is fairly straightforward. All IRC commands start with a forward slash. Connecting to a server may be done like this (the web client does this for you):

/server irc.phpfreaks.com

When you have joined a server, you may use the JOIN command to join one or more channels. Channels are like chat rooms. Channel names always begin with a hash sign. You may separate channels with a comma to join multiple channels at a time.

/join #chat
/join #chat,#help

You may also wish to leave (part) a channel. This is done using the PART command exactly like JOIN.

/part #chat
/part #chat,#help

When you're in a channel you'll see messages sent by others and you can send messages yourself. Certain users in a channel may have special privileges such as being able to kick and ban other people. These people will have a prefix in front of their name. The following table lists the various channel user modes for a user called JohnDoe.

Visual representation:	Status:	Privileges:
JohnDoe	Regular user	No special privileges.
+JohnDoe	Voice	Is able to talk on a moderated channel (regular users are not)
%JohnDoe	Half-operator (halfop)	Can talk on moderated channels. Is able to set bans. Can voice other people. Can change channel topic and set various channel modes. Can kick regular and voiced users.
@JohnDoe	Operator (op)	Can do the same as a half-operator except he is able to set additional channel modes and is able to make new half-operators and operators. Can kick people of status half-operator and below.
&JohnDoe	Protected	Cannot be kicked or deopped.
~JohnDoe	Founder	Can mark other people as protected and can kick and deop protected users. The founder cannot be kicked or deopped.

The exact visual representation may differ from client to client (the web client uses this representation). A user may have multiple of these modes set at the same time, so you may for instance both be opped and protected. Certain users on our server will automatically have modes set on them upon joining the channel.

Registering your nickname

You may register your nickname using NickServ to prevent other people from taking your nickname by issuing the following command:

/msg NickServ register <password> <email>

When you've done that, each time you connect you must identify using the password you chose like this:

/msg NickServ identify <password>

By default you'll have 60 seconds to identify. Failure to do so will result in being renamed to GuestXXXXXX. You may turn this behavior off with the following command:

/msg NickServ set kill off

NickServ supports a lot of different commands. Type the following command for more information:

/msg NickServ help

If your client allows it (the web client does), you may type /ns instead of /msg NickServ, so to register you might do this:

/ns register <password> <email>

Note that registration is optional and is not required in order to use the live chat.

Clients

This is a list of various clients you may use (listed in no particular order). Feel free to suggest additional entries to the list by contacting Daniel.

Name:	Platforms:	Price:
XChat	Windows/Linux	Free on Linux; €14.95 on Windows (life-time), or free on Windows if you compile it yourself
XChat (silverex)	Windows	Free, unofficial build of XChat for Windows
ChatZilla	Firefox addon	Free
mIRC	Windows	$20.00 (life-time)
HydraIRC	Windows	Free
Pidgin	Windows/Linux/Mac	Free
irssi	Linux	Free
Colloquy	Mac OS X	Free/Donate