[...]... was more often than not subject to the limitations of the regular telephone network and its tariffs, making it a costly affair that even the fairly affluent educational institutes of northern Europe and the United States couldn't support easily Since then, IRC has spread all over the world, together with the Internet's development and as part of it The number of regular and circumstantial IRC users... considered for the next edition Changes in the IRC world will be rapid, and there is a Web site for updates that occur after the release of this book It's not reasonable to believe that this book will be up to date forever—that's a practical impossibility since IRC (and the Internet as a whole) is an ever changing world Take the time to visit the book' s Web site at http://www.bookofirc.com/, where the latest... technical details than most other Internet applications IRC started out in 1988 with only a handful of users, all of them also involved in developing the software and establishing the rules that now form the foundation of IRC With the number of educational institutions all over the world connecting to the Internet rising sharply in the early 1990s and, consequently, large numbers of students at those institutes... them a means of three-way communication So if Jill wants to tell Jack, "Come, let's fetch a pail of water," and sends the message to the channel instead of sending it only to Jack, all users on the channel receive the message Joe sees the same message and might decide to go with them—then the world of nursery rhymes would never be the same 1.4 What IRC Has to Offer So far, so good, but what makes IRC. .. means of one-to-one live communication between Internet users, which had the drawback of not supporting three-way or group communication Of course, the original IRC was far simpler than modern versions, which have made IRC one of the most complex systems on the Internet Although there is no longer an IRC server on Oikarinen's original machine, called the oulubox, there is still an IRC server at the original... the simplicity of text chat expands to include the parallel transfer of files, which can be used for visual and auditory enhancement of an IRC session Nowhere else in the world will you find so many opportunities to mingle with the other occupants of the global village Be they in South Dakota or South Africa, India or Indiana, the people are there IRC is where you can see the borders of nationality,... institutes gaining access, the number of regular users grew to reach a maximum of 5,000 simultaneous connections in 1992 Politics made their appearance in the IRC community pretty soon, however, and it became apparent that not everyone shared the same vision of the future Some decided to follow their own way, breaking up the first network of IRC servers into smaller ones, although few of these splintered networks... situation around the world As far as the general public was concerned, however, it was just "the Internet," and few commentators had the knowledge to describe the means used—that is, IRC Such reports of local happenings have always been a part of IRC life, but rarely did they lead to publicity and IRC? What's That? 13 even less often to reaching the public with serious information about IRC Even nowadays,... lrcd2.9and2.10(IRCnei) 18.3.4 dal4.6 (DALnet) 18.3.5 Conference Room 18.3.6 Others ircds and Platforms 18.3.7 Adding Services 18.4 The ircd.conf File 18.4.1 A: lines (All ircds) 18.4.2 M: lines (All ircds) 18.4.3 I: lines (All ircds) • 18.4.4 Y: lines (All ircds) 18.4.5 O: lines (All ircds) 18.4.6 C: and N: lines (All ircds) 18.4.7 H: and L: lines (All ircds) 18.4.8 K: lines (All ircds) 18.4.9 P: lines (All ircds)... useful? What makes IRC special enough for entire books on the subject? What makes hundreds of thousands of people sit in front of a computer talking to people at the other end of the world whom they don't know and will probably never meet, instead of going out? In order to understand IRC and realize why it's a good thing, you must try it Once you connect, it won't take long to discover whether you love . practical impossibility since IRC (and the Internet as a whole) is an ever chang- ing world. Take the time to visit the book& apos;s Web site at http://www.bookofirc.com/, where the latest updates to the book& apos;s contents. for the next edition. Changes in the IRC world will be rapid, and there is a Web site for updates that occur after the release of this book. It's not reasonable to believe that this book. w1 h1" alt="" THE BOOK of Alexander Charalabidis It No Starch Press San Francisco THE BOOK OF IRC. Copyright ©2000 By Alexander Charalabidis All rights reserved. No part of this work may