This is the guide that will lead you step by step through the basics of using Internet Relay Chat, IRC for short, by the use of the client, known as Mirc.

Through this guide I will cover the areas of finding, downloading, installing and setting up your IRC client to be ready to connect to the Coldfront network, registering your nickname so no one but you will use it, identifying for your nickname (nick for short) on connection, Private Messaging other users (PM’ing for short), and using various basic commands.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This guide is meant alone for connecting to Coldfront,. However, it covers the basics of IRC, and can be applied to other networks, but with no guarantee.

Note: If my instructions are followed very specifically, you will not be in any danger of being hacked on the network, Coldfront. I can not guarantee what you encounter on other networks though, so that is not my responsibility.

Where to get mIRC:

Open your internet browser and go to the website www.mIRC.com , select the link “download mIRC”, and then pick the mirror site closest to your location that works, since sometimes, some sites might be experiencing downtime.

Downloading:

Once you select the appropriate mirror site, you will be prompted with a menu that asks you to download, open or cancel the mIRC client. In this case, you need to “Download” and depending on the settings of your computer, select where you want to place the executable installation file on your computer.

Once you’ve selected this, click “Save” and then it should proceed with downloading the client.

The reason I’m having people download the client instead using the Java client, is because the Java client is restricted on a lot of basic things that people will find useful.

Installation:

Once you’ve downloaded the mIRC client, find the directory in which you saved it to, and then proceed to execute it (usually by double clicking on it), and from there, follow the step by step instructions on how to install it, and where.

Once this is done, congratulations! You’ve just installed your fully functional mIRC client!

Setup

Setup 1.4

Now that you’ve installed the client, you need to locate your mIRC executable, usually designated mIRC.exe, and then start it up (Again, by double clicking it).

Once you do, you will be prompted with this screen that you’re using an evaluation version or something along that, and this you just need to close once its done advertising to register your client. You don’t need to do this ever, plus it costs money, however you client will work fine if you don’t.

Then, look into the top menu and find the submenu called “File”, click it and it should make a drop-down where you can select various options. In this case I just need you to select “Select Server”

Then you should be presented with a screen full of options on the left side, but for now, I want you to setup your nickname, alternate nickname and email, like I did with mine in this picture.

As far as your full name, I just put in something random, because I don’t feel like sharing my real name with just anyone, unless I have to. This means you don’t necessarily have to put in your real name, but you can, depending on what you feel like.

Setup 2.4

Next thing I want you to do, is select the sub-option beneath – Connect, called “Servers” and in this you should be presented with a screen where there are 2 drop-down menus, one says “IRC Network:” and the other says “IRC Server:” and the buttons “Add”, “Edit”, “Delete”, “Sort”, “Connect to Server”, and then “Ok”, “Cancel” and “Help” at the bottom, and one cross-out field that says “New server window” (Only use this if your connected to more then one server at a time).

Now let’s go through it all, one by one.

IRC Network: Here I just want you to select ‘All’, simply because this will display all the available servers that are installed within the client, and that’s what we want.

IRC Server: This is where all the servers are listed, and you will see that by default, Random Dalnet server, is the one that’s selected at the moment, this is however, not the server I want you to connect to.

What I want you to do now, is click the button “Add” and then you will be prompted with a screen that looks somewhat like this (Except different colors, because I use a custom theme for my mIRC client, so don’t get confused by this)

Setup 3.4

Now this screen should be rather self-explanatory, however, I will cover all of the fields for you anyway.

Description: This is where you put in the descriptive name of the server your going to connect to, so you can easily remember what it is. This means that you can type in anything you like, and it won’t make any difference, except that you might be prone to forget that it’s the Coldfront server, if you type in “Dingdoodle dabing bat” or something like that.

So for now, let’s just type “Coldfront” into that field.

IRC Server: This is where you type in the IP, or the Hostname of the server you want to connect to, and in this case, since Coldfront uses a Hostname, we type that into this field, which is: irc.Coldfront.org

Port(s): This field is used to specify that ports in which you connect through to reach the IRC server you have selected, however, this one is usually predefined and standard as “6667”, and therefore you don’t need to change anything in this field, so skip onto the next one.

Group: This is used to specify in what network group the server is in (Remember the IRC Network where I told you to select “All”? That’s what this is related to), but since this is not necessary, we leave this field empty.

Password: As specified in your mIRC client, you only need a password if the server requires it or you’re a special user somehow, and since neither is the case, just leave this blank as well

From here, your screen should look something like this:

Note: If it doesn’t, change it so that it does please.

And from here, you just click “Add” and then you should be taken back to your Servers selection screen.

Congratulations, you’ve now successfully added your first server to your mIRC client’s memory.

Setup 4.4

Now that you’ve gone about adding the server for Coldfront, I want you to go up and click the arrow down in the “IRC Server” list, and you should then have a really long list of servers in front of you, but not to panic, because all you have to do, to find the server you just added, is click and hold the scroll bar of this list, and scroll all the way to the bottom of it. There you will find your server, listed as “Coldfront”, like it does in mine here:

Now click your server, and it should then close the server list window and show your server in the selection field, like this:

Now the distance from the channels of Coldfront isn’t far away, all you do now is click “Connect to Server” and you’re on your way.

It should by now spam your mIRC client with a lot various things, which are rules of the server, and these are always a good thing to read, and you’re free to scroll back up, since they go by your screen so fast that it’s impossible to read.

Commands

IMPORTANT NOTICE: All commands in mIRC start with the symbol / (backslash), since this is IRC’s way of recognizing the difference between when you’re just typing text to someone, or you’re using a command)

- Joining

Since you’re now connected, we’ll go about the simple procedure of joining the right channel.

You can do this either by using the simple interface you’re prompted with when your client is connected, or you can close it and write this in the bottom where your text field is:

/j #whateverchannel

/join #whateverchannel

This should take you straight to the channel of whatever name you put in.

-Nickname changing

NOTE: If your name is suddenly changed into something like “Guest349” or some other random number, it means the name you picked, was already registered to someone else, and you need to pick another.

This can likewise be done fairly easy, by this simple command:

/nick Joe

(Note: The nick I’m picking is just random, make sure you use the nick you want to use instead)

Then the server should prompt you and tell you that your nickname has been changed from guest, into whatever you typed in.

(Note: You CANNOT have spaces in your nick name, meaning you can’t have the nick name “Joe Schmoe”, it has to be in the nature of “Joe_Schmoe” or “Joe´Schmoe” or something in that relations, in other words, a nickname needs to be “connected” regardless of how you want to do it)

-Nickname Registration

After this, once you’ve picked a name that isn’t registered and that you want to use every time you join a coldfront channel, you have the option of registering your nickname (You don’t have to though).

This you do by typing in the following command:

/msg nickserv register password email

/nickserv register password email

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please replace the values “password” and “email” with the appropriate ones, as in, replace password, with whatever password you want to use in association with your registered nickname, and replace email, with your own email.

Example: /nickserv register mypassword This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Note: Nickserv is short of “Nickname Service”, which is basically a service that runs on the network that keeps track of your registered nickname, and makes sure it’s only used when given the correct password.

And then once you’ve typed this in, you just hit enter (or return, whichever you prefer) and the command is executed, and your nickname should now be registered to you.

-Identifying

Every time you disconnect from the Coldfront IRC network, and then connect again, you have to identify with nickserv (nickname service) to tell nickserv that this is indeed your nickname and that your allowed to use it (otherwise it will change your name into guest### some number, like I said earlier)

To identify with nickserv, you simply type in this:

/msg nickserv identify password (replace password with whatever you picked your password to be)

/nickserv identify password

It should then say something along the lines of – Password accepted, you are now recognized. And you’re now free to use your nickname again like you did before when you registered it.
Mind you that you have to type this in every time you connect to the server.

-Private Messaging (PM’ing)

Now since I covered all the areas of getting your nickname registered, identified and in use, the next part will be how to send other users in the channel and/or network, private messages (this is most commonly used during special events for Coldfront, therefore important for you to learn), and this can be done two different, but simple, ways and I will teach you about both.

The first one, is very simple, and it entails the simple task of simply moving your cursor up over the name of the user you wish to PM, and double click it. This should then open a new window with the title of the user you clicked, and then you can just start typing away. (To close this chat window altogether, just right click it and select “close”)

The second one involves the use of a command, should the unlikely thing happen of being able to double click the user you wish to PM.

Let’s pretend that the user you wish to PM, is me in this instance, and my nickname on the Coldfront IRC network, is [EP]Kharnubis. You then put in this command:

/query [EP]Kharnubis

This should then have the same effect as the first one I described. It opens a new window to the user you wish to PM.

-Basic Commands

This part of the guide, is really just eye-candy, meaning these commands aren’t essential nor important for you to effectively use IRC for basic chats.

Now the first one is rather simple, and you will see many users making use it now and then. However, I strongly advice against using it all the time, since that tends to upset the admins (Me, Frostbyghte, Eerazor, Striker or the other mods) of the channel, and can result in you being ejected if you don’t stop when asked to:

/me

This is a command used to express an action of some sort. It will change the way your text comes out and also change its color, and example of this would be:

/me hands Frostbyghte a carrot to munch on

This will then come out as:

[EP]Kharnubis hands Frostbyghte a carrot to munch on

And this is why it’s usually referred to as the “Action command”. (Don’t be surprised if you encounter people in real life who has fallen so low as to say stuff like “/me pinches you” (slash me pinches you) before they actually pinch you, they exist, but then again, that’s a good way to get a fair warning from them I suppose)

And then there is the Ctrl key commands, which is basically combinations of keys to create a certain feature to your text.

NOTE: All Ctrl combination key commands can be ended in your sentence by pressing the same key-combination again once you’re done using the effect.

A few these key combinations are this:

Ctrl k - This brings up a color menu where you can just add in the number of the assigned color, to make your text that specific color.

Like so:

Ctrl k

#1 (The box signifies that there’s an effect being applied to your text, in this case, color. The 1 I put in front in this case, will make your text black)

Ctrl b – This will make your text bold like this

Ctrl u – This will make your text underlined like this

You can also do a combination of these, like for instance:

Ctrl k

Ctrl b

Ctrl u

Your text would then look like this

- Enjoy!

Alright, that’s the end of this guide. Any questions or comments can be sent directly to me on my email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or in IRC under the name [EP]Kharnubis.

Best regards

- Jacob Damkjaer (aka Kharnubis)

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