[AC-Admins] ANTHROCHAT.NET: Getting started on anthrochat and getting a channel

[Scott Garron]

Shy Matsi wrote:
> I recently created a few websites, and one of them I was looking for
> a good chat system, and someone mentioned an IRC based chat system on
> the web.. Can you tell me a bit more about it? The web based client..
> Can you embed it anywhere?

      If I recall correctly, there are quite a number of web-based IRC 
clients out there.  How to embed them varies between the different ones, 
but I'm sure there are instructions to follow.

      We have CGI:IRC installed on our web site because all of its 
traffic is transmitted to the user over port 80 (HTTP), but there are 
special provisions that we configured between it and the IRC servers so 
that when someone connects, it communicates their real IP address to the 
IRC servers instead of the web server's IP.  This accomplishes two 
things:  1.  It helps the person using the web client get around 
problems where firewalls would block the normal IRC port (6667) and 2. 
This helps channel maintainers and users deal with people who are 
causing problems because they still show up as coming from their actual IP.

      Most other web-based IRC clients are just a java program which is 
downloaded and executed whenever a person visits it.  It still interacts 
with the IRC servers the same way as any normal, stand-alone client, so 
communications are done over the standard IRC port (6667).


> How hard is it to start a channel? Commands hard to learn?

      You need only to join a channel that didn't exist previously in 
order to start it.  By joining it, you create it.  If you are using a 
nickname that's registered with NickServ, you can register the channel 
by using ChanServ's register command.

      The learning curve on IRC and services bots commands is as steep 
as you make it.  Getting the basics is pretty easy, provided you don't 
mind reading through some help pages.  The help system for the services 
bots is pretty extensive and easy to use:

/nickserv help
/chanserv help

will get you started.  To get more detailed help on each command, just 
include the command name after the word help:

/nickserv help register

for example.

-- 
Scott "Simba" Garron