Sources of IRC & Undernet Information
Most of the time, if a user wants some information, they will approach an op on the channel they are on, instead of heading over to #wasteland or #help (or any of the various other help channels). It is because of this, that I think all channel ops should have knowledge other than how to kick and do mode changes with their scripts. If a user approaches you with a question, try to help him/her the best you can. If you really can't answer the question, try sending the person to one of the help channels listed below, or even go to the channel yourself to ask the question; this way, you will know the answer for the future ;) There are many resources in which to find information, some on IRC, some through ftp sites, some through Newsgroups, some on the World Wide Web. Below is a list of places to find some information, clients, scripts, etc.. Check these out yourself, and/or keep them in mind for when someone else wants to know. A) On IRC 1) Channels #wasteland This is the official Undernet Help Channel, also an IRCop idle spot. There is almost always someone around. #help general IRC help, very friendly, we try to keep it staffed, but unfortunately there are times when there is no one there. #macintosh Help channel for macintosh users -- very friendly #mirc Help channel for mIRC users -- also very friendly #gnn Help channel for GNN users (I've never been there, so don't know much about the atmosphere) #11nschat Help channel for Netscape Chat users (Again, I've never been there) #windows95 Windows 95 help channel, obviously ;) #windows Windows help channel #cservice Channel for questions about X and W 2) Bots HelpBot Super maintains this bot, and it resides on #help. It isn't very detailed at the moment, but it contains some quick general information, such as what mode changes are, a partial list of the channels mentioned above, as well as a few other things. To see a list of help topics /msg helpbot help To obtain help on a particular topic /msg helpbot help topic BuddyBot Super also maintains this bot and it resides on #friendly. Besides keeping the channel open and giving out ops to those users on its op list, BuddyBot also contains a fileserver which allows users to obtain documents pertaining to #friendly, as well as a few other things. For infomation on how to use BuddyBot's fileserver /msg buddybot get buddybot.info To see a list of files that BuddyBot has to offer /msg buddybot files or /msg buddybot ls To DCC a file from BuddyBot /msg buddybot get filename B) Undernet FTP Site ** All directories located at the Undernet FTP site. ftp.undernet.org mirror sites: ftp2.undernet.org ftp3.undernet.org 1) Documents IRC Primer, IRC FAQ /pub/irc/docs/ Undernet FAQ /pub/irc/docs/undernet/ RFC1459 (Technical Document for IRC) /pub/irc/docs/technical/ CService Guidelines and Application /pub/irc/docs/cservice/ 2) Clients Unix clients, need to be compiled /pub/irc/clients/ Unix clients, precompiled /pub/irc/clients/compiled/ Windows clients, preferrably mIRC (latest version is 3.72) /pub/irc/clients/windows/ file is: mirc372.zip VMS clients /pub/irc/clients/vms/ Macintosh clients /pub/irc/clients/macintosh/ 3) Scripts Superpak and UUS /pub/irc/scripts/unix/ wall.irc /pub/irc/scripts/unix/misc/ A "script" for mIRC /pub/irc/scripts/windows/ An away.ini file for mIRC /pub/irc/scripts/windows/ (since mIRC can't use the unix scripts, but uses a bunch of aliases, the "script" for mIRC is prolly an ini file that someone made which contains some useful aliases -- I've never seen it, so I'm not sure, but it would not be available from the ftp site unless it was at least half-decent) VMS script /pub/irc/scripts/vms/ C) Newsgroups alt.irc alt.irc.questions alt.irc.undernet These are the most used newsgroups for IRC. It is a good place to go to post for help, or just to read responses to other posts and learn. The IRC FAQ is posted here about every week or so by Mandar (Mmmm). The server lists are also posted here periodically. D) World Wide Web Undernet's Official WWW Page (by RedRum) http://http1.brunel.ac.uk:8080/~cs93jtl/Undernet.html Another Undernet Page (by Karll) http://undernet.infowest.com/index.html * both of these pages have links to plenty of info and other pages Also: mIRC Home Page http://huizen.dds.nl/~mirc/index.htm Mirror Sites http://sunsite.nijenrode.nl/ftp/pub/mirc/ http://www.gil.com.au/~strike/ http://www.primenet.com/~rodeo/mirc/ http://mars.superlink.net/user/mook/mirc/ http://www.geopages.com/Colosseum/1822/ E) Some IRC commands which may or may not be in the docs.. /links shows a list of Undernet servers and their uplinks /quote map another way to view the servers and how they are connected /list -min N -max N N is the number of users currently on the channel -min and -max can be used separately or together Example: /list -min 10 -max 50 /list #*somestring* you can get a list of channels that have a certain string in their name. Example, /list *chat* will give all channels with the string "chat" in them /set hold_mode on (Superpak users can use /pause) allows you to see the screen scroll one page at a time very useful when doing a /list * make sure to do /set hold_mode off -- when you are done /admin
<servername>shows who the admin(s) of a server is/are just /admin will show the admins of the server you are currently on /stats O<servername>Shows who all the IRCops on that server are (called O: lines) Again, just /stats O will show info on your current server /stats K<servername>Shows who is banned from that server (called K: lines) Again, just /stats K will show info on your current server /who -oper (ircII clients only) Shows which IRCops are currently on-line, with Oper turned on (Oper and de-Oper themselves, just like we can op and de-op ourselves on a channel. /who 0 o [/who zero lowercase-o] (mIRC clients) Shows which IRCops are currently on-line /who #channelname -chop (ircII clients only) Shows a list of all the channel ops on the channel F) Miscellaneous telnet sci.dixie.edu 1 | sh Mmmm's auto-install telnet site This is executed from the unix prompt, and then just follow directions from there. _________________________________________________ Sources of IRC & Undernet Information Teal!friedman@cse.psu.edu Version 1.0 11/20/95