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Connection sequence
General commands (concise version)
A typical IRC session log
A typical IRC session log (explaining each line)
Original Text File

Note:
All the commands can be tested using telnet
(available on most major operating systems)

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Connection sequence.

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Connecting to an IRC server usually consists of between two and three steps.
Basically the IRC server needs to know your Nickname, and what to put in
your user info.

Connect to port 6667 (or any other port dedicated to irc)
Once connected (Usually signified by a flashing cursor) you need to tell
the server what nickname you wish to use. To do that type:

NICK Nickname

Next, SOME servers will ask you for a PING reply, (AustnetD does DalnetD doesn't)
The server will boot you off in about 30 seconds unless you reply.
If your on a server that doesn't do this, you can skip this step.
Typically the server will send something like: PING :356783 (the number is random)
Simply respond by typing:

PONG :356783

Next, (this can be typed before or after the "PONG" unless no "PONG" is required)
the user needs to enter their user info, most of this information is ignored and looked
up elsewhere, but is still included for IRC client compatability, and it still uses
the Name section in your WHOIS information.
The user info is broken up into 4 sections:
Email address, Hostname, IP number, and users name, or any other information.
An example is below:

USER identHere "hostname.com" "127.0.0.1" :About me/realname

(just typing "USER a "b" "c" :d" would work on most servers if your in a hurry)

Thats the connect sequence. Simple isn't it? right about now you will be getting a screen
full of badly formatted text about the server your connecting to.