For starters, be sure to read through Blabber.net's rules here. Additionally, it's good to keep an eye on the Message Of The Day that is displayed each time you connect to Blabber.net. If this is not displayed, typing /motd should show it.

Further to the above, most channels on IRC, in general, have the following rules:

• Do not speak in CAPITALS.
• Do not flood other users or the channel.
• Do not have an 'auto greet' script that greets anybody as they join the channel.
• Do not harass other users.
• Do not use colour.

Again, this depends on the channel in question. Some may have more rules, some less, and some very few ones may not care at all. It's best to ask one of the channel operators if you're unsure. These are the guys with "@" signs next to their nicks.

While connected to Blabber.net, type:


This will change your nickname to whatever you stipulate for <nickname>

Example:

First let me explain what it means to register your nick. Blabber.net runs a service called NickServ. When you register your nick, you tell NickServ to keep your nick for you and (optionally) disallow anyone trying to use your nick. As well, it allows owners of channels to do things like adding you to the auto-op list of a channel. If you are a regular user of Blabber.net, it's highly recommended you register your nick before someone else does. If someone registers your nick before you, there's no way of proving you as the original owner. So do it today!

That said, let me show you how. While connected to Blabber.net, type:


This should immediately register your nick with whatever password you stipulated for <password> as well as store whatever email address you stipulated for <email>. Please note that the e-mail address you give will NOT be advertised to anyone in any way (unless you specifically ask NickServ to make it public after registering your nick). It's highly recommended you give a valid address because if you forget your password, this address will be used to recover it.

Example:

Once registered, keep your password safe. If anyone can get your password, anyone can use your nick. What's the point in even registering then? Use a secure password and definately not the one shown in the above example! Once you've registered your nickname, you must identify for it each and everytime you connect. Failing to do so will make NickServ think you're not using it, and will drop it after 60 days. Please read the next question about identifying.

Assuming your nick is registered and you're using it, type:


Replacing <password> with your password.

Example:

First you need to identify for your nick using your existing password. See the above question if you're unsure how this is done. Once identified, type:


This will change your old password to whatever you stipulate for <new-password>. The change will take effect immediately.

Example:

Let me explain what this is first. If nick kill protection is enabled and someone else tries to use your nick, they will be automatically disconnected from Blabber.net after 60 seconds unless they know your nick password. This means, when you connect using your nick, you may have to identify with nickserv to prevent yourself from being automatically disconnected. Here's how to enable it:


You must identify before issuing the above command. For more information on this feature, feel free to look here.

Linking nicks together is useful. All nicks linked together will share the same memo database, access lists, and settings. Additionally, both nicks will have the same access in any registered channel. Nick passwords will, however, be unique for each linked nick. Here's how to do it:


For example, if I want to link the nick PeggieSue to the nick SweetMaryJane, I'd first register PeggieSue then, while connected as PeggieSue, type the following:

Sixty days.

Not to worry. If you gave NickServ a valid email address when you registered you can go to the users section of this page, type your nickname in the search field and hit search. This should bring up your nickname info and present you with a "Forgot Password" option at the bottom. Click this and then "Yes" to have your password mailed to you on the email address you gave NickServ.

If you did not give NickServ a valid email address when registering, join #blabber and ask one of the IRC Operators to help you. Alternatively, you can mail the Operators by sending mail to admin@blabber.net.

You can reclaim your nickname by using NickServ's ghost command. While connected to Blabber.net type:


Replace <yournick> with your nickname, and <password> with your password.

Example:

This will tell NickServ to kill the person using your nick and you'll then be able to change to it using the /nick command explained above. If you'd like NickServ to automatically not allow other people using your nick , please read up on the Set Kill command. Bare in mind that you must identify each and everytime you connect with your nick if you use automatic kill protection, otherwise you yourself will be killed.

Typing /list while you're connected to Blabber.net should present you with a list of channels on the network. Bare in mind that some channels are secret channels (mode +s) and, hence, will not show up on this list.

This feature is implemented with ChanServ. To fully understand how it works one must read up on the ChanServ Levels command and ChanServ Access command. Depending on how you configure your levels determines how you need to use the access command to grant someone auto-op status on your channel. Using default levels, you'd need to give the person level 5 access on your channel by typing:


Replace <channel> with your channel name and <nickname> with the person's nick.

Example:

If you are running a channel, it's highly advised you get familiar with ChanServ's commands by reading the manual here.

First you must register your nickname. If you don't know how, please read above. Next, you must have channel operator status. Then you can type:


Replace <channel> with your channel's name, <password> with the founder password to assign your channel, and <description> with a brief description of your channel.

Example:

Your channel should be registered now. At this point if you aren't familiar with ChanServ's commands, you best read up on them here now. This knowledge is important for maintaing any channel.

First you must identify with NickServ. If you're not sure how, please see the question further above. Once identified you can type:


Replace <channel> with your channel name, and <new-password> with the new password you'd like to set.

Example:

If you are not the founder of the channel and you need to change the password, you'll need to ask the founder to do this.

More than likely you need to identify with NickServ before joining the channel. If you're not sure how this is done, please see above. If you're still not getting auto opped, speak to one of the channel operators to confirm your access. If you do indeed have auto-op access and are still not getting auto opped even when identified, ask for help in #blabber.

By typing:


Replace <channel> with the channel name, and <topic> with the topic you'd like to set.

Example:

Please note that some channels may have mode +t set. If this is the case (and it often is) you have to have channel operator status to set the topic.

You may have seen something like this on IRC:


This is known as an action and is accomplished by typing:


Replace <action> with the desired action.

Example:

In order to do this, you must have channel operator status in the respective channel. If you do:


Replace <channel> with the channel name, <modes> with the modes, and [parameters] with mode parameters if any of them require this.

Example:

The above mode change will add modes to set the channel to, respectively, not allow external messages, to disallow non channel operators from changing the topic, and to not allow more than 20 people in the channel at one time. If you're using mIRC you can also double click the channel window and a option box will popup showing you all the modes you can set. This is useful if you're still getting familiar with them. If you need help with channel modes, feel free to ask in #IRChelp.

Performing these operations is nothing more than changing the channel modes, as shown in the previous question.

Example:

This will give SweetMaryJane voice on the channel and a "+" sign will appear next to her nick. Most IRC clients such as mIRC have shortcuts to these modes. They usually take the form of /op, /deop, /voice, /devoice, /ban, /unban. But this can change depending on what IRC client you are using.

Example:

In mIRC this will op SweetMaryJane in the channel it was typed. You'll see an "@" sign appear next to her nick. If you're not using mIRC or are having difficulty with these commands, feel free to ask someone in #IRChelp to help you, or send mail to helpers@blabber.net.

You need channel operator status for this. If you have it, type:


Replace <channel> with the channel you want to kick the person from, <nick> with the nickname of the person you want to kick, and <reason> with the reason for the kick.

Example:

This would result in:

If you mean a channel operator, all I can suggest is becoming a regular in the channel in question and getting to know the other operators on a friendly level. Bare in mind this is only a guideline and not a set rule. Any channel may have their own set of rules for becoming an op. And then with some channels you just don't stand a chance of becoming an op regardless of how friendly you are or how much they may or may not trust you. In all cases, the worst thing you can do is ask for ops. And if you're on IRC just for the status of being a channel operator you're probably better off finding something else to do, like seeing a councelor.

If you mean an IRC Operator I should point out that becoming an IRC Operator requires not only a strong working knowledge of IRC and the IRC network in question, but also a working relationship with hub admins and other opers. Opers are selected when there is a need, and never given based on who is asking for it.

There are two copies of the services documentation - one via this page and one available on IRC.

The web version is here. To access this information from IRC, you can type:


For NickServ specific help.


For ChanServ specific help.


For MemoServ specific help.

There are two possibilities.

You upset one of the operators by breaking the channel rules and he banned you. You can try ask him to unban you if you know his nick by typing /msg <nick> <message> replacing <nick> with his nickname and <message> with what you want to say to him. Politeness in this situation might mean the difference between remaining banned and being allowed back in. It's upto you.

The other possibility is that someone else from the same or similar IP address as you has abused the rules of the channel. It's unfortunate that you might have been banned because of someone else's doing, but in some cases it's the only way the operators can remove the troublesome users. You can try do /names <channel> replacing <channel> with the channel in question to get a list of operators in that channel. From there, you can try /msg them individually as shown above.

When you type in caps or CAPITALS it is considered by many as shouting. WHILE YOU'RE READING THIS, HOW DOES CONSTANT USE OF CAPS LOOK? I hope you understand what I mean.

As a result, most channels forbid the use of caps and will kick you out if you insist on breaking this rule. If you don't like it, the best you can do is move to a channel that doesn't mind. Good luck finding one :-).

This means that that person is a channel operator in the respective channel he/she is in. What does it mean to be a channel operator? Well, channel operators are just that - they operate the channel. This means they have the ability to set channel modes, kick users out, etc. If one has any hope of remaining in a channel they must respect the rules the channel operators lay down for the channel in question. If you don't like the operators and/or their rules, best you find another channel in which to chat.

This means that that person has voice in the respective channel he/she is in. The only real function this serves is when the channel is moderated (mode +m). In this case, that person can speak publicly in the channel in the same way the channel operators can. Anyone without operator or voice status can not.

But in a lot of cases the channel is not moderated and the voice status is just that - nothing more than a status symbol. It doesn't allow them to do anything a non voiced user can do. This is often used as a precurser to giving that person operator status, so it might be wise to be friendly to these people for the future :-).

This means that that person is a channel protected user in the respective channel he/she is in. Basically these users can do everything the channel operators can do, but the channel operators can not kick or deop them. They are "protected". Only the channel founders are capable of kicking or deopping protected channel users.

This means that that person is a channel founder in the respective channel he/she is in. What does it mean to be a channel founder? Well, channel founders are just that - they were the first person to register the channel with ChanServ, hence "founded" it. Channel founders have all the same privileges of channel operators, channel protected users, and more. No one can kick or deop a channel founder. Additionally, only channel founders can set channel modes +u and +L. Generally there are never more than two channel founders per registered channel, and often only one. Channel founders are the last stop in channel authority.

It doesn't matter. If a user has founder or protected status in a channel, they automatically gain the same privileges as regular channel operators in addition to their founder or protected privileges.

This is merely a feature to allow for backward compatability with old IRC clients that don't recognise the +q and +a channel modes. This is a historical feature that was necessary when the channel modes were introduced for the first time, but by now it is mostly unnecessary due to greater support for the +q and +a modes by IRC clients. The feature will likely fall away in the not too distant future, and founders/protecteds will only receive the +q/+a mode respectively when they join a channel.

Chances are, all 3 of those people on your network are being routed through a single proxy of sorts and, hence, will all be originating from the same IP address when connected to any sort of server on the internet, including Blabber.net. This is referred to as cloning, and is often outlawed completely on many networks. Blabber.net, however, does allow users to have upto 3 clones on the network at a time. Any more and they'll automatically be disconnected. The reason behind this is to help prevent abuse from flooding the network. This is a very common occurance and has resulted in a lot of IRC networks shutting down, so don't think the reasoning is trivial.

There is good news, however. If you are connecting from a static IP address (not dial-up!), we can create what's called a session limit exception for that IP address. If you'd like this, try find an IRC Operator in #blabber that can help, or mail admin@blabber.net. If you're on a dial-up connection, don't even bother asking/begging/bribing us. It's not a matter of us not wanting to do it, it's a matter of it not being possible without opening Blabber.net up for abuse. Something we certainly will not do!

As described in the previous question, cloning is when one or multiple users connect to an IRC network from the same IP address. This can often happen without your knowledge if you're connecting from work or going through a transparent proxy of some sort. If you are being disconnected from Blabber.net with the error message "Session limit exceeded" it is because there are too many clones from your IP address connected at the time. If you're not sure how to resolve this, please speak to an IRC Operator in #blabber or mail us on admin@blabber.net.

If someone is constantly bugging you, you have the opportunity to ignore them completely. In most cases this is just a matter of typing:


Where <nick> is the nickname of the person you want to ignore. This will work on mIRC and many other IRC clients.

Later you may want to remove the person from your ignore list. In mIRC this is accomplished by going to the "Tools" menu and selecting "Address". Another window will popup on which you select the "Control" tab. Then change the "List type" to "Ignore". The list of people you're ignoring should appear below. They can be removed by highlighting and using the buttons on the right of that window.

In the java chat, double click the nickname of the person you ignored to bring up the private chat window. Then click the "Ignore this user" button. The user should be removed from your ignorance list.

mIRC is a very popular IRC client for Windows. It's the best supported client in use and is updated often with new features and bugfixes. If you're running Windows, this is the first client we recommend you try.

It's available from many locations around the world. It's homepage is at www.mirc.com. If you're in South Africa and you find that site slow, try www.mirc.co.za.

If none of the above helped you with your problem, you could perhaps have a look at www.irchelp.org. If you're still struggling, feel free to mail helpers@blabber.net or speak to someone in #IRChelp on Blabber.net.