Internet Relay Chat

 

I will not go into a long, drawn-out explanation of what IRC is, how it started, or any other RTFM-style document here.  IRC is a real-time, text-based chat medium.  It is the oldest form of real-time mass communication on the Internet, dating back to 1988.

 

Most recently, IRC has made headline news as a place where the "criminal element" of the Internet can be found.  I have even seen sites that list IRC software as "viruses" or "trojans."  In the majority of cases, this is simply not true.  IRC is the preferred medium of communication for millions of Internet users.  With the ever-increasing bandwidth consumption of Instant Messaging services, IRC remains the fastest mode of relaying text-only data between users - especially in areas of the world where bandwidth is expensive.

I have been using IRC since the mid-1990s.  Originally, I started using the Eris Free Network (EFNet - http://www.efnet.org) but shifted to Undernet (http://www.undernet.org) in late 1995, and have stayed there ever since.  During this time I have served as an operator in several of the network's major help channels (notably, #zt and #arlington), as well as on the User Committee (1999-2001) and made (infrequent) contributions to the Coder Committee as well.

I currently maintain (somewhat) active IRC connections to the following networks:

• *Undernet (nickname: Ralf [usually])
• Freenode (nickname: jrlenz)
• DALnet (nickname: jrlenz)
• IrCQnet (nickname: Ralf)

Networks marked with an asterisk (*) indicate that I am an active IRC Operator on these networks, and am generally available to answer legitimate questions.