In IRC there are a number of commands that are useful to know and a few that are absolutely essential. Below you will find a list of those commands, an explanation of what they are for and how to use them. IMPORTANT: note that all commands begin with a forward slash, / (the one beneath your question mark on your keyboard) , and begin at the start of a new line. There can be no characters in front of the first / or the command will fail.
PROPERLY entered commands are visible only to you, even though they may appear in the same window as your conversations. Whereas IMPROPERLY entered commands will not only not work they may be also be visible to everyone in the chat room. Please take care in entering your commands, especially those that contain passwords..
The first command set you need to learn are those that deal with nickserv. Nickserv is a program running on the IRC server that keeps track of who is online and what their nicknames, or handles, are. The first thing you should do upon entering IRC for the first time is secure a unique nickname for yourself and register it with nickserv. When that nickname is then secured with a password no one else will able to use that nickname even when you're not online. To begin you need to find out if your desired nickname (referred to as a nick) is already registered by someone else. If it is you will have to choose another one.
Checking Your Nick's Availability:
type the following command on a new line then hit your ENTER key, do not include the brackets < >
/nick <your desired nickname>
If your name changes to that nick and you do NOT get a warning fom nickserv < it may take a minute for the warning to appear > that the name belongs to someone else then you may proceed to register your new nick as follows below. If, however you are warned that someone else has that name and are asked for a password you will need to choose a different name.
Registering Your Nick
type the following command on a new line then hit your ENTER key, do not include the brackets < >
/msg nickserv REGISTER <choose a password - do not use your ICQ password>
Setting KILL on
Now that you have registered your password you will need to protect it so that no one else can use it. To do that you must set KILL on. When you do that nickserve will demand a password from anyone trying to use that nick. If they do not supply the password you registered the nick with then nickserv will not allow them to use that nick.
type the following command on a new line then hit your ENTER key, do not include the brackets < >
/msg nickserv SET kill on
Identify:
Occasionally nickserv will require you to identify yourself with your password. You will be given 60 seconds in which to respond with your password or else nickserv will change your name to guest To identify yourself:
type the following command on a new line then hit your ENTER key, do not include the brackets < >
/msg nickserv IDENTIFY <your password>
Ghost:
Occasionally you will lose your IRC connection and have to re-enter the network and channel (chat room). Sometimes when this happens the network has not had time to "realize" that you have left the network before you rejoin. When this happens you will not be allowed to re-enter with your nick as a "ghost" with that nick is still seen as being on the network. To remove that ghost and allow yourself to use your nick you need to:
type the following command on a new line then hit your ENTER key, do not include the brackets < >
/msg nickserv GHOST <Your nick> <Your Password>;
Info:
This command will allow you to find out information on any given nick. To see what it does try this on your new nick.
type the following command on a new line then hit your ENTER key, do not include the brackets < >
/msg nickserv INFO <nick>
These are the major nickserv commands and in normal use the only ones you will likely ever use.
|