What is IRC?

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is one of the most popular and most interactive services on the Internet. Sure, the Web is nice for finding info and E-mail beats snailmail hands down, but when you've been wondering 'where the others are?', then IRC is what you're looking for.

IRC is the net's equivalent of CB radio. But unlike CB, Internet Relay Chat lets people all over the world participate in real-time conversations. IRC is where the Net comes alive!

Using an IRC client (program) you can exchange text messages interactively with other people all over the world. Some of the more popular chat clients are mIRC, Pirch, and Virc for Windows and Homer or Ircle for Mac's. What program you use doesn't really matter; all of them connect to the same chat networks. When logged into a chat session, you "converse" by typing messages that are instantly sent to other chat participants.

Meeting people. IRC is great fun and you'll sure meet lots of interesting people and find nice spots to hang out! But, IRC is not something that you should just jump into without first reading up on it. You could feel very lost if you do not know some basic commands before you enter IRC, and you might not even know how to get out of IRC after that :o) So, we suggest you read some documentation (help files, readmes, FAQs etc) before you get connected to an IRC server, or it can be very frustrating for you when you get stuck. No worries, all info you need is available on mIRC's web pages and... mIRC makes things really simple!


How to use IRC.

As in life -and CB radio- not all those chatters have something interesting to say, but some do, and many people have developed lasting friendships through IRC. Even marriages have resulted from relationships first forged on IRC. In fact, some people have become so addicted to chatting on the Internet that there's a Usenet newsgroup entitled alt.irc.recovery.

The value of IRC depends on how you use it. IRC can keep you company when you can't sleep, contribute to family togetherness and cut your phone bill. It also can expose you to unpleasant behavior. Chats can get wild and woolly, and anyone (male or female) who takes on a female persona is likely to be hit on. There is indeed a great deal of sextalk, sleaze and garbage on IRC, and one should exercise caution in allowing children to access the IRC without supervision. But, as an adult, you are free to visit only the channels you choose, and there is also a great deal of positive communication going on.

IRC gained international fame during the Gulf War in 1991, where updates from around the world came accross the wire, and most irc users who were online at the time gathered on a single channel to hear these reports. IRC had similar uses during the coup against Boris Yeltsin in September 1993, where IRC users from Moscow were giving live reports about the unstable situation there.

As you see, Internet Relay Chat is a great way to talk to people from all over the world about anything at all. On top of the latest world news there are many help related and tech support channels where you can get immediate assistance with perplexing computer related problems on the spot and in easy to read typewritten form!

What's New:
· Fixed $timer().secs bug when used with /timer HH:MM.
· Fixed right-click on disabled toolbar button popping up menu.
· Fixed treebar and toolbar using same key accelerator in the view menu.
· Changed wording in help file for /windows -D.
· Changed /winhelp to allow help system to search for help file if it's not found in the mIRC folder.
· Fixed /toolbar -z3 not loading actual icon size from an .ico file.
· Fixed pressing spacebar in channel nicklist not popping up correct menu.
· Fixed bug with popup menus displayed using spacebar in notify/url listboxes.
· Fixed passive dcc send bug rejecting files in dcc ignore list.
· Fixed /window -h not being able to hide status window switchbar buttons.
· Fixed various tabbed text display bugs in @window text/listbox.
· Fixed scripts reacting to superfuous windows mouse move messages.
· Fixed display bug in reversed tabbed text in listbox @windows.
· Fixed dcc get window not being auto-closed on time-out in some situations.
· Improved /drawrot, now faster and supports float values.
· Changed the way mIRC displays popup menus so that it triggers the WM_INITMENUPOPUP for plugin developers.
· The LOADINFO structure now returns a minor version value that is right-padded with zeros, eg. "6 20".
· Fixed /drawpic parameter parsing bug.
· Fixed windows taking focus when mIRC is not the active application.
· Fixed $regsubex() bug with \0 parameter and various other characters.
· Added $regsubex() \A parameter, non-spaced version of \a.
· Fixed issue with $lactive not always returning a value.
· Fixed horizontal scrollbar bug in tabbed listbox @windows.
· Optimized display speed of text in windows and listboxes.
· Improved /window -b speed.
· Improved $network return value when connected/disconnected when on networks that use different network names in numerics 001/005.
· Fixed $dialog().focus not working correctly with comboboxes.
· Added on HOTLINK support for $() and %var in matchtext.
· When drag-dropping files on listboxes the listbox item under the mouse is now highlighted.
· Fixed query windows in treebar/switchbar not being re-sorted on a nickname change.
· Added Minimize/Close All menu items to treebar folder menus.
· Fixed script editor bug deleting very long lines instead of truncating them.
· Fixed /window -c gpf bug when several status windows are open and the first status window is closed.
· Fixed $window().state bug.
· Added $window().sbstate/tbstate, return switchbar/treebar button state for a window.
· Updated library to PCRE v6.7, fixes various bugs.
· Updated support files to openssl v0.9.8b.
· Fixed on WAVEEVEND event not being triggered correctly.
· Fixed switchbar fill display bug.
· Fixed $didwm() bug not handling blank lines in editboxes.
· Fixed DCC Get behaviour if download folder does not exist.
· Fixed logging bug where logfiles were being lost if "make folder" was enabled and the same status window was used to connect to different networks.
· Fixed $eval() parsing bug when passed more than two parameters.
· Fixed nested $regsubex() gpf bug.
· Extended commandline -r and -i parameters to accept non-full paths.
· IRC Servers dialog now uses a treeview to display the servers list.
· Fixed $inellipse() bug.
· Fixed kill event handling bug.
· Fixed $regml() bug.
· Fixed log filenames handling bug.