Servers

The server you choose to connect to is the most important factor in determining how quickly and easily you connect. If it is taking a long time to connect to a server, choose a different one and try again.

A server is usually part of an IRC network. All servers that connect to a specific network will have the same users and the same channels.

When adding/editing a server, note that each server requires at least a description, an address, and a port.

An address looks something like "irc.dal.net".

The default port for most servers is 6667. If the server allows connections on different ports, you can enter them separated by commas, eg. 6667,6668,6669 and a port will be selected randomly each time you connect to the server. For secure connections to an SSL capable server, prefix the port with a plus sign, eg. +7001, and to a STARTTLS capable server, prefix the port with a star sign, eg. *7001.

The group is the name of the IRC network to which the server belongs, to allow you to group servers for that network together.

A password is usually not needed, so you should not have to enter anything here.

The login method allows you to use a particular login method, if that is needed by the server you are using. You can also specify a login password. If you need to use SASL, select that as the method and enter your password as either password or username:password. If you need to identify your nickname to NickServ, and you use /nickserv or /msg nickserv on your server, select that as the method.

Note: If you are having problems connecting to an IRC Server, see the Connection Issues section.