FAQ

If you want us to help you, you have to ask your question! We can not read minds. If you don’t get an answer, that might be because we don’t know or there is nobody at the keyboard. Please be patient and perhaps use the time for searching one more time on your preferred search engine.

You can not, there is no nickname or channel registration system on IRCnet.

Nicknames are temporarilly owned while they are in use and can be picked up by anyone if they are not in use.

Channels are created when someone joins them and cease to exist when the last person leaves them. As with nicknames, anyone can pick up a non-used channel.

See http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/networks/noserv.html for more information on why this is so.

When creating a new channel (/join #channelname) you get ops (except if your connection is restricted (usermode +r)).

Unless the channel is #help there is nothing we can do.

Bans are set by channel operators and can only be removed by channel operators. Usually bans are set for a reason. Even if no reason is required, channels are run by its operators and they are free to do as they please. If you think it was unfair, the only thing you can do is to complain to the operator who set the ban or another operator from the same channel - but as said, bans are set for a reason, so do not expect much. Some people get less happy about you if you complain.

Also note that some channels have bans on whole countries, ISPs, users on certain IRC-servers or other wide-ranging bans and you might be running into that. If you need to see which bans are set on a channel you can issue the command "/MODE #channel +b" You do not need to be on the channel for this to work.

Bans are usually removed after a while. It might take hours, days or weeks but some bans are permanent. We can not even begin to guess how long it will be before your ban is removed.

We can not help you get around bans. We respect other channel operators' freedom to run their channels as they see fit.

If you are banned from #help you will still have to ask politely to get the ban removed - a request we very likely will not grant.

This means you can not have op status or change your nick (another op can give you op, but you will not be able to use it for anything. Servers will not even bother to op you, even when you create a new channel).

Please be aware that it is not always possible to solve this problem, even if you fix all the problems mentioned below. So if it still does not work you will have to live with the restricted connection.

Ops can set the channelmode +R (capital R, case sensitive) which means the server will reop one user on the channel matching one of the hostmasks in the reop list. It is set very much like bans are:

Notice that not all clients like the +R mode yet, so will require you to do the following:

To remove a reop mask: /MODE #channel -R hostmask

To show current reop list:

An example hostmask for guest!~user@dial-up_24.example.com would be !*user@.example.com - Feel free to ask in #help if you need to figure out a good hostmask to set for yourself. Remember, everyone who match the hostmask has a chance at getting ops, and everyone on a channel can see the +R list, so you should set the hostmasks as prescise as you can. The command for setting this mask would then be:

Now you know how to set, remove and list reop-modes, you need to know how it works. When the channel goes opless, the server will reop someone in the channel matching a hostmask in the reop-list. This is not done right away, you will have to wait up to 90 minutes (yes, that’s one and a half hour) before anything happens. Also note that all modes, including +R, are unset if the channel ever gets empty.

f you use mIRC v6.17 or newer you can try using passive DCC (This requires the recieving end to also support passive DCC (and probably to not be behind NAT too i guess - mh)), it can be enabled with /DCC PASSIVE ON and disabled again with /DCC PASSIVE OFF

(xchat 2.0.7+ and irssi (at least 0.8.11, possibly older too) supports passive DCC, but they handle it differently, please read /HELP DCC )

Please read this very good explanation on why this is and (/or skip directly to) a workaround at http://jdc.parodius.com/irc/dcc_nat.html

If you do not use the router mentioned in the guide you can check http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm for your specific router (It also offers information on fixing portforward related issues with many other programs, not just IRC clients).

For DCC troubleshooting on mIRC, se also: http://www.mircscripts.org/showdoc.php?type=tutorial&id=2355

IRC operators are persons that control the servers and make sure the network keeps running. They can do that by reconnecting IRC servers to the network and keeping certain people out of the network because of safety issues or other network-related issues. IRC operators aren’t IRC 'cops' as many refer them as. They don’t help in personal or channel-related problems that you might have. You can normally find them on #eu-opers and #countrycode-opers (see column A2 at ftp://ftp.ripe.net/iso3166-countrycodes.txt for countrycodes, eg. #nl-opers for dutch opers).

There is a very good step-by-step guide for a lot of different brands of routers at http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm Please follow it to the letter (messing up here can mean you will be without internet-access). If in doubt, please read the router manual or contact the manufacturer..