IRC is Internet Relay Chat. It was originally written by Jarkko Oikarinen (jto@tolsun.oulu.fi) in 1988.
Since starting in Finland, it has been used in over 60 countries around the world.
It was designed as a replacement for the -talk- program but has become much much more than that.
IRC is a multi-user chat system, where people convene on -channels- (a virtual place, usually with a
topic of conversation) to talk in groups, or privately.

So.. you would like to know more about IRC?..

There is a lot of information here to assist you. Keep reading or click on one of these links:
Clients, Servers, & Networks RFC 1459 Nicknames Connection Trouble Channel General Help Scripts

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Client, Servers, & Networks.
The first thing you will need is an IRC client. RFC 1459 defines a client in the following words:

A client is anything connecting to a server that is not another server. Each client is distinguised
from other clients by a unique nickname having (on Newnet) a minimum of 2 characters and maximum length of fifteen (15) characters.
See the protocol grammar for what may and may not be used in a nickname.
In addition to the nickname, all servers must have the following information about all clients: the
real name of the host that the client is running on, the username of the client on that host, and
the server to which the client is connected.

What that means, in plain English, is that the client is basically the software you use to connect to an IRC network, like NewNet. When you use this software, you can connect to an IRC server.

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RFC 1459.
(This is only a snippet of the RFC 1459 Protocol. For the complete text click this link. RFC 1459 )

The IRC protocol was developed as a means for users on a BBS to chat amongst themselves. Now it supports a world-wide network of servers and clients, and is stringing to cope with growth. Over the past 2 years, the average number of users connected to the main IRC network has grown by a factor of 10.

The IRC protocol is a text-based protocol, with the simplest client being any socket program capable of connecting to the server.

The IRC (Internet Relay Chat) protocol has been designed over a number of years for use with text based conferencing. This document describes the current IRC protocol.

The IRC protocol has been developed on systems using the TCP/IP network protocol, although there is no requirement that this remain the only sphere in which it operates.

IRC itself is a teleconferencing system, which (through the use of the client-server model) is well-suited to running on many machines in a distributed fashion. A typical setup involves a single process (the server) forming a central point for clients (or other servers) to connect to, performing the required message delivery/multiplexing and other functions.

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Nicknames.
Each user is distinguished from other users by a unique nickname having (on Newnet) a minimum of 2 characters and maximum length of fifteen (15) characters, if not already used. The nickname can be registered through Newnet's services using Nickserv. Some nicknames are not allowed to be used by users (Nickserv, Chanserv, Memoserv, Operserv, ns, cs, ms, os and others deemed restricted).

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Connection Trouble.

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Channel.
A channel is a named group of one or more clients which will all receive messages addressed to that channel. The channel is created implicitly when the first client joins it, and the channel ceases to exist when the last client leaves it. While channel exists, any client can reference the channel using the name of the channel.

To create a new channel or become part of an existing channel, a user is required to JOIN the channel. If the channel doesn't exist prior to joining, the channel is created and the creating user becomes a channel operator. If the channel already exists, whether or not your request to JOIN that channel is honoured depends on the current modes of the channel. For example, if the channel is invite-only, (+i), then you may only join if invited. As part of the protocol, a user may be a part of several channels at once, but a limit of ten (10) channels is recommended as being ample for both experienced and novice users.

If the IRC network becomes disjoint because of a split between two servers, the channel on each side is only composed of those clients which are connected to servers on the respective sides of the split, possibly ceasing to exist on one side of the split. When the split is healed, the connecting servers announce to each other who they think is in each channel and the mode of that channel. If the channel exists on both sides, the JOINs and MODEs are interpreted in an inclusive manner so that both sides of the new connection will agree about which clients are in the channel and what modes the channel has.

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General Help.

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Scripts.

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