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'''Internet Relay Chat''' ('''IRC''') was created by Jarkko Oikarinen (WiZ) in August 1988. It was first written to replace a program called MUT (MultiUser ]) on a ] called OuluBox in ]. Jarkko Oikarinen found inspiration in ] which operated on the ]. Humorously enough, the famous "idiot user" ], who was allegedly a ] user, was actually a well known ]. | ||
| IRC has a decentralized ] of ] that can be accessed by special client programs. The protocol for IRC is open, and there are many client (and server) implementations. | IRC has a decentralized ] of ] that can be accessed by special client programs. The protocol for IRC is open, and there are many client (and server) implementations. | ||
Revision as of 12:47, 3 October 2002
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was created by Jarkko Oikarinen (WiZ) in August 1988. It was first written to replace a program called MUT (MultiUser Talk) on a BBS called OuluBox in Finland. Jarkko Oikarinen found inspiration in Bitnet Relay Chat which operated on the Bitnet network. Humorously enough, the famous "idiot user" B1FF, who was allegedly a BITNET user, was actually a well known IRC operator.
IRC has a decentralized network of servers that can be accessed by special client programs. The protocol for IRC is open, and there are many client (and server) implementations.
The IRC protocol is a plaintext protocol, which means that it is fully possible to use IRC via telnet, although quite inconvenient. It also means that it is possible to intercept and read the communication between client and server, and even hijack and inject the connection. This is unfortunate, as there has been quite a lot of takeover wars on various IRC Networks.
RFC 1459 describes the protocol used by the early IRC2; 2810, 2811, 2812 and 2813 describe one set of proposed IRC extensions: most IRC implementations consist of IRC2 with various add-ons and protocol extensions, resulting in incompatibilities preventing connection of servers running different software.
Today there are many IRC networks, the largest include EFNet, Undernet, IRCNet and Dalnet. They run various implementations of server software, but the protocol exposed to IRC users is very similar, and all IRC networks can be accessed by the same client software.
There are also many programs which are clients, called "bots", short for "robot". The first 'bot was written by Greg Lindahl and provided moderation for the game of Wumpus, but most modern bots either are used to exercise operator privs (controlling channels), to annoy other users (perhaps by spamming them with lots of traffic), or to serve as permanent points of contact for information exchange (an answering machine, file transfer, etc.)
IRC served as an early laboratory for many kinds of Internet attacks, such as using fake ICMP unreachable messages to break TCP-based IRC connections to annoy users or facilitate takeovers.
Popular IRC clients:
Misplaced Pages has an IRC channel called #wikipedia on irc.openprojects.net.