What is IRC?

Look HERE!



What is available on the Wisconsin Conference IRC server?

Our IRC server is fully compliant with current IRC standards, which means that it will work with any IRC client application (popular IRC clients are mIRC and Pirch, for Windows, or Ircl, for the MacOS) as well as on the web through a special Java browser interface.

There are presently a number of permanent channels (or "rooms") available on our server,m including: #UMCafe, #Capital_District, #Metro_Districts, #FaithAlive, #LaySpeakers, and #WisconsinUMC_Youth (the IRC channel of the Wisconsin Conference Youth Council). Permanent channels have a "bot" (short for robot) running in the background so they always appear when you list the available channels even though there is no one else there at the moment. The "bot" (ours is called "GreeterBot") will say "hi" to everyone who joins the channel when they join.

Our IRC server is "private," which means it is not connected to the bazillion or so other "chat rooms" available through the large IRC networks (such as Undernet or Dalnet). We do not intend ever be part of these networks.



How do I connect to the Conference's IRC Server?

There are two ways to connect to our IRC Server.

Method One (requires a Java-capable web browser with Java/Active-X enabled):
Use your web browser to connect to the server by clicking here. It will take a couple of minutes to transfer the Java applet to your machine but after that it will be pretty fast. All Java IRC interfaces are all slow loading, but pretty good after that. It will not look like these screen shots but it will be similar.

The first thing you will see after the Java applet loads is a screen that looks something like this:




Fill it in so it looks like this, but use your own "nick" and email address:




Next you will see the main window where the "conversations" take place. It will look like this:




Notice the information in the right hand column. There are two "users" in this channel or "room": GreeterBot and thomas. You will see yourself listed there as the nickname you chose when you logged in. To quit the session, choose the "Session" button on the top of the IRC screen and then click on the "Quit" button in the dialog box that will appear.

The drawbacks of using the Java applet are that it is a little slow in loading, and the actual "conversation" screen is a little small and can be harder to read. This is a limitation of the Java applet. The advantage is that you do not need a separate IRC client to use our IRC server.



Method Two (requires a separate IRC client application):
Download either mIRC or Pirch (for Windows 95 or Windows NT) or Ircl (for the MacOS) if you do not already have an IRC client on your machine, and install. You can download here:


mIRC
Pirch
Ircle



You will need the following information to set up your IRC client.

IRC Server:irc.WisconsinUMC.org
Port:7000


In comparison to the Java interface, the stand-alone IRC clients have a standard windowed interface that can be re-sized to fill your whole screen if you wish. They all look similar this screenshot of the main mIRC window:



All of the above IRC clients have configuration help built in as well as instructions on how to actually "join" a channel. If you are interested in connecting to our server at a time when there is someone besides GreeterBot actually there, send me an email note and we'll arrange a time to try it out. Remember that you can always get a welcome message from our GreeterBot by joining either #Capital_District or #Metro_Districts (note: the "#" sign is a necessary part of the channel name).




BACK to the Capital District home page.