Set up IRC client on Shovel.

Register #edgecase channel on Freenode.

Test joining #edgecase channel and speaking on it.

Set up IRC bouncer on a new Digital Ocean VM.

IRC = Internet Relay Chat







- Goal
- Contents
- Brief Summary
- Summary
- Access
- Commands
- Project Log







I set up this IRC system:
- local Irssi chat client, which connects to:
- ZNC bouncer on a Digital Ocean cloud virtual machine, which connects to:
- Freenode IRC network

On Freenode, I registered my nick (stjohn_piano_2), a channel (#edgecase2), and made myself a channel operator for #edgecase2.







- Irssi client installed on local system.
- I connected via Irssi to Freenode network.
- I registered my nick (stjohn_piano_2) with NickServ on Freenode and set an alternate nick (stjohn_piano_2_a).
- I joined #edgecase channel and found that it was already registered on freenode.
- I joined the #edgecase2 channel, which didn't exist. Joining it caused it to exist.
- I registered the #edgecase2 channel with ChanServ, which made me its channel owner.
- I made myself a channel operator on #edgecase2.
- I joined the #freenode channel and asked for an "unaffiliated" cloak.
- I set up a new virtual machine (VM) on Digital Ocean (a cloud VM provider). I named it "bouncer" and set the domain edgecase-test.net to point to its IP address.
- A channel operator on #freenode (emilsp) gave me (or rather, my registered nick on the Freenode IRC network) an unaffiliated cloak.
- On bouncer VM, I installed the Yum repo EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux), and then the ZNC IRC bouncer.
- I generated an initial ZNC configuration.
- I turned on ZNC. I also set the CentOS system to automatically start it on boot.
- I logged in to ZNC's web admin interface. I set Allowed IPs to be just my local IP address. I added the Freenode network (under my nick's specific settings, not the global settings) and set it to use my Freenode password for my nick when making the connection (this required some experimentation and testing to get right). At first, I set the channel #edgecase2 here as well, but this caused Irssi to open multiple windows, for some sequence of reasons that I didn't fully grasp.
- I configured Irssi to connect to the ZNC bouncer, and to call this connection "Freenode". This connection requires the ZNC password (set earlier), not the Freenode password.
- I tested the process of disconnecting my local Irssi client from the ZNC bouncer, waiting a while (two hours), and then reconnecting to the ZNC bouncer. ZNC remained connected to the #freenode channel, buffered the broadcast messages, and sent them to my client when I reconnected.
- I tested that powercycling the bouncer VM caused ZNC to be started on boot.


Notes:

Using an IRC bouncer accomplishes two things: It prevents another user or bot from easily and immediately seeing your local IP address, and it prevents join/part spam in a channel (the bouncer will usually be on a better Internet connection, if it is in a data centre, and therefore will not lose its connection to the channel as often as your local client would).

On Freenode IRC network:
- NickServ handles user registration and settings.
- ChanServ handles channel registration and settings.
- Any NickServ/ChanServ commands or queries should be sent only in a private chat with NickServ/ChanServ, to avoid the possibility of accidentally sending the message to a public channel.

Irssi thinks in terms of chat windows, servers, and channels.

You connect to a server. Servers contain channels. Windows show channels or private chats. You can list windows and toggle between them.









freenode nickserve:
- email: [deleted]
- pw: [deleted]
- nick: stjohn_piano_2
- alt nick: stjohn_piano_2_a


znc instance:
- admin username: stjohn_piano_2
- pw: [deleted]
- nick: stjohn_piano_2
- alternate nick: stjohn_piano_2_a
- Ident: stjohn_piano_2
- real name: StJohn Piano
- port: 1025












$ irssi


within irssi:





Useful links:

https://irssi.org/documentation/startup/

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC/Instructions

https://freenode.net/kb/answer/channelmodes

https://irssi.org/documentation/settings/

https://quadpoint.org/articles/irssisplit/

















System details:
- Name: Shovel
- Specifications: HP 6005 Pro SFF. 3 GHz x86_64 processor (AMD II x4 B95 Quad Core), 4 GB RAM, 1 TB hard drive. Running CentOS 7.6.1810 (Core).
- More information: New computer: Shovel
- Installed items: GCC 4.8.5, Make 3.82, Vim 7.4, Python 2.7.5, Python 3.3.2, Gnome 3.28.2, gedit 3.28.1, GPG 1.4.10.





IRC client candidates:
- irssi (terminal)
- weechat (terminal, GUI)
- xchat (terminal, GUI, precursor to hexchat)
- hexchat (terminal, GUI)
- mirc (GUI, proprietary)


IRC bouncer candidates:
- znc
- BNC
- psyBNC


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Internet_Relay_Chat_clients


Let's look at irssi.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irssi

Irssi is an IRC client program for Linux, FreeBSD, macOS and Microsoft Windows. It was originally written by Timo Sirainen, and released under the terms of the GNU General Public License in January 1999.

Irssi is written in the C programming language and in normal operation uses a text-mode user interface.

Numerous Perl scripts have been made available for Irssi to customise how it looks and operates.

Irssi may be configured by using its user interface or by manually editing its configuration files, which use a syntax resembling Perl data structures.

Some searching suggests that there is no python-based IRC client.


Lisp-based?
- cl-irc.
but on http://btcbase.org/log, I find:

trinque: relatedly I've read cl-irc and the thing is a haphazard mess

http://btcbase.org/log-search?q=irssi
suggests that irssi is in use.



http://danielpbarron.com/2018/irssi-on-pizarro-shared-hosting/



also:

asciilifeform: irssi rocks

and

mircea_popescu: i think everyone here uses xchat or irssi

So, I'll go with irssi.








https://quadpoint.org/articles/irssi/




I altered some settings in ~/.irssi/config
to:




can connect to or disconnect from servers. servers have channels. can join / leave channels.



irssi commands:
---

/help

/CONNECT Freenode

/rmreconns

/CONNECT -ssl Freenode

/connect irc.freenode.net 8001

/connect irc.freenode.net

/msg nickserv REGISTER [password] [email]

/msg NickServ help

[detailed information on your nick]
/msg NickServ info

/disconnect

/msg NickServ IDENTIFY [nick] [password]

[list channelnames containing "edge"]
/msg alis LIST edge

/msg alis LIST edgecase

[send message that refers to yourself in the third person]
/me eyeballs stack of books next to desk

/window

/window list

/win 2

[creates a new window for e.g. private messages between you and another user]
/SET autocreate_windows ON

/whois [nick]

[can be used for leaving a channel, but not a private chat]
/part

To close a private chat, type:
/q

To close the window after parting from a channel or leaving a private chat:
/win close


---




https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1010780

Register with Freenode ...

It is a very good idea to formally register your nick with Freenode and it is easy enough to do. Don't forget to substitute your own details here:

/msg nickserv REGISTER <password> <email>

NickServ will send an email to your email address with copy and paste instructions to verify you nick details. So your email address is not obvious to all users (although this setting is usually the default) then issue the following command:

/msg NickServ SET HIDEMAIL ON

https://freenode.net/kb/answer/cloaks










Using
/join #edgecase
apparently created the channel and made me the channel operator automatically.


hm. maybe not.





Ah: this line has the year 2012:



it already existed.





https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC/Instructions

IRC clients typically have an option to use an 'alternate nickname' to use if the primary nickname is in use when you connect (for example, if someone else is using it, or if you have been abruptly disconnected and a "ghost" of your original connection remains). Freenode recommends that you group this alternate nick (/msg nickserv help group) to your primary nickname. This "alternate" grouping is also required in order to obtain IRC channel cloaks.

Once your nick is registered, you can enable 'enforce' (or 'secure'). This will force any user claiming the nick to identify with the password within 30 seconds. This protects you from imposters taking your nick while you're offline. Since you configured your client to automatically identify, nothing changes for you (except being protected). Use /msg nickserv set enforce on or /msg nickserv set secure on

/join #edgecase2


















https://irssi.org/documentation/startup/




https://forums.mirc.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/200974/%22+%22_or_%22@%22

You cant just "get" a +/@ in front of your nickname. + refers to voice status and @ refers to operator status-- both of these have to be given to you by someone with operator status (@).

https://freenode.net/kb/answer/channelmodes






There's an "Activity" plugin (included and enabled by default) that will show "Act" + window numbers in which new lines have been received.





https://freenode.net/kb/answer/usermodes
- can set user mode to "ignore private messages from unknown users"





https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1010780

It is not mandatory but often a good idea to create an alternate nick and then group this with your account. So while logged on with your primary nick run the following:

/nick <alternate_nick>
/msg nickserv group

In convo with NickServ:
/nick stjohn_piano_2_alt
-> shortened to stjohn_piano_2_a, which suggests a nick maximum length of 16 chars.
/msg nickserv group
09:38 -NickServ(NickServ@services.)- Nick stjohn_piano_2_a is now registered to your account.



/join #freenode





Well, while waiting, I'll set up a bouncer.



Log in to Digital Ocean.




I have an SSH key already made on Shovel:





In DigitalOcean / Account / Security, a key with the name "shovel" is already listed.


In DigitalOcean / Manage / Droplets, click Create, then Droplets.

I now see the "Create Droplets" interface.

Choose these droplet details:
- Distribution = CentOS 7.6 x64
- Memory = 1 GB
- vCPUS = 1 vCPU
- SSD Disk = 25 GB
- Transfer = 1000 GB
- Price = $5/mo, $0.007/hr
- Datacentre region = London

In the section "Add your SSH keys", choose "shovel".

Set hostname to "bouncer".

Click Create.


I now see the Project interface. New droplet is being created.

New droplet finished. It has the IP address 206.189.119.239.


I have a spare domain: edgecase-test.net

Click it. The "Create new record" interface opens.


It already has 3 Nameserver records pointing to the DigitalOcean nameservers.

It also has an A record left over from a previous project.

Edit the A record. Set it to point to "bouncer".

"TTL (Seconds)" is set to 3600.

3600 seconds = 1 hour.

Click Save.



[a minute or so passes]






That was a quick changeover.






more from #freenode: [I haven't included all chat lines here e.g. join/part notifications, people talking about other things]








Let's press on.










https://wiki.znc.in/Installation

Fedora/CentOS/Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Fedora has znc packaged in it's main repository and their Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repository provides them for CentOS/RHEL.

If using RHEL install the EPEL repository by downloading the appropriate package linked on EPEL's website [ https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL#How_can_I_use_these_extra_packages.3F ].

Once you have EPEL installed (or are on Fedora), execute:

sudo yum install znc

Once installed you can configure znc by running:

sudo -u znc znc --makeconf # this creates /var/lib/znc/.znc

Then finally to start it you can run:

sudo systemctl start znc # or enable if you want it to autostart

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL#How_can_I_use_these_extra_packages.3F

NOTE for CentOS users
You can install EPEL by running yum install epel-release. The package is included in the CentOS Extras repository, enabled by default.

Interesting. I note the existence of a Python module, which I assume allows the loading of Python plugins.

https://wiki.znc.in/Modpython









https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31666247/what-is-the-difference-between-the-nick-username-and-real-name-in-irc-and-wha

The nickname supplied with NICK is the name that's used to address you on IRC. The nickname must be unique across the network, so you can't use a nickname that's already in use at the time.

The username supplied with USER is simply the user part in your user@host hostmask that appears to others on IRC, showing where your connection originates from (if you've never seen these, then your client may be hiding them). In the early days of IRC it was typical for people to run their IRC client on multi-user machines, and the username corresponded to their local username on that machine. Some people do still use IRC from multi-user shell servers, but for the most part the username is vestigal.

The real name supplied with USER is used to populate the real name field that appears when someone uses the WHOIS command on your nick. Unlike the other two fields, this field can be fairly long and contain most characters (including spaces). Some people do put their real name here, but many do not.

The PASS command is optional. It is used to supply a password if the IRC server you are using requires one. Some servers will use the password supplied to attempt to log you on to IRC services.


edited Nov 26 '18 at 0:41
answered Jul 30 '15 at 2:10
caf

https://wiki.znc.in/ZNC

Generate an initial configuration via znc --makeconf.

- Each ZNC user can connect to several IRC networks, though you'll need to connect your IRC client to ZNC several times (once per network).
- You can later change settings (add more users, tune existing ones, etc.) via the web interface or from IRC.

In Chrome, browse to:
http://206.189.119.239:1025

works.
{Welcome to ZNC's web interface!}

Can log in using admin name + password.
{This connection is not secure}

Go to Your Settings.

In Authentication / Allowed IPs, put in my local IP.

In Networks, click Add.
- Network Name: Freenode
- tick for {Disable certificate validation (takes precedence over TrustPKI). INSECURE!}
- no tick for {Trust the PKI:}
- Click Add under Hostname | Port | SSL | Password
-- Hostname: irc.freenode.net
-- Port: 6667
-- no tick for SSL
-- Password: [not included here]

To connect to this network from your IRC client, you can set the server password field as stjohn_piano_2/<network>:<password> or username field as stjohn_piano_2/<network>

Click {Add Network and continue}

Under Channels, click Add.
- Channel Name: edgecase2

Click {Add Channel and continue}
Click {Save and return}



https://superuser.com/questions/1307874/irc-terminology-network-vs-server

An IRC server has the meaning you'd expect: it's a single machine that's running an IRC daemon which you can connect to.

An IRC network is a group of IRC servers which are linked together. When servers are linked into a network, they behave like a single large server -- usernames and channels are shared within the network, and you can communicate with users on other servers within the network without any special steps. Users still connect to individual servers, but it's as if they are connected to the whole network.

Most large IRC networks are configured such that normal users don't need to think about individual servers. There will typically be names in DNS which can be used to connect to an arbitrary available server, e.g. "irc.example.com" to connect to any server, "us.irc.example.com" to connect to a server in the US, or so on.

answered Mar 26 '18 at 3:10
duskwuff

https://freenode.net/kb/answer/chat

You can connect to freenode by pointing your IRC client at chat.freenode.net on ports 6665-6667 and 8000-8002 for plain-text connections, or ports 6697, 7000 and 7070 for SSL-encrypted connections.

http://irc.netsplit.de/networks/top100.php

Each IRC network consists of one or more IRC servers that form a virtual chat network together. The communication on these virtual chat networks is based on the IRC protocol. According to this you talk about IRC networks. Users that are connected via directly or crabwise connected servers are able to chat together.

https://wiki.znc.in/ZNC

Configure your IRC client to connect to your ZNC server.

If your client has separate username and password fields, that works fine.
You can set username as username@clientid/network to connect to a specific network. The network needs to be configured already. Without /network client will be connected to some random network.
- If your client is broken and doesn't support specifying username in well... username, you can use username@clientid/network:password as the password.

In irssi, run
/help server
and read the results




/server -network freenode -host edgecase-test.net [port] [password] [nick]


nope. doesn't work.


https://wiki.znc.in/Irssi

Connecting to ZNC

Non SSL

/network add freenode
/server add -net freenode -auto my.bouncer.net 6667 username/freenode:password
/save
/connect freenode

[...]

Irssi by default will create new channel windows each time znc reconnects to the irc network. After you join all your channels you can enter /layout save to have irssi reuse channel windows instead of creating new windows.

/network add Freenode
/server add -net Freenode -auto edgecase-test.net 1025 stjohn_piano_2/Freenode:[password not shown here]
/save
/connect Freenode


The password is the one that was set for the ZNC instance, not the Freenode IRC network.


Result:





Hm. Not sure why "Freenode2" appears.

May have retried something too many times.

I used /msg nickserv release stjohn_piano_2 at some point.


Hm. Something's succeeded.


Perhaps my nick "stjohn_piano_2" was still assigned to my local IP, preventing the ZNC instance (with its own, different IP) from connecting to Freenode with that nick.


Judging by the text in the nickserv private chat, the "release" command caused a password challenge to be sent to my ZNC instance, which answered it successfully.









Hm. joining #edgecase2 appears to open two windows, one with server Freenode and the other with server Freenode2.




/server
shows


made a mistake somewhere. repeated the command perhaps.



Run:


close the windows for Freenode and Freenode2.





Run:






Oh hey, works first time now.



join #edgecase2.




Hm.


/win list
shows




why?




oh....

{Irssi by default will create new channel windows each time znc reconnects to the irc network. After you join all your channels you can enter /layout save to have irssi reuse channel windows instead of creating new windows.}


leave channel.

close windows 5, 4, and 3.


/win list
shows




Hm. Don't leave channel, close windows 4 and 5.


Hm. closing window 5 auto-left #edgecase2.



close window 3.



/disconnect

/connect Freenode



Again.


On the web admin, the network Freenode is listed as having 3 clients.
- delete the network and recreate it. maybe this will reset everything to 1 client.
-- this time don't add channel #edgecase2 to network settings on ZNC.



connect to znc. everything seems ok.

reload web admin page. 1 client shown for Freenode network.



/join #edgecase2

/win list




Good.



in #edgecase2:



works.




/join #freenode


/win list:



Now, let's try disconnecting from ZNC bouncer and reconnecting to it, and seeing if any buffered messages are sent to my client all at once.


command: /disconnect Freenode






/win list:




Set timer for an hour.



[a couple hours have passed]



/connect Freenode


Cool. Lots of messages in #freenode, from the past couple of hours, all loaded into my client.


I haven't included all the buffered messages, but here is the start and end:







I note that the ZNC-buffered messages are timestamped with my current time on my local computer. In place of the username and IP address / cloak, however, there is the original timestamp.







Let's test that rebooting the droplet will restart ZNC.






In the DigitalOcean web application, power-cycle the droplet "bouncer".



In irssi, in #edgecase2, I see:








Obviously, restarting the ZNC bouncer vm causes a part then a join.

As indicated in this line:





Next day:



connects automatically to Freenode.




Followed by MOTD (message of the day):






/join #edgecase2







I'd like to turn off the MOTD that appears whenever I reconnect via irssi from my local computer to Freenode.




Hm. After some searching and reading, I have not found a built-in option to do this. I think a solution would involve a script plugin for ZNC that filters out the Freenode MOTD message. I think that when I disconnect irssi from ZNC, my nick status is set to "away", and that the MOTD message is re-sent to my client whenever my nick status stops being "away".





I'll stop the project here. I have the functionality that I wanted to set up.













Changes from the original text:
- I have not always preserved the format of any excerpts from webpages on other sites (e.g. not preserving the original bold/italic styles, changing the list structures, not preserving hyperlinks).
- I have not always preserved the format of any computer output (e.g. from running bash commands). Examples: Setting input lines in bold text, adding/removing newlines in order to make a sequence of commands easier to read, using hyphens for lists and sublists instead of indentation, breaking wide tables into consecutive sections.
- I've replaced personal information (e.g. email address, password(s), local IP or IP description) with "[deleted]".