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IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat and is a form of conferencing. It is designed to allow communication, be it between clients to the IRC or using channels in discussion forums.

Since the second half of 1988, when it was created, IRC has gained prominence as a form to bypass media blackouts (such as the one during the Iraqi invasion, and later, in 1991 on the Soviet coup attempt) and also as a form of communication among people who wanted to have a feeling of belonging to a community.

From the late ninety’s to nowadays, the IRC community of admins begun to have major disagreements in the policy structure, being the biggest issue the problem about new servers joining with or without restriction. The original idea of a net to communicate people from all around the world was somehow forgotten and several splits occurred. This way, the original net split off into EFnet and A-net; and Efnet split off into Undernet (1992) and IRCnet (1996, European half including Australia and Japan).
These problems, along with the raise of new social media are making the future of the IRC uncertain.

Some definitions:
IRC server: is the software that implements the IRC protocol.
IRC network: also IRC nets are a list of irc servers interconnected.
IRC client: a program used to connect the user’s computer to the IRC server on an IRC net.

The nets:
The most popular nets are
EFnet.org with 59 servers and 28400+ channels
Undernet.org with 19 servers
Dal.net with 28 servers

The channels:
IRC server software generally require the users to establish a nickname before they can access the net thru them. Users access this IRC network joining a so called “channel” devoted to a particular niche or topic. The conversations may be accessed by all the users of that channel (public) or just by another particular user (private).

If the channel name begins with a #, it is a shared channel among all IRC servers of that network. If the channel’s name begins with a &, this channel only exists locally and is accessible only for users of that server only rather than the hole network.

How to create an irc server
Make irc server can be used to chat on your website, perform online education or as helpdesk and support for your clients. There are free irc server downloads and you can choose between irc server windows or linux.

To run your own IRC server you first have to download IRC server software known as IRCd (d stands for daemon) and follow the installation procedures for that particular software. The providers of IRCd generally have userfriendly guides to help you with this. You can find providers and useful sites here

The jargon:
These are common acronyms and typos used in chat

wtf =  what the f–k               rotfl = rolling on the floor laughing

brb =  be right back                bbiaf = be back in a flash

bbl =  be back later                 rtfm = read the f–king manual

np  =  no problem                   imho = in my humble opinion

lol =  laughing out loud           j/k = just kidding

re  =  hi again, as in ‘re hi’       wb = welcome back