IRC Clients

[xenith]

I'm looking for a IRC client to recommend for FlyCon* users who haven't used IRC before. mIRC is too involved to setup (and the latest version I don't not care for).

Hirc: The "set up" windows aren't obvious but otherwise easy enough to set up. It has a pared-down interface, which makes it simple to use. The basic control functions (op, kick, ban) are on the right click menu, but there's no easy to get at voice command.

XiRCon: Out of date, but still easy to use & set up, and the right click control functions are easier to find. Still no voice. Channel topic is shown in the status window (meaning most users will miss it.) I can't find a way to put in my password, which isn't a problem for most new users, but annoys me. Also, hard to find a "safe looking" download site.

IceChat: simple to set up but it crashes on me every couple of minutes, and staff on their help forum need to grow up aren't very helpful.

LeafChat: needs at least Win2000. Bah. I wonder if it will work on Ubuntu?

Vortect (the pIRCh replacement) looks nice. Not as intuitive as I'd like (took me 10 mins to work out how to actually connect to the server) but nothing major. I think this might be the winner.


*Flycon is the online worldwide convention on March 13-14. Have a look and if you're a author & artist who'd lke to host a chat session or a panel, or you want to be part of the dealer's room, or otherwise get involved put your hand up and your name down.

Comments

[webfarmer.livejournal.com]

I do most of my IRC with the free versions of X-Chat for either Windows or Linux. My personal experience notes that it works nicely on Ubuntu 8.10.

http://www.silverex.org/news/

I'm not sure an "easy" IRC client exists that isn't kind of brain dead. Chatzilla might be one option to think about in the simple department for those already using a Mozilla based browser.

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/rt-messaging/chatzilla/

[webfarmer.livejournal.com]

Also VisualIRC (Virc) comes to mind for Windows users.

http://www.visualirc.net/

[monissaw.livejournal.com]

I've been there. Can't think what, oh, yo have to download v. 2 and then the update. Not "simple".

Dling XChat now to have a look at it.

There's are degrees are simple. mIRC is much to complicated. It asks for a lot of information & you have to click in various places & on the right combination of buttons. I did a clean install of it and ended up trying to connect something called linknet. If I can't get it right, I don't expect anyone who's never used IRC to get it right :(

[webfarmer.livejournal.com]

Maybe the easiest route would be to use some kind of web page based Java IRC chat client. Pat might be able to advise on how they do that with SFF.NET.

[monissaw.livejournal.com]

You've never used SFF Net's java client??

Translation 1: I thought everyone knew about it
Translation 2: Some computers hate it (including mine) and it has its own set of problems

[webfarmer.livejournal.com]

I think I used it once or something like it. I don't normally.

Yes, the whole Java thing can be a problem for some setups.

can be a problem for some setups too.

I'm just asserting that it might be one, reasonably simple if not foolproof, way of accessing a specific IRC chat.

[monissaw.livejournal.com]

There will be a Java option (that drops people straight into the right channel) which is fine for casual users.

But there needs to be another options for those who can't use the Java & those who will be trying to run the chats. The java thing does let you change channel modes & control users, but these don't always work as they should in a way that is going to create more problems than it solves.