IRC

From Dom3Wiki

IRC is an acronym for Internet Relay Chat, a form of real-time Internet chat. It requires you to use a client program to connect to an IRC server and then join a channel. There are several different IRC clients. Some clients are stand-alone, and some are embedded in browsers.

Quote from bash.org

<Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.

If you want to join the Dominions Chat instantly, then head over to this Wiki's Mibbit page.

The Dominions 3 IRC Channel

If you want to chat about Dominions and/or organize multiplayer games on a short notice and play blitz games, there is a Dominions 3 IRC channel on the Gamesurge network.

• server = irc.gamesurge.net
• port = 6667
• channel = #dominions

Typical usage in most IRC clients with a terminal screen:

/connect irc.gamesurge.net
/join #dominions

Browser based clients

• Gamesurge Mibbit client: This does not require installing anything and you can try it out with just an internet browser like IE, Firefox or Opera.
• Gamesurge Java client: It is also possible to use a Java-based IRC webclient. Depending on what kind of Java Runtime your browser has already installed (most browsers do), this can also work right off the bat without needing to install anything.
• Chatzilla for Mozilla Firefox: accessed from Tools > Chatzilla
• Opera also has a built-in IRC client, which is okay for chatting, but other functionality is very limited

Stand alone clients

• mIRC is one of the most common IRC client programs for Windows and usually the first one suggested.
• XChat is a popular free cross-platform client available for Windows, Linux and Mac and is very similar to mIRC, sharing most of the commands and functionality.
• HydraIRC is stable, lightweight and very fast and the user interface is highly configurable.
• Trillian is a multi-protocol client that can also connect to ICQ, AIM, Jabber and other services in addition to IRC servers.
• Pidgin (formerly named Gaim) is a multi-protocol client that can also connect to ICQ, AIM, Jabber and other services in addition to IRC servers.
• Miranda is a multi-protocol client that can also connect to ICQ, AIM, Jabber and other services in addition to IRC servers.
• Linux users should check their operating system first for any preinstalled IRC clients, e.g. Kopete or irssi.
• Another client for Mac is Colloquy.

For even more options, check out the IRC clients overview on Wikipedia.

HydraIRC

HydraIRC has very good help documentation accessible from the Help menu, with instructions on how to set up command profiles, join a channel and do other necessary things so that you only need to do the setup once. Once you have configured HydraIRC, you can copy the HydraIRC application data folder from the

C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\

folder and make a backup of it, so you can copy that to another computer if you like so you won't have to go through the configuration process again (which would be a pain in the backside).

Edi's comment: For reference, at my workplace IRC is used for work purposes in internal communication and mIRC was ditched in favor of HydraIRC for precisely the security and usability reasons and the data security requirements for ISPs in Finland are very strict.