IRC

General Tips

 * Nicknames and passwords: IRC has no built-in provision to protect your electronic identity. Therefore protect your nickname by registering it with NickServ in the IRC client. This prevents others from using your nickname, although the registration expires if you don't sign into IRC for 30 days. Avoid using a nickname with a "." in it. Write your password down on paper, and keep it safe.

IRC Clients
There are IRC Clients for all platforms. Three good open source clients are:
 * Pidgin (standalone application, Windows and Linux/Unix)
 * Chatzilla (runs in Mozilla-based web browsers such as Firefox, on any Mozilla-supported platform such as Windows, Mac OS X or GNU/Linux)
 * Adium (standalone application, Mac OS X).

Mac users may prefer the traditional OS X look and feel of Colloquy (not open source). We have some steps below for users completely new to IRC to get started with Pidgin.

Pidgin

 * Set up an IRC account: Run Pidgin after installation. On the "Accounts" window, click "Add", then in the Add Account screen (below), click the "Basic" tab. Select "IRC" in the "Protocol" field and choose your screen name, password and local alias. The screen name is essentially your account name with IRC, and the local alias is the name you will appear as in the Audacity chat room. Use a secure, unguessable password and not one that you use for other logins. Check "Remember password", click "Save" and close the Accounts window.


 * Add #audacity to your Chats: There will now be two windows visible, "Buddy List" and "NickServ". In the Buddy List window, click . In the "Add Chat" window (below), type "#audacity" in the "Channel" box. Set "Group" to "Chats", check "Autojoin when account becomes online", and click "Add".

 In the NickServ window, click the NickServ tab and in the text box at the bottom, type: /msg NickServ REGISTER password youremail@example.com  Replace password with the password you entered in the Accounts window.
 * Register your screen name (known as "nickname") with NickServ:

Use a real, non-disposable, e-mail address. The address that you provide will not be given out by Freenode staff, and is mainly used to simplify recovery of the account in the event that you forget your password. Upon registering, you will receive an e-mail with a verification command that you will need to run to complete the registration process. Failure to verify the account will cause it to be automatically dropped after about 24 hours.

Hit ENTER on your keyboard to send the details to NickServ.

Then if you wish, use the command: /msg NickServ SET to set options for your nickname. See below for a list of NickServ commands. The SET command "HIDEMAIL ON" is set by default, which keeps your e-mail address private, rather than displaying it publicly.


 * Join #audacity and say Hello! If you want to join #audacity in this Pidgin session, you have to join manually now, just for this first time. Next time you start Pidgin, the software will connect you to #audacity automatically. To join now, look in the Buddy List where your alias name appears in the list of chats. Right-click your name and click "Join".

In the NickServ window, click on the new tab that has now appeared with the name of your alias, and the window title will change to that alias name (below). On the left of the window is the message list with the Audacity welcome message. On the right is a list of the users currently in the room. To say "Hello" to the room, type your message in the text box at the bottom of the window and hit ENTER. You can also send an instant message or a file to a specific user, by right-clicking on their alias in the user list and selecting the appropriate menu command. 

NickServ commands
Here is a list of the NickServ commands:

The SET command gives you the following options:

NickServ HELP commands
The general syntax is: /msg NickServ HELP name of command [parameters]

For example, for help with getting information for a nickname, type: /msg NickServ HELP info

For help associating an e-mail address with your nickname, type: /msg NickServ HELP set email.