updated May 9, 2004
The page shows the SSL/TLS capabilities of your web browser, determines supported TLS protocols and cipher suites, and marks if any of them are weak or insecure, displays a list of supported TLS extensions and key exchange groups. Using this data, it calculates the TLS-fingerprint in JA3 format. It also tests how your web browser handles requests for insecure mixed content. 7 Best IRC Clients for Linux. There are several IRC clients that are actively being developed, that you can use on a Linux desktop and in this article, we shall take a look at some of them. It is a light, fast, highly extensible command-line based and above all cross-platform chat client that runs on Unix, Linux, BSD, GNU Hurd.
Textual 7.1.6 – Lightweight IRC client. K'ed Social Network Textual. Textual is a lightweight IRC client created specifically for OS X. It was designed with simplicity in mind. Textual has taken the best of. IRC and built it into a single client. Its easy-to-use functionality combined with scripting support makes it an ideal IRC. 5.8.1.16 (1) Added: IRC section 6331(a) there is no bar to the IRS levying on a non-taxpayer’s property/rights to property encumbered with a federal tax lien to satisfy the taxpayer’s liability.” Removed For offers pending on or after December 31, 1999. 5.8.1.18 (1) Removed For offers pending on or after December 31, 1999. Exhibit 5.8.1-1. The RFC documents are certainly not useless! You are correct that you need to send USER followed by NICK.The NOTICE you are getting is that the IRC server is attempting to connect back to your PC via a protocol called IDENTD.It's a relatively simple protocol but the upshot of it is that it wants to know that a program on the host that is connected to the server, is using the local/remote ports.
by RuyDuck, Apatrix, stephanie, Jolo, and many other UNIXsaurii
Security Warning Versions of ircII earlier than 20030314 contained a bufferoverflow vulnerability. This vulnerability can only be exploited by a maliciousircd, and not by other clients, however clients are still urged to upgrade!
Introduction
The UNIX operating system was the original home to the Internet Relay Chat,when some code developers wanted a way to chat in an easy-to-use, real-timeforum and discuss their developments. Back in the early days of IRC, theircII (pronounced irc-two[*]) program was the premiere client. Designed torun in a text-mode environment, IrcII is not pretty – it has no sounds,graphics, menus, pop-ups, etc. (see a screen capture). It is,however, fast, stable, lightweight, portable, and easily backgrounded usingvirtual terminals such as Unix “screen”.ircII was the first to implement Client to Client Protocol (CTCP) and Direct Clientto Client (DCC).
UNIX has evolved over the years into many variant OS’s such as Linux, BSD,Solaris, etc., sometimes collectively known as “*nix”, “Unix-like” or simply“Unix”. Because of this increasing popularity, more, newer IRC clients havebeen developed for Unix systems. Perhaps the most common are BitchX andEPIC, both variants of the ircII client with greater functionality builtinto them at some stage in their development.
Even more recently, with the increased use of Unix on home PCs, IRC users areturning to graphical user interface (GUI) clients to meet their needs. As withmIRC for Windows or the variousMacintosh clients, text-based clientscan be used in in GUI “terminal emulators” that make them available in thegraphical environment. Additionally, pure graphical clients have beendeveloped to offer some of the look, feel, and functionality of Windows andMac clients, and have proliferated in numbers much like their GUI ancestors.The primary Unix graphical clients are likely Xchat and KVIrc.
In addition, most of the Unix text-based clients have been ported to workunder Windows or Mac, but you’re better off sticking with clients developedfor those OSes (follow the links above). An interesting exception might be MacOS X, which is BSD-based and now makes Apple ironically the largestdistributor of UNIX OS systems in the world.
At one time, the IrcII client set the standard against which all other clientswere developed and measured. While this may still hold true to some extenttoday, the Windows client mIRC haslargely taken over that position.
Getting ircII
From Packages
Most Linux distributions, as well as other UNIX and UNIX-likeoperating systems, will have binary packages based on arelatively recent version of ircII available.
It’s highly recommended that you use distribution-providedpackages if available, even if they are not the latestversion - ircII changes at a glacially slow pace, and byusing your distribution’s packages, you can easilyapply any necessary security updates, as well as easilyuninstall ircII if you no longer need it.
Debian/Ubuntu and derivatives
Under Debian, Ubuntu, and derivatives, using the apt/dpkg package management system ircII is normallyfound in the ircii package, and can be installed via
sudo apt-get install ircii
Fedora, RHEL, CentOS, and derivatives
Under Fedora, Red Had Enterprise Linux, CentOS, and derivatives, ircII is normally in the ircii package, andcan be installed via
sudo yum install ircii
From Source
If your distribution does not offer packages of ircII, oryou wish to use a version newer than your distributionprovides, you can download and compile the source code.
Compiling and installing software from source is notdifficult, but does require a solid understanding ofthe *nix shell environment. We highly recommend that users stick to packaged versions if possible, as they are much easier to install and maintain than software compiled from source.
Mixing distribution-packaged software and software built from source on the same system is likely to lead to conflicts.At the very least, Be sure to install into /usr/local rather than into /usrwhen installing from source, so as not to conflictwith files installed by package managers. Due tosystemwide configuration files or scripts for ircII installed by some distribution, you may encounter other conflicts or oddities if a prepackagedversion is installed alongside a source-built version,even when the source-built version is installed in thecorrect location. This can persist even if the distributionpackages are removed, if systemwide configuration files areleft behind.You may wish to use GNU Stow tomanage packages compiled from source - GNU Stow “packages”source installed packages into subdirectories and managessymlinks, making it easy to “install”, “update”, and “uninstall” such packages without risking leaving tracesbehind.
Version History
2.8.2 was for a long time the most popular version, andwas widely deployed in the 90s. After the 2.8 series, ircII went through many, many versions from 2.9roof through 4.4Z,all of which were extremely buggy, either simply annoying or seriouslycompromised. After ircII 4.4 reached the Z release, the ircII team switched tonaming their releases according to date. As of this writing, the most recentircII release in source form is ircii-20020310.tar.bz2 (the .bz2 extensionrequire Bzip2 to unpack). This latest ircii-current release seems to be morestable than it’s 4.4 predecessors, and functions almost as stably as theoriginal 2.8 release. Because ircii-current is a rolling release at thispoint, it’s best if you go to the home page by following the link, anddownload it from there.
The older versions are no longer recommended due to a security vulnerability discovered in 2003, and fixed in version 20030314.
The version history from 4.4 onwards is detailed in ircII’s news page
Clients based upon ircII
EPIC [ext. link]EPIC is a fork of ircII designed to improve upon thescripting capabilities of the client. It adds little tonothing in terms of user interface, but, under the hood,there are numerous improvements designed to make scriptingeasier and more efficient. It retains extremely closecompatability to version 2.8.2, from which it was forked
BitchX [ext. link] The most popular ircII-based client (forked at ircii-2.8 originally, it’s now based on the current EPIC release of ircII), currently at version 1.0c18 (2001). This client is packed with all sorts of desirable as well as useless features which make it complicated to the level of being unnecessarily bloated. This doesn’t mean it’s a bad client. It’s stable, functional and its bugs aren’t too irritating (although some can earn you K:lines if you’re not careful). Documentation on BitchX-specific features is sparse (though much improved over older versions). Even slight configuration errors can become the cause of embarrassing events. We recommend it only as a heavy duty client, strictly for experienced ircII users who are prepared to figure out a lot of things by yourself and risk such mistakes. It is strongly recommended that you have the help files for ircII and EPIC available when using BitchX, as the functions BitchX shares with these clients are poorly documented (if documented at all) in BitchX’s own documentation. Note that BitchX’s channel protection settings are turned on by default, with inappropriate triggering thresholds which will probably result in your client turning on fellow channel operators in channels you hold ops in. Most of these protection features are generally counterproductive, and may compromise a channel in a crisis situation. It’s strongly recommended that you look through the little bit of documentation that BitchX has, and turn these features off. While you are at it, make sure you turn the public away notices off too, they get a bit annoying, and many channels kick for them.
Suggested Alternatives
irssi has largely taken the place of ircII as the gold-standard for console IRC clients, due to a simplebut extensible user interface, and defaults that justwork out of the box for most users without needingany customization.
Users migrating from ircII should note that irssi’s default configuration utilizes hidden windows,making it much easier to keep track of multiple channels.It also utilizes an embedded Perl interpreter for its scripting, eliminating the need to learn anew language. This is a positive for new users, but,might be a downside if you are heavily invested in ircIIcustomizations.
Other UNIX/Linux Clients
Our main UNIX/Linux Clients pagelists a large number of clients, including both consoleand GUI Clients.
Help and related files
Help for ircII commands WWW help files for all 500 commandsand settings! All of these should be available in all ircII-based clients(ircII, BitchX, EPIC).
irciiman.txt (formerly called irciiman.wri) The same helpinformation as above in one text file that you can download and keep as areference. This way you don’t have to keep typing /help in ircII or stumbleall over the WWW help links. All ircII-based clients should implement thesefeatures. EPIC and BitchX have numerous additional commands, functions andcapabilities. EPIC is well-documented at itshomepage [ext. link]. BitchX is not well documented,and most users need to know what they’re doing, or will eventually stumbleupon things as they explore; however, BitchX is based upon the EPIC client, somany of EPIC’s extensions would also apply to BitchX.
server numerics header Techie stuff, useful topeople writing clients and scripts, or to those who simply wonder what all thenumbers mean when you get information from a server.
pidentd [ext. link] Identdestablishes your identity which is required by servers on most of EFnet andall of DALnet, as well as many other nets. Requires root (superuser) access toinstall, if you don’t have it or know what that means, talk to your systemadministrator. Also, see the Firewall FAQ for moreinformation about potential ident problems.
Scripts for ircII (and variants)
The best script is still one that you write yourself. Never ever accept ascript from anybody (even friends you trust). It could have cleverly-hiddenback-doors which allow others to take over your client and maybe even stealyour password or compromise the security at your entire site! Many scriptshave lame or hostile features which can inadvertently get you banned fromchannels or even servers! These are not idle threats, it happens all too oftenin real life.
We recognize that the average user is probably not interested in learning howto script or just wants some examples to get started. In that case, please seeour ircII scripts page for some ircII script packageswhich may increase your IRC enjoyment and convenience.
If you do want to learn how to script, there aren’t really “how to”guides, but you don’t really need any. If you have some basic programmingexperience, it’s just a matter of getting some good references, such asirciiman.txt (aka irciiman.wri) and server numerics header, then learning by example from existing scripts such asthose in our ircII scripts page.
Note on the pronunciation of ircII:
Some of us like to call it “eye-are-see-two”. However, the other main variant,“irk-two” is probably historically more accurate. It’s also commonly called“urk-ee” which is most definitely wrong. Feel free to disagree with us, we’renot going to argue the point to death. What’s pretty certain is that it is“two” and not “ee”.
![Textual 5 1 1 – lightweight irc client centered Textual 5 1 1 – lightweight irc client centered](https://img.informer.com/screenshots_mac/210/210871_3.jpg)
Browsers
- Falkon Portable - web browser
- Google Chrome Portable (Freeware) - fast, simple, themeable browser
- Iron Portable - advanced web browser
- K-Meleon Portable - lightweight, customizable browser
- Links Portable - text-based browser
- Lynx Portable - text-based browser
- Maxthon Portable (Freeware) - fast, powerful browser
- Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition - the award-winning web browser that's safe and secure
- Mozilla Firefox Developer Edition, Portable - browser with built in development tools
- Opera, Portable Edition (Freeware) - lightweight, customizable browser
- Opera GX, Portable Edition (Freeware) - customizable gaming browser
- Private Browsing by PortableApps.com - enhanced private browsing
- QupZilla Portable - lightweight web browser
- SeaMonkey, Portable Edition - complete internet suite (browser, email, chat, newsgroups)
Chat, Instant Messaging & Phone
- aMSN Portable - chat and video chat on MSN/Windows Live
- Ekiga Portable - softphone, video conferencing and chat
- HexChat Portable - customizable IRC chat client
- Instantbird Portable - customizable instant messaging on AOL, Facebook, Google, MSN and more
- Isotoxin Portable - multiprotocol secure chat
- KVIrc Portable - full-featured IRC chat client
- LAN Messenger Portable - peer-to-peer LAN chat and file transfer
- MicroSIP Portable - lightweight SIP softphone
- Miranda IM Portable - chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in a customizable interface
- Miranda NG Portable - multi-protocol instant messaging
- Mumble Portable - voice chat
- PChat Portable - full-featured IRC chat client
- Pidgin Portable - chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in an easy-to-use interface
- qTox Portable - secure instant messaging
- QuteCom Portable - softphone, text, audio and video chat
- sPortable (Freeware) - assists with using Skype portably
- Telegram Desktop Portable - secure instant messaging
Download Managers and Accelerators
- DamnVid Portable - video downloader and encoder
- Free Download Manager Portable - download manager and optimizer
- WackGet Portable - simple download manager
- WinWGet Portable - take and manage your downloads on the go
- wxDownload Fast Portable - multi-threaded download manager
- Opera Mail Portable (Freeware) - lightweight email client
- PopMan Portable - lightweight email notifier
- Sylpheed Portable - lightweight email client
- Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition - the handy email client
File Sharing
Textual 5 1 1 – Lightweight Irc Client Centered
- qBittorrent Portable - lightweight bittorrent client
- Transmission Portable - fast, easy, free bittorrent client
- µTorrent Portable (Freeware) - lightweight bittorrent client
FTP, SFTP and SCP Clients
- FileZilla Portable - the full-featured FTP client
- WinSCP Portable - SFTP, FTP and SCP client
Podcast Receivers
- gPodder Portable - podcast receiver and manager
- Juice Portable - podcast receiver and manager
RSS Readers
- Feed Notifier Portable - RSS/ATOM popup feed notifications
- FeedRoller Portable (Freeware) - RSS/ATOM desktop ticker
- Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition (Live Bookmarks) - Simple RSS reading is built-in
- QuiteRSS Portable - Standalone RSS feed reader
- Sage Extension (for Firefox) - A full-featured RSS extension
Social Media
- TweetDeck Portable (Freeware) - twitter client
Telnet & SSH
- KiTTY Portable - telnet and SSH with added features
- PuTTY Portable - lightweight telnet and SSH client
Web Editors
Textual 5 1 1 – Lightweight Irc Clients
- KompoZer Portable - The easy-to-use web editor