Hi,

I am a total noob to irc. I know nothing about it, except that it is cool :-).

I am really interested in, at least, knowing how it works.

-What is the corrolation between the networks and servers / where do i have to log in to do what?
-once i found a network and server, how do i join a channel (i am not sure about where channel are (are they on only one network, only one server, all servers ???))
-what are some helpful tips and other structural information, for a noob who has never even seen irc and has no idea how it works???

Is there a comprehensive, newbie site for irc?? I googled for it, found millions of pages, but none really helped (ok, i only looked at the first few pages of google)

Thanks

PS: i am comfortable with using linux's console, windows. I have a good understanding in the areas of lans and other networks. I am not totally dumb, only do i have never used irc ;-)

Phooo... you want an IRC tutorial...

Okay well... for starts, there is the IRC network, the whole overencompassing IRC. Inside that are the networks, such as rizon, irchighway, dalnet and hundreds of others. Some are for specific purposes, some have many many things within them. Some, for instance, have many many people all there for the anime(like rizon and dalnet), some do a lot of Sci Fi(like irchighway) far more than other networks. It is the general thing you log into, a network. Every time you log into a network, you are actually loggin in to one of many servers within the network, be aware you can be on multiple at a time if you wish. Often you want to register and create a username for the network, you can create one and try to use it across many, or pick a different one for each network.

Within each network are (usually) clusters of servers, of which only one do you connect too, almost always automatically. It is usually considered rude to connect to the same server, rather than a whole network. Everyone within the network can communicate, transfer files, etc. They like to load balance, so people connecting to servers rather than networks break that. Anywho, the servers are connected in a loose pattern allowing communication with all the other servers int he network, which is the single biggest downside to IRC. If the servers were connected better, you wouldn't have splits all the damn time. A split occurs when one server(or more) lose connection with a linking server, and essentially, it causes a mininetwork to be created for some time before it fixes itself. They really are only annyoing if you do file transfers, or run in bots, etc...as it usually kills them.

Within each network are channels, you can view all the channels with commands like /list or by clicking a buttong in various IRC clients(some of them automate a lot of things so you don't need to use as much command line stuff). To find one you want, often networks allow searching sometimes like /list anime or /list *sci*(for sci fi) etc. Whatever you are looking for. Sometimes /search or other commands are available, but these are network specific, /help can show you want is available on your network. But essentially you find a channel with a topic or title you like, and join it. this can be done with /join #channelname password. mostly they won't have passwords if you can see them in the list.

There are no helpful tips, short of finding a network which has people and channels you like, and ALWAYS read the rules of channels and networks before doing anything. But to make it easy on yourself, try a client like KVirc which is graphical and allows for many gui options, rather than delving into the inner bowels of command line IRC.

Bots, DCC, many other things will come up, just learn as you go.

WOW, RedShirt, this *short* help was of great help! Now i know what the networks do and the server within them

I still have one question, though:
How do i create a new user account for a channel??

Hey, it's not even that hard ;-) It's like (manual) ftp.