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IRC technology news from the second half of 2021 As we continue to irc our way through the apocalypse, let’s look at the happenings in the ecosystem during the second half of 2021. Baby’s first Limnoria plugin and other notable world events I have been using a custom bot to welcome newcomers to the various LibreOffice contributor channels. I wanted to make it more maintainable, so I reimplemented it as a Limnoria plugin. Thanks to Val for the support, it was fun to write it! Sourcehut folks launched an IRC bouncer service for the paying users of their software forge. One point of the endeavour is to drive improvements in the whole IRC ecosystem. IRC Driven, a site indexing IRC networks was relaunched. The site was originally created in 2006 and it provides statistics for a curated selection of IRC networks. Protocol specifications The IRCv3 Working Group published a spec round-up in November 2021, including new drafts for WebSocket, Client batches, Account registration and Extended monitor. You can now follow the WG on Fediverse. Documentation IRC Definition Files got clarifications to chanmodes. Modern IRC Client Protocol received numerous additions and improvements from many contributors after Val from Limnoria was made editor. Val reports that the docs now cover nearly all meaningful parts from the RFCs. Mobile clients Colloquy - an advanced IRC, SILC & ICB client for macOS and iOS Capability negotiation was optimised and some smaller fixes were made. Communi for Sailfish - The first and foremost IRC client for Sailfish OS Many code cleanups were made and build instructions were added. CoreIRC – Android client Compatibility with Ergo ircd was improved, eight colour schemes were added, sixteen character set options were added to the server configuration screen and message log storage functionality was added. IRCCloud - Connect to any IRC server out there, and even Slack workspaces The iOS app got smarter regarding background tasks and progress was made on the experimental support for macOS Catalyst. The Android app got support for Android 12 and improvements to stability. Palaver - advanced client for iPhone and iPad A release was made with bug fixes and minor usability improvements. Web clients gamja screenshot Many of these include support for persistent history, so there is some overlap with the bouncer category. Convos - Mojolicious in the backend and Svelte in the frontend Additions include handling of irc:// links, support for raw messages, /away command, progress bar for uploads, file management in frontend, IRC colours and text formatting and many UI improvements. gamja – a bare-bones web client Lots of activity and two beta releases for 1.0.0. Additions include commands /whowas, /list and /away, improved /query, support for MONITOR, chghost, websocket, extended-join, account-notify, WHOX, SASL EXTERNAL, draft/extended-monitor, draft/account-registration with a UI to register and verify accounts, support for irc:// links, auto-joining channels upon reconnect and allowing bouncers to customise their shown name by setting NETWORK in ISUPPORT. irc-hybrid-client – Single user hybrid client using JavaScript frontend and Node.js/Express backend Public development started in April 2021. There is support for Redis as session store and an authorization middleware. KiwiIRC – uses static files and supports theming and plugins (JavaScript) Version 1.6.0 was released in November. Message input box was made user-friendlier, channel list behaviour on desktop and mobile widths was improved among many other UI improvements. The Lounge - modern web client utilising Node.js Version 4.3.0 was released in November. New stuff during the half-year period include accessibility improvements, /umode and /kickban commands, optimised handling of modes based on ISUPPORT and better touch control support Desktop clients GrumpyChat screenshot AdiIRC – freeware client for Windows Version 4.1 was released with additions such as a new editor for scripts and customisations, support for UTF8ONLY token and many plugin API and scripting improvements. GrumpyChat - modern, yet oldschool client with distributed core, written in C++ Support was added for logging and identities. ERC - an Emacs IRC client Versions 5.4 and 5.4.1 were released with additions such as asynchronous reconnection, improved nick highlighting, TLS improvements, convenience commands /opme, /deopme and /wii (whois with idle time) and an erc-bug command for reporting ERC bugs. HexChat - client for Windows and UNIX-like operating systems Version 2.16.0 was released in October with a call for maintainers. Fixes went into mode support, URI parsing and the build system. An addon for handling notices and server notices was added and oper and whois addons were updated with expanded network and ircd support. IceChat – client for Windows Version 9.51 was released in July adding a Strict Transport Security policy, a channel list export button and several fixes. Iridium – a native Linux client built in Vala and GTK for elementary OS Many releases were made adding support for SASL authentication, system colour theme detection, integration with OS notifications and a redesigned headerbar. Irken – a small, modular client written in Tcl/Tk Fixes were made to tag parsing and text colour handling. Konversation – KDE’s IRC client for Windows, Linux and BSDs Wayland support was improved and many code cleanups were made. mIRC – 95 ‘til infinity (Windows-only) Version 7.67 was released in October with UI improvements and many fixes. Polari - GNOME’s client More GTK4 work was merged amid lots of UI improvements and code cleanups. Srain – modern client built with GTK Support was added for ISUPPORT parsing, UTF8ONLY, RPL_UMODEIS and an emoji button was added. Textual – client for macOS Version 7.2.1 was release with Apple Silicon support. Thunderbird – email client with chat support Version 91.0 and multiple point releases were made. Changes include replacing image-based emoticons with Unicode and several fixes to the chat module. Terminal clients catgirl - TLS-only client Improvements were made to TLS, OpenBSD and FreeBSD support and message tag handling. glirc - Haskell library and console client Support was added for SASL SCRAM (salted auth), ECDH-X25591-CHALLENGE and certificate IP address SANs. Neırssi - a client mostly compatible with Irssi While Irssi development has been slow, Ailin Nemui has a fork that is quite active. Improvements and fixes went into text rendering, TLS, performance of autojoin, the docs, /SERVER ADD and autocompletion among lots of maintenance work. senpai - TUI client made for bouncers Lots of work went in the client during this period. Additions include automatically joining channels on start, more fine-grained unread/highlight state, a vertical member list on channels, improved CHATHISTORY support, showing of mode changes, support for specifying an external password command to avoid storing passwords in plaintext, /(un)ban, /kick, /invite and /query commands, implementation of away-notify, support for soju.im/bouncer-networks and showing the current channel topic at the top of the timeline. Swirc - lightweight ICB and IRC client Additions include forcing UTF-8 on Windows, /(un)ignore commands and a TLS server. rirc - a minimalistic irc client written in C Many fixes and code cleanups were made, IRCv3 cap key=val parsing was implemented, support was added for SASL PLAIN and EXTERNAL authentication and startup options were added for user mode as well as TLS and SASL. tiny – client written in Rust /quit command was added, key bindings were made configurable and handling of text formatting (colours etc.) was improved. WeeChat - the extensible chat client Three releases were made with plenty of new goodies: plugin to support ”user is typing”, all IRC capabilities enabled by default (if supported), support was added for IRCv3.2 SASL auth, message-tags and setname as well as FAIL/WARN/NOTE messages. Bouncers They stay online, so you don’t have to! KiwiBNC – for one person or 10,000 people (Node.js) bnc help command output was improved and an internals extension was added to help debugging and development. pounce - multi-client, TLS-only IRC bouncer. Uses server-time extension to communicate with clients TLS was improved, docs were expanded and OpenBSD and FreeBSD support got some love. Quassel IRC - cross-platform, distributed IRC client with a central core Version 0.14.0 was released on 1 Jan 2022, while it was nearly three years since the previous one, so let’s celebrate it in this 2021 article. Changes in the half-year period include fixing a security issue with LDAP usernames and fixing macOS build failures. soju – multi-user bouncer A very active period for soju leading up to Sourcehut’s hosted bouncer service. Support was added for PostgreSQL databases, instrumentation via Prometheus, a new ”server status” BouncerServ command, many new configuration options and protocol features MONITOR, WHOX, ELIST, account-notify, CHATHISTORY LATEST, draft/event-playback and draft/extended-monitor. ZNC - an advanced bouncer More deny options were added and SASL message handling was made more robust. Daemons Ergo - combining the features of an ircd, a services framework, and a bouncer Additions include user-initiated password resets via email, implementation for draft/extended-monitor, support for SCRAM-SHA-256 SASL auth (even though not endorsed), upgraded draft/register capability, service management files for OpenSolaris/Illumos and an s6 init script. InspIRCd - stable, high-performance and modular An inspircd.org/account-id tag was added for exposing immutable account identifiers to users, connectban got delaying options and TLS received several improvements. Version 4 saw several alpha releases with additions such as /CHECK for finding users by an ident or real name mask, a regex_pcre2 module and FRHOST S2S command to change the real hostname of a remote user. Ircd-hybrid - a lightweight, high-performance daemon User name handling was made more robust and many bug fixes were made. ngIRCd – lightweight IRC server A quick start guide was added. Solanum - an IRCd for unified networks A tutorial for connecting servers and services was added, registration messages were made configurable, SNO_BANNED server notice mask was added and mask support was improved. UnrealIRCd - the most widely deployed IRCd Version 6.0.0 was released with a redone logging system, named extended bans, implementations for MONITOR, draft/extended-monitor, invite-notify and setname, GeoIP support and configurable WHOIS output. Bots This and the next section has been curated with programming language diversity in mind. Bot::IRC (Perl) A ”disconnect” parameter trigger option was added. Botto (Node.js) The codebase was updated to use es6 classes, a markov command to generate text via a gpt-2 based synthesiser was added and the commands received many improvements. Calculon – library for writing bots and a collection of plugins (OCaml) A custom command was added. Cardinal – bot built with Twisted library with a focus on ease of development (Python) Various smaller improvements to the plugins were made. cbot - bot with features implemented as dynamically loaded plugins (C) An air quality (aqi) plugin and a logging system were added CloudBot – a simple, fast and expandable bot (Python) Various fixes and improvements to the plugins were made. Eggdrop - the oldest bot still in active development (C/Tcl) Version 1.9.2 RC1 was released with full CAP 302 support, implementations for monitor, cap-notify and SASL 3.2 as well as new Tcl commands (monitor, isircbot, server list) and a new Twitch bind. greboid’s irc-bot (Go) Support was added for bot mode and draft/relaymsg. irccd - allows both C++ and JavaScript plugins (C++) This bot uses Duktape as the JavaScript engine. Many fixes were made and BSD support and POSIX conformance was improved JRobo - advanced bot with tons of features (Java) A very active half year period for this bot with additions such as a greet command, weather command changed to use OpenWeatherMap amid lots of improvements to the commands and cleanups of the codebase. kameloso (D) Work went mostly into Twitch-related functionality. Limnoria - robust, full-featured, and user/programmer-friendly bot (Python) Hostmask parsing was improved, SQLAlchemy was removed from the dependencies and many fixes and doc improvements were made. Maiden - an extensible and highly modular bot framework (Common Lisp) The weather API was changed to use OpenWeatherMap. PBot – a pragmatic bot (Perl) It was a veritable ”Summer of IRC” for this bot with extensive improvements to the docs and code. Additions include a Wiktionary applet (applets are external command line programs/scripts), a Wolfram|Alpha plugin, RunCommand plugin to run system commands (recommended to be used through locked-down factoids), a usershow command to show user metadata, GetUrl plugin to retrieve text contents of a URL and a qrpn module for evaluating expressions written in Reverse Polish notation with units. Pybot – an extensible, modular, configurable, and multi-threaded bot (Python) A ”quick dirty add command” module was added to teach the bot simple actions. Scala-IRC-bot - PircBotX based bot (Scala) The codebase was migrated to Scala 3 and a spam-list functionality was added to the link listener. Skybot - multithreaded and multinetwork bot (Python) The Twitter plugin was improved and more languages were added to the eval plugin. Sopel - lightweight, easy-to-use utility bot (Python) UTF-8 locale is now detected on Windows, docs were expanded and many improvements were made to the platform plugins (reddit, wikipedia). Valeyard - link IRC with SQL databases (PHP) A module was added to look up the ISP of a user. Yetibot - extreme chatops bot for Slack and IRC (Clojure) Some fixes were made and tests were added. Libraries, frameworks and utilities Blur - event-driven IRC-framework (Ruby) Nick change handling was improved. Communi - framework written with Qt (C++) Qt 6 support was added, CAP 302 support was improved and capability validation can now be skipped. Deno-irc - client protocol module for Deno (JavaScript) TLS connections are now supported. Dialect - IRC parsing library (D) Support was added for Solanum IRCd servers. go-ircevent - event based client library Support was added for SASL EXTERNAL and SOCKS proxy (allows connecting over Tor). irc – a full-featured library (Python) NOTICE commands are now supported. irccat - send events to channels from scripts and other applications (Go) Handling of HTTP encodings was improved and setting real name was fixed. It also benefited from the improvements to go-ircevent library. IRC::Client - Extendable Internet Relay Chat client (Raku) The codebase was modernised, documentation was updated and support was added for TOPIC. ircclient (C#) Some fixes were made and documentation was updated. IRC.NET - asynchronous bare-bones IRC bot framework (C#) Support was added for capability negotiation, message tags and WHOX. irc-framework – for bots and full clients (Node.js) Websocket protocol is now supported with a fallback and SASL is handled better. IRCKit - an asynchronous pure Swift library using the Apple NIO framework Support was added for draft/reply. ircrobots Asynchronous bare-bones IRC bot framework (Python) SASL handling was made more robust. ircstates - sans-I/O IRC session state parsing library (Python) Functionality was added to record when a user was first seen and when they joined. PircBotX – library with IRCv3 CAP negotiation support (Java) Support for quiet lists was added. Pydle – IRCv3-compliant library (Python) RplWhoisHostSupport was enabled and irccat support was fixed. PyLink - multi-network IRC Services & server-side relayer UnrealIRCd support was improved. superseriousstats - a fast and efficient program to create statistics out of various types of IRC chat logs (PHP) Various fixes and improvements were made. Bridges Heisenbridge - a bouncer-style Matrix IRC bridge Public development of this bridge started in April 2021 and the first stable release was made in August. The aim is to provide a solution that is not disruptive to IRC users. Despite its young age, it has a wealth of features, good spec support and is performant with thousands of users. In addition to the bouncer mode, it offers a relaybot mode where a single authorized Matrix user manages the bot. localslackirc - gateway for Slack, running on localhost for one user URL handling was improved and an /annoy command was added to annoy people, showing oneself as typing when they are. matterbridge - bridges between a growing number of protocols UserName and RealName options and binding to IP were added for IRC. teleirc – bridge to Telegram Additions include handling of IRC emotes, topics and nick changes. Services Taking care of user accounts and channels among other things. Anope – highly modular set of services Version 2.0.10 was released in August and changes after that include improvements to InspIRCd support. Atheme - for large networks with high scalability requirements Additions include configurable length for generated passwords, a fix for confirming an account that had its email changed while unconfirmed and more robust validation of nicknames and handling of SASL. Ilmari Lauhakangas

The recent flurry of projects based around Internet Relay Chat (IRC) should be a fair indication that the beloved protocol is not going anywhere. Now, thanks to [Mike Chambers], you can add to the IRC ecosystem by hosting your very own MS-DOS based IRC server. This port of ngIRCd (Next Generation IRC Daemon) has already been spun up on 8088-based PCs running at just 4.77MHz, but you’ll still need at least 640KB of RAM. If your vintage IRC server takes off, you might want to think about dropping in an 10MHz V20 for a bit of a performance boost. Even so, it’s impressive that this server can get up on the 40-year-old IBM 5150, and should absolutely scream on an AT-class system. The limitations of the 16-bit platform means that SSL and ZLIB are unsupported, and Mike has capped total connections at 50 in his port (however, this limitation can be adjusted by rebuilding from source, should you want to find out how far 640KB of RAM can take you). You’ll also need a few other things to get your server up and running, such as a packet driver for your network card and an mTCP configuration file. Setting up your own IRC server is arguably a right rite of passage for most hackers and tinkerers, but getting this up and running on a decades-old beige box would make for a fun weekend project. [Mike] has all the juicy details on GitHub, and you can check out a test server running the latest build over at irc.xtulator.com. Also, don’t forget to visit the #hackaday IRC channel over on irc.libera.chat. GitHub - mikechambers84/ngIRCd-DOS: A port of the ngIRCD Internet Relay Chat server to 16-bit DOS. Compatible with 8088 or better PCs. by: Chris Wilkinson

The UK Parliament has closed down its TikTok account after MPs raised concerns about the risk of data being passed to the Chinese government. The account has been locked, and content deleted, days after its launch. Senior MPs and peers had called for the account to be removed until TikTok gave "credible assurances" no data could be handed to China. TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, which has denied it was controlled by the Chinese government. Relations between London and Beijing have been fraught in recent years, with tensions heightened by China's sanctioning of several MPs last year. "Based on member feedback, we are closing the pilot UK Parliament TikTok account earlier than we had planned," a UK Parliament spokesman said. "The account was a pilot initiative while we tested the platform as a way of reaching younger audiences with relevant content about Parliament." A TikTok spokeswoman told the BBC it was "disappointing" that Parliament would not be able to connect with users of the app in the UK. Offering to reassure the MPs who raised concerns, the spokeswoman said TikTok would be willing to "clarify any inaccuracies about our platform". Read More Here

NEW GAME RELEASE DATES

Wesker will be known as The Mastermind in Dead By Daylight, and will hunt down survivors by utilising a viral weapon called Uroboros, which comes with an infection mechanic that Behaviour Interactive has not yet detailed. For those infected by Wesker, a limited amount of First Aid Sprays dotted around the map can be used to fight off the virus – though Behaviour notes these will “only delay the inevitable.” Along with Wesker, two new survivors from the Resident Evil series – Ada Wong and Rebecca Chambers – are also being added. The trio will join Nemesis, Leon Kennedy, and Jill Valentine in the game; who were added to Dead By Daylight in 2021. Speaking to press, Behaviour shared that this is the game’s first “sequel” to crossover content. The 2021 update also included a Raccoon City Police Department map, for which Project W will bring a significant rework. The Police Department has been broken up into two maps for its East and West wings respectively, though both will share the Department’s central hall. Several rooms have been removed, while new entrances have been added and the Department’s corridors have been widened. According to Behaviour Interactive, the goal of this is to reduce the area’s overall size and make navigating the map simpler. On Project W, Capcom shared that it is “delighted to collaborate once more with Dead By Daylight,” and added that seeing the trio of Resident Evil characters “stand on their own in a new universe is a proud moment.”

Mobile gaming isn’t just binging on Candy Crush for hours on end anymore. There are legitimately good games on mobile platforms, especially considering the number of cloud gaming services available to gamers. With choices from xCloud and others, it’s tough to deny the appeal of gaming on the go. But now, the new Redmagic 7S Pro takes that appeal even farther, with tremendous power for a mobile platform. This year, SPY has been testing out the best flagship phones from brands such as Samsung, OnePlus and Apple, but this new gaming phone has some impressive features you won’t find in Samsung Galaxy S22 or iPhone 13 smartphones. SPY was able to try out this mobile gaming machine, which is available for pre-order now, and we’ve got all the details below. Read More Here

Logitech, a peripheral company well known for its gaming headsets, mice, and gaming keyboards, is working on a new handheld device. The new Logitech gaming device will be developed in tandem with Tencent Games. The two companies are working on a new gaming device that will utilize cloud gaming software to deliver titles in an on-the-go-friendly format. Logitech’s new gaming device will rely on cloud gaming Read more here

A threat actor associated with the LockBit 3.0 ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation has been observed abusing the Windows Defender command-line tool to decrypt and load Cobalt Strike payloads. According to a report published by SentinelOne last week, the incident occurred after obtaining initial access via the Log4Shell vulnerability against an unpatched VMware Horizon Server. "Once initial access had been achieved, the threat actors performed a series of enumeration commands and attempted to run multiple post-exploitation tools, including Meterpreter, PowerShell Empire, and a new way to side-load Cobalt Strike," researchers Julio Dantas, James Haughom, and Julien Reisdorffer said. Read More Here

Linux Mint has released the latest version of its Linux distribution for desktop PCs, Linux Mint 21 “Vanessa.” It will receive five years of support. “Linux Mint 21 is a long-term support release which will be supported until 2027,” the Linux Mint website notes. “It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop experience more comfortable.” Linux Mint 21 is available in three core editions, Cinnamon Edition, MATE Edition, and Xfce Edition, each of which serves specific needs. Cinnamon is the mainstream edition and is primarily developed for and by Linux Mint. MATE Edition provides a classic desktop experience and uses fewer system resources. And Xfce Edition provides a lightweight desktop environment that is extremely stable and very light on resource usage, but with fewer features. New features in this release include a new Bluetooth stack, support for new thumbnail types in the file manager app, Sticky Notes updates, a new process monitor to detect automated updates and automated system snapshots running in the background, various XApps improvements, printing and scanning improvements, new backgrounds, and more. Cinnamon Edition also picks up Cinnamon 5.4, a major new release of the window manager. Download Here

Windows 11 has been released, but behind the scenes, Microsoft is constantly working to improve the newest version of Windows. The company frequently rolls out public preview builds to members of its Windows Insider Program, allowing them to test out — and even help shape — upcoming features. The Windows Insider program is divided into three channels: The Dev Channel is where new features are introduced for initial testing, regardless of which Windows release they’ll eventually end up in. This channel is best for technical users and developers and builds in it may be unstable and buggy. In the Beta Channel, you’ll get more polished features that will be deployed in the next major Windows release. This channel is best for early adopters, and Microsoft says your feedback in this channel will have the most impact. The Release Preview Channel typically doesn’t see action until shortly before a new feature update is rolled out. It’s meant for final testing of an upcoming release and is best for those who want the most stable builds. Read More here

Researchers have uncovered a list of 3,207 apps, some of which can be utilized to gain unauthorized access to Twitter accounts. The takeover is made possible, thanks to a leak of legitimate Consumer Key and Consumer Secret information, respectively, Singapore-based cybersecurity firm CloudSEK said in a report exclusively shared with The Hacker News. "Out of 3,207, 230 apps are leaking all four authentication credentials and can be used to fully take over their Twitter Accounts and can perform any critical/sensitive actions," the researchers said. Read More here

So I've finally completed all downloads to section Server Clients. A lot of old clients that i've never seen or even heard of, and then a lot of newer ones. so enjoy and take a gander and see if you recall any of these server clients!! 😜

First off, welcome to the internet. We are Anonymous, and have been gaining popularity and press with stories ranging from Wikileaks, to Protests against Scientology, to the Westboro Baptist Church, to Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report, to Bank of America, to Mastercard and Paypal, to the lawsuit against GeoHotz from Sony, and to the HBGary Scandal (see 1st video below). If you are unfamiliar with Anonymous, the videos below this paragraph sum it up quite well, so watch the super cool moving picture video thingyz directly below this to get an idea of what we do. If you're already familiar with Anonymous, these videos aren't really neccessary. Read More Here

BNC4FREE is a non-profit organisation has specialised in providing Free IRC Read More Here

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS shipped with Linux kernel version 5.15 in general, barring the desktop which came with version 5.17. And with an upgrade to Linux 5.19, it looks like Ubuntu 22.04 LTS could have some big gains, even going toe to toe with Windows 11 under certain circumstances. At least, this seems to be the case with AMD's Ryzen 6000 series Rembrandt APUs which come with the updated Zen 3+ micro-architecture and RDNA 2 on-board graphics. Read More Here

Some cool stuff went down in the world of Internet Relay Chat during the past six months and we should take a look at it. Irssi is back! In the last news article, I mentioned that the development of the Irssi terminal client had slowed down and that there was an active fork. Since then, the changes from Nei’s fork were integrated upstream. The increased coordination lead to the release of Irssi version 1.4.1 in June. Many new IRCv3 features became available. IRC Driven, a service that provides indexing for IRC networks is now out of beta. A recent feature is displaying channel logs on the website in real time. Read More Here

The XeroMem IRC Network Routing Team has performed major software updates on the network. Here’s a quick update: UnrealIRCd v5.0.9 upgraded to UnrealIRCd v6.0.4 Anope v2.0.9 upgraded to Anope v2.0.11 UnrealIRCd 6 The UnrealIRCd Team announced and made UnrealIRCd 5 an old-stable release, In doing so, they also announced the upcoming End of Life for UnrealIRCd 5 as July 2023. In an effort to stay current, we’ve updated to the more-recently released UnrealIRCd 6. Changes included a complete overhaul of the logging and snomask features, improved support for IRCv3, GeoIP database management, improved cloaking modules, updated configuration file design, and improved overall stability. For more information about UnrealIRCd, visit the UnrealIRCd Development Site. Anope 2.0.11 To support the latest version of UnrealIRCd, we had to upgrade our Services Package from Anope 2.0.9 to Anope 2.0.11. For more information on Anope Services, visit the Anope Development Site. http://Read more here

FemvsFem is a fun place for like-minded people to discuss a common interest - Female Combat! Whether it be wrestling, boxing, martial arts, or good old catfighting, #femvsfem is the place to talk about it! Website

The Open and Free Technology Community aims to provide stable and effective collaboration services to members of the community in any part of the world, while closely listening to their needs and desires. OFTC was founded at the end of 2001 by a group of experienced members of the Open Source and Free Software communities aiming to provide these communities with better communication, development, and support infrastructure. OFTC is a member project of Software in the Public Interest, a non-profit organization which was founded to help organizations develop and distribute open hardware and software. You can reach the OFTC IRC network by using a traditional IRC Client of choice, or by the WebChat that we provide. The webchat enables you to connect to the network and chat directly from within your browser. Connection Details: ircs://irc.oftc.net:6697 for SSL (alternative port: 9999), IPv4 and IPv6. irc://irc.oftc.net:6667 for non-SSL (alternative ports: 6668-6670, 7000), IPv4 and IPv6. SSL is supported on all of our servers. The server certificates are signed by the Let’s Encrypt certification authority. We also publish DNSSEC-signed TLSA records for irc.oftc.net:6697/tcp (see dig _6697._tcp.irc.oftc.net tlsa). See CertFP for how to configure client certificate-based NickServ identification. If you need to force IPv4, connect to ircs://irc4.oftc.net:6697. We offer a WebChat service (also via the boxes at the top of this page). Use of Tor is permitted to irc.oftc.net or our onion service on ircs://oftcnet6xg6roj6d7id4y4cu6dchysacqj2ldgea73qzdagufflqxrid.onion. We offer IRC services (NickServ, ChanServ) for nick and channel registration. If you have support requests regarding the operation of the network please stop by #oftc or email support@oftc.net. We welcome issues and pull requests on our GitHub projects, especially on the issue tracking repository. We now offer a Tor hidden service: ircs://oftcnet6xg6roj6d7id4y4cu6dchysacqj2ldgea73qzdagufflqxrid.onion.

Despite modern alternatives like Slack, the ancient IRC is still hugely popular as an online interactive chat platform. This may be because there are IRC clients for almost every operating system and device, from the Commodore Amiga to your smartphone, and the technology behind IRC is reassuringly simplistic - it really is just raw text and a few control characters being bumped around the network. Online servers, such as those offered by Libera Chat, are wonderful for both public and private channels. But it’s equally easy to run your own private IRC server, giving you complete control over your data, logs and configuration settings whilst avoiding all the risks and frustrations of dealing with IRC spammers and bots. In this tutorial, we’ll cover installing the InspIRCd IRC server on Ubuntu, from installing its dependencies and building the latest version from GitHub, to configuration and execution. Read More

A never-before-seen Linux malware has been dubbed a "Swiss Army Knife" for its modular architecture and its capability to install rootkits. This previously undetected Linux threat, called Lightning Framework by Intezer, is equipped with a plethora of features, making it one of the most intricate frameworks developed for targeting Linux systems. "The framework has both passive and active capabilities for communication with the threat actor, including opening up SSH on an infected machine, and a polymorphic malleable command and control configuration," Intezer researcher Ryan Robinson said in a new report published today. Read More Here

We are envisioning an "admin panel" where IRCOps would be able to do a number of server tasks, starting with: Status overview / dashboard Spamfilter and *LINE management: that would be a lot easier via the web than on IRC These two things would already be a great start. Naturally more can be added, i'm sure there are lots of ideas. The admin panel would be installed on a (web)server and would connect to UnrealIRCd using the new JSON-RPC API that is currently being developed. It does not have to run on the same machine as UnrealIRCd. We are looking for webdevs who would like to help out on the HTML/CSS and the coding-side. Do you have experience with web development and do you have time this summer to work on this? If you do, what would you prefer/suggest? UPDATE: We have found someone now, see the other posts below. You can still join in to help, of course. In July 2022 the groundwork will be done along with the first few items of the admin panel, but later on more help may be needed to expand things. Original questions: Which language/environment to use? PHP? NodeJS? Python? Which coding framework should be used? Eg in case of PHP: Laravel, Symfony, ..? In case of JS/python... what? Which CSS/front end framework to use? Eg Bootstrap? Most of the UnrealIRCd devs are backend coders with less experience on webdev/frontend. For us it would be relatively easy to make a quick-and-dirty PHP-without-famework non-AJAX "proof of concept" that is ugly and hard to extend. That is not what we are after. The idea is to have clean code that stays maintainable on the long run. We would like to hear who would like to work on this and what choices should be made. On our side we can help with getting people together, hosting it as an official (sub)project and exchanging ideas. On the technical side we can provide the right API calls and options in UnrealIRCd. We have created a new channel #unreal-webpanel on irc.unrealircd.org (IRC TLS on port 6697) that we can use for the discussion. Or you can reply here on the forums. Read more here