more efficient IRCing?

January 4th, 2007 by lucas

I need to reconsider my current way to do IRC.

  • My main computer is a laptop, so I can’t leave my IRC client open all the time.
  • More and more, I tend to ask stuff on IRC, then I have to leave, so I never get the chance to see the answer. Being able to stay connected all the time would be much easier.
  • I’m currently using XChat, and would like to continue using it (ie: I’d prefer to avoid going back to irssi).
  • Most of the time, I’m connected to two different networks (OFTC and Freenode).
  • I tried to set up an IRC bouncer, but I had the impression that it was complex, and not very user-friendly. (Maybe I’m wrong, or maybe I should have tried a different bouncer (which one?))
  • I’ve considered running two clients: XChat for my “main client”, and irssi just for logging everything. But that’s not really optimal.

Which solution are you using? Should I really go back to using irssi? Any good example irssi configs somewhere?

Update:

  • Comments are now open (they were closed because of a broken WP plugin)
  • I used to use screen+irssi, but then, I switched to xchat. I really like xchat, have written some custom scripts for it, and would prefer to continue to use it…
  • The possible suggestions I already got are:
    • use xchat with irssi_proxy
    • use xchat with ctrlproxy (looks very nice, but RC buggy and not in etch)
    • use xchat with shroudbnc (or psybnc, or dircproxy)

    Update 2:

    Ok, due to all the praise of the screen+irssi solution, I’ll give it another try…!

    Posted in PlanetDebian, PlanetUbuntu 17 Comments »

17 Responses to “more efficient IRCing?”

  1. Alex Smith wrote on 01/4/07 at 9:50 pm :

    I use an IRC bouncer, ZNC. However, this (as far as I know) does not support being connected to 2 networks. Apart from that, ZNC is a great bouncer. It has a configuration wizard which walks you through setting it up.

  2. Hopeless Blog » Blog Archive » Blogs ohne Kommentarfunktion - Tagging wrote on 01/4/07 at 9:52 pm :

    [...] Auf Planet Debian ging es neulich schonmal um Blogs ohne Kommentarfunktion. Das ganze hat mich schon 1-2 mal daran gehindert ein Kommentar / eins Lösungsvorschlag zu unterbreiten – gang und gebe ist es in dem Fall dann, dass man einen Eintrag im eigenen Blog postet als Antwort. Ich halte das ganze für ziemlich unschön. Es kommt keine anständige Diskussion zustande, man muss – wenn man was dazu wissen will – sich durch 10 Blogs kämpfen um alle Antworten zu finden und wehe jemand ändert die Blogsoftware oder nimmt ihn offline. Und was machen die ohne Blog – nicht mitdiskutieren? Eine Lösung gegen Spam? Wieso? Akismet funktioniert wunderbar Heute war wieder so ein Tag. Lucas Nussbaum hat ein Thema angeschnitten über das ich mir schon vor Monaten Gedanken gemacht habe, also ich vermeiden wollte IRC/Jabber/ICQ/MSN jedes mal beim Wechsel von der Workstation auf dem Laptop ab und wieder anmleden zu müssen. Auf seiner Page findet man aber immerhin eine JID und eine Mailadresse, so dass man ihn kontaktieren kann. (btw. irssi-proxy ist meine Lösung für das Problem – eine IMHO sehr sehr gute) [...]

  3. Jarrod Henry wrote on 01/4/07 at 9:53 pm :

    screen and IRSSI is personally what I use running off my main server. Then I just ssh into the machine. It has the added advantage of encrypting all comms between me and the server, so it can be used from work without too much fear.

  4. Nacho Barrientos wrote on 01/4/07 at 10:07 pm :

    Indeed, screen+irssi is the best way to do a more efficient IRCing.

  5. Lionel’s blog » Blog Archive » Connexion efficace à l’IRC wrote on 01/4/07 at 10:22 pm :

    [...] Lucas demandait aujourd’hui dans un billet sur son blog le meilleur moyen de se connecter à l’IRC. Je répondrai ici en Français (Lucas, comment on fait pour répondre quand les commentaires et les trackback sont fermés ? ). Ma solution sera un peu différente de celle présentée par Christian Perrier. J’ai les mêmes contraintes que Lucas (en plus je change de machine entre mon domicile et le travail), je m’étais penché sur le sujet il y a quelques temps, en sachant que je n’étais pas du tout fan d’irssi moi non plus. Pourtant, irssi dispose d’un plugin génial : le mode proxy. Pour l’activer, il suffit de faire dans sa configuration irssi : [...]

  6. imbrandon wrote on 01/4/07 at 10:27 pm :

    BIP ( in the repos ) is VERY easy to setup irc proxy and will connect to as many networks as you like and channels and authenticate you etc etc etc, I can give you my example config i use for BIP and it also supports scrollback from when your GUI client wantent connected, it will support any client and multi clients , e.g. you can have bip running on your “server” and then xhat on your laptop and konversation on another computer and irssi on yet another all using the same nick/connection, anyhow I’m very sleepy at the moment but when I wake I’ll blog about the exact setup with some examples, it has me in IRC heaven

  7. Crash wrote on 01/4/07 at 11:08 pm :

    hey there, i tried it, but don’t use it, but maybe it’s an solution for you:
    set up irssi as an proxy and then connect your xchat to your irssi proxy.

    hope that helped :)

  8. Jelmer Vernooij wrote on 01/4/07 at 11:23 pm :

    Most of the ctrlproxy issues are fixed in version 3.0, though that hasn’t hit Debian yet.

  9. David, biologeek wrote on 01/4/07 at 11:39 pm :

    I use miau irc bouncer + xchat or colloquy and it works pretty well. irssi? C’mon guys we’re in 2007!

  10. Andrzej Mendel wrote on 01/5/07 at 12:37 am :

    Perhaps XChat + VNC?

  11. Martin Grondin wrote on 01/5/07 at 1:37 am :

    PFJIRC allows connections with GUI clients and you can bounce around. I don’t use it (as I use screen+irssi personally) but this seems to be something you can use. It does, however, need some love, some things aren’t implemented quite yet. But overall it seems fairly nice.

    http://pfjirc.org/

    From their site:

    “PFJirc is a program that allows you to use one IRC connection from multiple clients. It allows, for example, the use of an instant-messaging client, like Gaim to be used for /ISON and PRIVMSG-type messages, yet channels to be delegated to a proper IRC client, like XChat.

    A finer-grained control is achievable beyond this, too. It is possible, for example, to run two IRC clients, say, XChat and Irssi together, and appear still as just one user. PFJ here allows different clients to join different channels, so you can access your most important channels from irssi on an ssh login, yet still maintain a presence in the rest on your XChat session.”

  12. Sven wrote on 01/5/07 at 3:16 am :

    Like Andrzej says, Xchat with VNC (in this case probably: Xvfb with some VNC or RDC server (KDE and gnome have built-in RDC servers IIRC, they just need to get enabled for the session) might work if you don’t have a desktop which you want to keep open at all times.

    PS: It’s certainly sub-optiomal to ask the math question below the submit button. I wouldn’t expect additional _needed_ input fields below it.

  13. ’Til All Are One :: Single IRC login from multiple locations :: January :: 2007 wrote on 01/5/07 at 7:17 am :

    [...] Lucas Nussbaum has posed an eerily familiar question: what is the best way to maintain a single and constant IRC presence, accessed from multiple locations? After some experimentation with different solutions (including Irssi + Irssi-Proxy), I finally settled upon a combination of Bip IRC Proxy, an SSH tunnel and my favourite GUI IRC client. I was planning to write a guide, but I came across an excellent one which explains the whole process. Managing the SSH tunnel is easy with gSTM. [...]

  14. Erich wrote on 01/6/07 at 11:47 pm :

    I’m using a patched version of the “muh” IRC bouncer with xchat. Works really reliable.
    I’ve patched muh to store any public message starting with my nick. (patch is in upstream sourceforge, maybe applied by now; not sure if it’s in the Debian package. the maintainer asked me once about the patch IIRC)
    A slightly bit smarter way of storing followup messages would be nice (e.g. also store followup messages by the same user that don’t include a different username; sometimes people reply with multiple lines without repeating the nick). But other than that I’m fine, and I never really missed not having a full log (muh could do that, but I wouldn’t check the log anyway, if it’s supposed to be important people will use email anyway).

    P.S. Your “math test” for comments is broken. “add 0 and 2″ equals 2, I’m pretty sure of that…

  15. Astro wrote on 01/7/07 at 8:38 pm :

    I also use screen+irssi for many years now. A vanilla BNC plus IRC client won’t give you any nice history feature.

    But this blog entry gave me the idea of giving RbIRC-t BNC functionality. Jabber MUC includes history features and Gajim is much more pretty than XChat. Let’s see what time permits…

  16. Kisakookoo wrote on 01/23/07 at 9:48 pm :

    Hi! Why I can’t fill my info in profile? Can somebody help me?
    My login is Kisakookoo!

  17. Tester wrote on 03/9/07 at 8:03 pm :

    I had the same problem.. with the added requirement that I SSL both sides. And I ended up using “bip”, it seems to work pretty well.