How to Log on to the IRC

IRC is an acronym for Internet Relay Chat. An IRC channel is basically a chat room centered around a common subject of chat. In fact, talking in an IRC channel is far preferable to talking on a forum. There are tons of exciting channels on the IRC, just about every site remotely related to homebrew of some sort has one. There are several WiiBrew Channels, several DSiBrew Channels, and even a Tehskeen Channel as well.

With all these exciting places to experience literally the newest developments in homebrew, one probably wonders how you access the IRC. In case you haven't guessed yet, this blog post will tell you how.

The basic steps of logging onto the IRC are simple really, they can be summed up here:
1)Download an IRC Client
2)Run the IRC Client
3)Connect to the server EFNET
4)Join Channels on the IRC by typing /join #name_of_the_channel

An IRC Client is a program that allows you access and participate in the IRC from your computer. So the first thing you'll need to do is choose one. The most popular IRC Clients are XChat, Pidgin, and mIRC.

XChat is my personal faveorite, so the rest of this post will be a step by step guide to accessing the IRC with XChat.
1)Download the correct version of XChat for your computer here.
2)Run (Start) the XChat program
3)You'll now be presented with a window. The top half will be a list of user information. Fill it all in correctly if it is not already. Be sure to choose a cool nickname ;)
4)The bottom half of the Window shows a list of servers. Click on the server EFNET.
5)Click connect in the lower right hand corner of the window
6)After this a window will pop up prompting you to join a channel, for the purpose of this guide, click the button next to "Join this channel:" and then type #wiihelp in the box next to it.
7)Congratulations! You're now logged into the official WiiHelp IRC channel! Join more channels by typing /join #channelname and then pressing ENTER.

Having problems connecting with XChat? Take a peek at their Quick Start Guide here.

Other great channels to connect to are #testmii, #wiidev, #wiidevot, #dsidev, #dsidevot, #bannerbomb and #tehskeen

Happy Chatting,
Arikado

For a tutorial on how to connect to the IRC with your Web Browser, click here.