Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

Internet Relay Chat allows people to text chat with others in real time using the internet. Designed for large groups to chat in ‘channels’, it can also be used for private one-on-one conversations.

Unlike instant messaging systems, the common standard for IRC makes it possible to chat with anyone else using the system around the world.

And unlike SMS (Short Message Service) on mobile phones, it’s free to use from any internet-connected PC or device.

Screenshot of XChat 2.6.0 on Windows XP.

How IRC works

Around the world, there are thousands of IRC servers, which are computers running the IRC server software. These servers connect to each other through the internet and work a little like telephone exchanges.

When a person wishes to chat with others using the IRC network, they connect to an IRC server using IRC client software, either installed on their computer or on a web page.

Once connected, the IRC server allows people to chat with anyone connected to other servers around the world.

IRC is channel-based. When you connect to the IRC network the first thing you must do, after selecting a username or ‘nick’, is to join one or more channels.

There are tens of thousands of different channels around the world, most with different topics. Channel names all start with a hash (#) symbol. They are often named after their main topic, such as “#horses” for a channel where people mostly discuss horses.

People can also have private chats with one or more people, and it is possible to have many separate chat windows open. It’s quite common for IRC users to be having four, six, eight or more separate chats going at the same time.

The history of IRC

IRC was developed in 1988 to replace an earlier and more limited chat system. It became well known during the first Gulf War in 1991 when IRC was used to provide live reports on the events of the war. To put that in context, this was before the world-wide-web existed – before it became easy for people to publish news on the internet.

Over the past ten years, IRC has built a very strong following and today, at any time during the day or night, over one million people are simultaneously using the global IRC network.