Dev:How to use IRC

IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, is a low-bandwidth chat platform that has been around for decades. If you're new to it, it can be a little tricky to figure out, but it's worthwhile because a lot of developers and technical communities use it to share information and hang out.

A bunch of people who develop for jailbroken iOS are in #iphonedev on irc.saurik.com. Feel free to drop by and listen for a bit. If you ask a question and nobody responds right away, leave your IRC client open for a while to wait for answers, since not everyone is always awake and online. It's also helpful to do your best finding an answer yourself (via Google, etc.) before asking in the channel. Here's a convenient link to an IRC web client for #iphonedev that you can use to start chatting right away (ignore the "password" option on that page).

Other public channels on irc.saurik.com include #iphone (a general-purpose channel for iOS-related discussion), #theos (for discussing Theos), #cycript (for discussing Cycript), and #winterboard (for discussing Winterboard and Cydget). If you'd like to join multiple channels in that web-based client: click one channel to open the client, and after you click "Start", type  to join the second one.

For lots more help beyond this page, see irchelp.org.

IRC clients
In order to connect to an IRC server, you can use a web-based client or install a client application. If you plan to use IRC regularly, installing a client application is much more convenient than using a web-based client. All clients have a place to type in the server name (like irc.saurik.com) and channel name (like #iphonedev), and a place to type in a nickname for yourself. (If you already have an IRC client application installed, here's an IRC protocol link that should launch your client.)

Here are a list of common IRC clients, sorted by platform. The client in bold is recommended, but feel free to try out the others to see which one you prefer!


 * Web
 * Mibbit (AJAX) &bull; Kiwi IRC &bull; ChatZilla (Firefox Extension)
 * Windows
 * HexChat &bull; Quassel &bull; KVIrc &bull; mIRC &bull; Pidgin &bull; Trillian &bull; irssi (CLI)
 * OS X
 * Textual &bull; Colloquy &bull; XChat Aqua/Azure &bull; Adium &bull; Trillian &bull; irssi (CLI)
 * iOS
 * Colloquy &bull; Palaver &bull;Mango Lite &bull; IRChon &bull; IRC999
 * Linux
 * XChat &bull; Quassel &bull; Pidgin &bull; irssi (CLI)

Details about saurik's IRC network
saurik runs an InspirIRCd instance on his server at irc.saurik.com.

Port 6667 is opened as raw, unencrypted IRC. This is the default port most clients will connect to.

Ports 6697, 7001, and 7070 are opened as encrypted SSL IRC.