Gratitude
The following tutorial on using IRC was created by mirichan. Please direct your thanks in her direction, just as we are. From the mods of Yaoi Daily, thank you, Mirichan. Please bookmark her IRC Tutorial directly for future reference, if you wish.
A Guide to Setting Up and Using IRC by Manon/Mirichan
Introduction
Hello and welcome to my little IRC guide. I've heard many people mention being afraid of it and honestly? IRC is easy to use as long as you follow a few simple rules.
This guide is done in the manner I have always created guides at work... so it's a very hand-holding step-by-step guide with pictures. Don't be insulted but being very visual myself, I like learning with images ^_~
This guide is written based on MY experience. I am sure others would say there are better softwares to access IRC or you can do things this way or that way... As a less than 1-yr user who has been getting TONS of manga & anime series through IRC? I'd say my method work well enough for me *lol*. Hopefully it will for you too... If you would like to use all the keyboard-intensive shortcuts? Take a few minutes to read the mIRC help files... they're pretty good.
Technical info: I'm using Windows XP Home edition. I run a firewall (ZoneAlarm Pro) and a virus scan (McAfee Virus Scan Home Edition) and run Spybot once or twice a month... I got NO viruses (keeping fingers crossed) but I have also limited the type of files I download/accept (I will show you how later).
Let's start now ^__^
Install & Configuration of Software
At first, you will need a software to access IRC. I personally use mIRC (http://www.mirc.com/). It's shareware, so normally after its trial period, you're supposed to pay for it. If you don't? Not much happens except that when you open it, it will tell you it's expired (in my example, I'm 2 days left from its expiration date) and ask you to register (aka buy) it. If you don't want to, you just click on the Continue button and that's about it... You get to a point where you just don't see the blinking button asking you to buy it when you log on. It's up to you to decide if you want to buy it or not ^_~
Once you've downloaded the software and installed it? You need to configure it a tad if you want to make your job online as smooth as possible.
Of course, when you start configuring it, it will ask your name & email ID. For that specific information, you can INVENT it if you want to avoid spam. BTW? I have invented a name but used an alternate email I have. I never got any spam at that email address so you decide if you want to spoof an email ID or not. By “NAME” we don't mean the nick (that's coming up below)... I mean a user name.
You will also need to give yourself a nick... that is not already in use, obviously. You don't NEED to register it everywhere but there are some channels that will NOT accept unregistered nicks to access them so it might be a good idea to register your nickname in the servers you access the most (personally, it's the Rizon, Irc.Highway and Aniverse servers).
Rizon: Many of the fansub groups moved there after mIRCx demise.
IRCHighway: Many [most] yaoi scanlation groups moved there...
For this guide, we will assume we are creating/registering a nickname for user BLUE2004 (assuming that nick is not already registered ^_~)... so everywhere you see mirichan in the screencaps, imagine it says blue 2004 instead.
So you've launched the mIRC software, you're logged in as blue2004.
Now to register that nick with RIZON (for starter... you'd need to do it with IRCHighway and any other afterwards... it's not a one-step register to all servers, unfortunately).
You will need a password for your nick, so for this example, it will be red062004.
To register your nick, you would type: /msg nickserv register
So in our example, replacing
by red062004 and
by (let's pretend) Blue2004@yahoo.com, we would therefore register our nick this way:
/msg nickserv register red062004 blue2004@yahoo.com
Each time you want to use your nick, you must identify it by entering your password:
/msg nickserv identify red062004
Of course, doing that every time [together with the “disabling IP host masking” for Rizon & Irc.Highway] would get boring fast... so we can ensure the software does it for us...
One word about IP-host masking... it's something done on some servers (like these 2 in particular) and Fserves are UNABLE to see you if you don't unmask... what it means? You may queue for a file BUT the Fserve won't ever be able to send it to you.
BTW... The choices you see ticked in my screencaps? I'd recommend you follow them... they'll make your life easier.
The following screencaps are ALL options I've selected... as I said, you might decide to modify them... go ahead but you might want to start with my default THEN go exploring on your own once you're a bit more familiar with IRC and getting what you want.
The part that is important here? The 2 boxes that show in the RED rectangle... which will reconnect you automatically if you get kickban.
Since there is a STRONG chance you might get kicked in your first forays into IRC (many channels are set up that there's a program running that kick you if you do something you shouldn't... like pasting a trigger wrong). Usually, thank god, it's only a KICK and you're back automatically if you are set up as indicated here... but if you did something more serious? You can be ban for a certain amount of time... running from minutes to hours to days to much longer.
Again, in this screencap, I'd recommend you select the boxes as I've indicated. What it means?
Send request:
It means that if, after spending hours queued for a file and you are NOT there to accept the DCC transfer, you will lose your queue and never get the file.
But if you have your software set up to automatically ACCEPT the file, the software will accept it for you.
Chat request:
No... it's not about chatting with people BUT accepting “chat” sessions with Fserves, aka so you can see their content and queue files... More about that one later, when you will see it in action.
This is an IMPORTANT box... This is where you tell the software just what kind of files you are accepting...
It's a montage, btw since I wanted to show ALL file types I accept.
As you can see, it's only anime, manga or music file types...
IF you don't run Matrovka or OGM files, then you don't have to get these files listed... same thing for RAR files if you only have ZIP installed.
You decide...
Okay... That's it for the configuration part of this guide.
Getting the Files (i.e. manga, scanlations)
Now, proceed to the Leeching Manga from IRC Guide for the next and final part in this FAQ.