Running your own private IRC Network
31 August 2006We all use IRC to connect popular networks such as freenode, IRCNet etc. Let’s see how easy it is to setup our own private IRC network.
Let’s use ngIRCd as the IRC daemon and X-Chat 2 as the IRC client. I’ll be using Gentoo GNU/Linux distribution to install these utilities.
Installing ngIRCd on Gentoo
First download and install ngircd package.
Edit the file /etc/ngircd/ngircd.conf and make the following changes:
In the [Global] section change the following fields:
Info = A private IRC server on Gentoo
Password = secret
AdminInfo1 = gentoo ngircd admin
AdminInfo2 = paris
AdminEmail = allug4me@gmail.com
Ports = 6667, 6668
Listen = 10.61.111.37
MaxConnections = 1024
Change the above IP-Address in the Listen field with the address for your server.
Uncomment the MotdPhrase line.
Change the ServerUID to the name of the user who is logged in.
Change the ServerGID to wheel.
Uncomment PingTimeout, PongTimeout, ConnectRetry, OperCanUseMode, MaxConnections, MaxConnectionsIP, MaxJoins lines.
In the [Operator] section modify the values as follows:
Password = secret
You can also configure pre-defined channels.
In the [Channel] section modify the values as follows:
Topic = A channel to help irc users and share their experiences
Also uncomment the Modes line
Save the file ngircd.conf
Test your configuration file by executing the following command
The following message will be displayed:
ngircd 0.8.3-SYSLOG+ZLIB+TCPWRAP+IRCPLUS-i386/pc/linux-gnu
Copyright (c)2001-2005 by Alexander Barton ().
Homepage:
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Reading configuration from “/etc/ngircd/ngircd.conf” …
OK, press enter to see a dump of your service configuration …
Now, press Enter and your configuration options will be shown.
Name = irc.gentoo
Info = A private IRC server on Gentoo
Password = secret
AdminInfo1 = gentoo ngircd admin
AdminInfo2 = paris
AdminEMail = allug4me@gmail.com
MotdFile = /etc/ngircd/ngircd.motd
MotdPhrase = “Hello world!”
ChrootDir=
Ports = 6667, 6668
Listen = 10.61.111.37
ServerUID = marc
ServerGID = wheel
PingTimeout = 120
PongTimeout = 20
ConnectRetry = 60
OperCanUseMode = no
MaxConnections = 1024
MaxConnectionsIP = 5
MaxJoins = 10
[OPERATOR]
Name = Marc
Password = secret
[CHANNEL]
Name = irc-newbies
Modes = tn
Topic = A channel to help irc users and share their experiences
Now start the server.
The server is started and you can connect to it from other computers on the network using IRC clients such as X-Chat.
Using X-Chat to connect to your private IRC Server(ngircd)
Open X-Chat from Main Menu -> Internet -> X-Chat 2 IRC
In the XChat: Server List window click the Add Button and in the highlighted text under Networks change the name to Private IRC Server.
Under Networks select Private IRC Server and click the button Edit…
In the widget Edit Private IRC Server, with the entry newserver/6667 selected, click Edit and change the entry to <ip-address-of-irc-server>/6667
Select the channel to join as #irc-newbies
Enter the Server password which you configured in ngircd.conf
It should look as follows:
Now press Close
In the Server List widget, press Connect.
You’ll be connected to the server and joined in the channel #irc-newbies.
You can see the details of the server in the client window.
Click the #irc-newbies tab. Now you see here that another user has also joined this channel.
You can chat with this user.
Now anyone with an IRC client can connect to your server and you have your own private IRC network.
Happy IRCing.
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