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Geek Culture IRC client walkthrough: X-Chat |
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Geek Culture IRC client walkthrough: X-Chat |
Site home | Geek Culture | |
|
Home | IRC guide | IRC FAQ | Client walkthroughs | ||
The structure of this walkthrough, as with all of them, matches that of the IRC guide, providing more detailed information for the client in question. You may wish to consult with the glossary in the IRC guide for explanations of terminology not covered directly in the guide.
Availability: There are versions for several flavors of free operating systems as well as a port to Microsoft Windows.
When you run X-Chat for the first time, you will be presented with the Server List; which one you get and how you use it depends on the version of X-Chat that you have, X-Chat 2 or X-Chat 1.8.
 The server list window |
X-Chat 2 comes pre-configured with information about the SlashNET IRC network, so all you have to do is personalise the program. At the top of the Server List dialog, enter in your desired user details (username and so on); by default, these will be used for any IRC network you connect to. You will probably want to have X-Chat join one or more of the Geek Culture channels when you connect – to do this, you will need to alter the settings for the SlashNET network. Select SlashNET from the network list on the left, and check the Edit Mode checkbox below it, to enable you to change the settings for that network. In the Join Channels box, enter the name of any channels you want to join on connect, separated by commas (but no spaces after the commas). If you want to have X-Chat connect automatically on start-up, check the appropriate box.
Finally, if you want to have X-Chat automatically select the SlashNET network at start-up, you can check the No server list on Startup box at the bottom.
Click Connect.
 The server list window |
X-Chat 1.8 doesn’t ship with a SlashNET server group by default, so you will have to add one. Click on the New Group button and type SlashNET into the entry box:
 Creating a SlashNET server group |
Click Ok, and then highlight your new SlashNET entry in the Server List and click on the New Server button. You will see the server entry dialog box:
 A filled-out server entry window |
Enter a name for the server in the Name field. This is what shows up in the list if you open the SlashNET group from your Server List window, so it can be whatever you want to call it. The Server field is the actual name of the server itself; it’s easiest to go with irc.slashnet.org. Leave the port setting at 6667. X-Chat will let you join several channels at once when you connect – list all those that you wish to join on connect, separated with commas (note that there are no spaces after the commas). If you want to have X-Chat automatically connect to SlashNET when you start it up, click Autoconnect.
When you are finished, click Ok, and then click Connect in the Server list.
Once connected, you will see X-Chat’s main window:
 X-Chat’s main window (click for full size) |
Most of the window is taken up by the channel itself. Below that is the inputline (the text entry area), and below that are the tabs – one for the console (labelled with the name of the server), and one for each open channel and private chat session. If you use a web browser that supports tabbed browsing, this is the same idea. Tabs’ text changes color if there is activity in a channel which isn’t currently selected. The text turns red for new messages, and blue if someone else mentions your nick while you weren’t looking. On the right of the main window is the list of users currently joined to the selected channel.
 A lit-up tab |
supa, uilleann, dragonman97, 23rd March 2003
Satellite pages maintained by Tut-an-Geek. Originally created by uilleann.