One of the benefits of an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) server is that you can now configure a chat room specifically for your forum. This has many advantages over the standard shoutbox. This tutorial will show how to set up the chat room using the page manager plugin and a free widget called Mibbit.
We recommend you use a page specifically for this (not adding it to the index). This can be accomplished through the page manager plugin for MyBB, or even posting it as HTML in a thread.
Now, we need to configure your new chat box.
After saving the changes, your chat page should look similar to this:
And after connecting, you will see something like this:
Now, we will go over a few basic IRC commands and describe how you can register your nickname and channel so nobody else can hijack it.
First of all, pick a nickname you like that's not in use yet. You can change your nickname by entering /nick new_nickname. In IRC, any line that begins with a backslash is a command and when you push enter, nobody else will see it. Next, we need to register our nickname to prevent others from using it when you aren't logged in. The user "Nickserv" is the security bot which maintains nicknames. Tell it to register your nickname by typing /msg nickserv register password email_address. It will confirm registration if successful. Now, any subsequent time you return, you will need to log in to identify yourself by entering /msg nickserv identify password.
Next, we will want to register the channel so nobody else can hijack it as well. The user "Chanserv" is the security bot for channels. You can register your channel by typing /msg chanserv register #channel password channel description. Once registered, you will notice the user "Chanserv" will join. He will also give you the "modes" +oq, which means owner and operator. As the operator (mode +o), you can kick and ban people, as well as giving others operator status. To see a list of operators, click on a person's name in the user list.
Command Reference:
Change Nickname - /nick new_nickname
Register Nickname - /msg nickserv register password email_address
Login to Nickserv - /msg nickserv identify password
Register Channel - /msg chanserv register #channel password channel description
Joining Additional Channels - /join #channel
If you have your own client, or would like a non-web client, you can install mirc from http://mirc.com/ and connect with the server irc.icyboards.com and port 6667.
The server is provided as a FREE service, sponsored by IcyBoards. You do not need an IcyBoards forum to use this service, it can be used with ANY host, even self-hosted forums.
We recommend you use a page specifically for this (not adding it to the index). This can be accomplished through the page manager plugin for MyBB, or even posting it as HTML in a thread.
Now, we need to configure your new chat box.
- The text that appears in red is the channel. A channel is the name of the room where your members will be joining. We recommend using the name of your forum for this. You will need to make sure nobody else is in it, then we will describe how you can register it and have complete control over it.
- The text in blue is the height/width of the widget. You will need to play around with this to make it match your theme/site's width.
- The text in green is the welcome text that is displayed to your members. It must be HTML-compliant. Just use letters/numbers and if you need a space, enter "%20" as seen in the example.
After saving the changes, your chat page should look similar to this:
And after connecting, you will see something like this:
Now, we will go over a few basic IRC commands and describe how you can register your nickname and channel so nobody else can hijack it.
First of all, pick a nickname you like that's not in use yet. You can change your nickname by entering /nick new_nickname. In IRC, any line that begins with a backslash is a command and when you push enter, nobody else will see it. Next, we need to register our nickname to prevent others from using it when you aren't logged in. The user "Nickserv" is the security bot which maintains nicknames. Tell it to register your nickname by typing /msg nickserv register password email_address. It will confirm registration if successful. Now, any subsequent time you return, you will need to log in to identify yourself by entering /msg nickserv identify password.
Next, we will want to register the channel so nobody else can hijack it as well. The user "Chanserv" is the security bot for channels. You can register your channel by typing /msg chanserv register #channel password channel description. Once registered, you will notice the user "Chanserv" will join. He will also give you the "modes" +oq, which means owner and operator. As the operator (mode +o), you can kick and ban people, as well as giving others operator status. To see a list of operators, click on a person's name in the user list.
Command Reference:
Change Nickname - /nick new_nickname
Register Nickname - /msg nickserv register password email_address
Login to Nickserv - /msg nickserv identify password
Register Channel - /msg chanserv register #channel password channel description
Joining Additional Channels - /join #channel
If you have your own client, or would like a non-web client, you can install mirc from http://mirc.com/ and connect with the server irc.icyboards.com and port 6667.
The server is provided as a FREE service, sponsored by IcyBoards. You do not need an IcyBoards forum to use this service, it can be used with ANY host, even self-hosted forums.
