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To use Qnext IRC Plug-In you can access the IRC network through the Plug-Ins link in the Tools Menu.

Most people use IRC for simply conversing with and meeting people from around the world. IRC can also be used for work purposes such as conducting a conference across the Internet by setting up a private chat room or forum.

The IRC Connection Properties screen is a set of specialized tools used to change the way Qnext IRC behaves. All of the toolbar icons provide you with a way to customize your Qnext IRC.

On a second thought, you may change the configuration settings by pressing one of the icons in the main IRC toolbar.

The first thing to do is to choose:

Server Name
There are many IRC servers around the world forming IRC networks. The most popular networks are DALnet, Undernet, and EFnet. Choose the server from a specific network that you would like to connect to.

Port
The most common IRC port is 6667. Some servers listen to other ports (most commonly in the 6665-6670 range). When in doubt, select port 6667 (Note: Dalnet usually uses port 7000).

Password
Normally a password is not needed for an IRC server. Most servers allow anonymous access.

Qnext IRC allows you to connect to several servers simultaneously - they are opened in separate tabs. To chat in multi-server mode, select New Server after pressing OK in the Connection Properties dialogue box.

Perform contains commands executed on startup. These commands can also be aliases set up to work for a specific network, or for all networks.

You can either supervise, or monitor the channel options with the Channel Management icon . The channel's topic history, and its banned and invited users are listed here. If you are not an Op you may not have the right to change anything.

Beside these settings for the current channel you are in, Qnext IRC offers you the possibility to bookmark your favourite channels by accessing the Manage Favourites dialogue. As a common rule Add, Edit and Delete channel from the favourites list possibilities are available.

Names button gives a list of all the online people on the given channel, printed in the server tab.

You can also view Favourite Channels by pressing the Join a Channel icon in the toolbar. Another way of adding files to that list is by right-clicking and selecting Add to Favourites from the server, channel or list of channels tabs.

Display Options is the place for customizing the way your Qnext IRC client looks. Choose whether to enable emoticons and/or timestamps. By default they are not checked.

Font settings are remembered for all sessions and opened tabs. Keep in mind that you can set a different font for each opened tab by using the context menu.

Highlight allows you to assign sounds and specific colors to incoming messages. This is useful if you want to track specific words or expressions. Highlighting is controlled by Add, Edit and Delete. In order to use them, you must first enable highlighting.

Press Add to specify the word, and choose the color it will be associated with. Once you have pressed the Color button, use the color swatch to select a custom color by clicking anywhere in the color spectrum. Further specification of colors can be done by changing the hue, saturation (Sat), lumination (Lum), as well as the amount of red, green, and blue for each color by moving the color swatch, or by typing their numerical values. Change the hue by moving the swatch horizontally; change saturation by moving the swatch vertically. The slider at the right of the matrix adjusts luminosity.

Aliases serve as quick shortcut combinations, executed on typing in the text field area. For example typing /jq may be equal to /join #qnextchannel.

Logging saves all of the incoming and outgoing messages in a query, in a channel or both. If enabled, its path is:

• status tab - C:\Program Files\Qnext\Your ID Number\irc\logs\irc.xxx_status.log
• channel - C:\Program Files\Qnext\Your ID Number\irc\logs\xxx_#channel.log
• DCC chat - C:\Program Files\Qnext\Your ID Number\irc\logs\dcc_chat_nick.log

Where xxx stands for the server you are connected to.

With Strip codes you actually remove the color coding in your log files of the incoming private messages or channel messages.

Every color is mapped to a definite number.
Numbers are from 0 to 15:

You can also write whole or partial messages in your own color. Simply type {Ctrl+K [number from 0 to 15] [your text] Ctrl+K}. Please note that only the text that is enclosed by Ctrl+K will be colorized.

If you want to see the date and time of your chats, then enable Timestamps.

The next option in the Advanced menu is Notify . This is a list of users for whom you will be notified of their online and offline status. A different sound will play for in each case. The first step is to create a rule for a specific nickname by pressing the Add button. In the Edit Notify dialogue, enter the desired user's nickname, provide an optional note about that user, and configure the desired action(s).

Additional options are available in the main Notify dialogue. If Popup notify window on connect is checked, the following dialogue will appear:

It can be accessed from the toolbar icon Notify List.

With Qnext IRC you can create your own Ignore List where users that you do not want to receive any query from, are kept. There are two ways to do this. The first one is to right-click over the nick you wish to ignore, and press Ignore In case you want to stop ignoring that nick press Unignore again after right-clicking. The other way is to open the IRC Properties and go to Advanced/Ignore.

Setting the Ignore List is done with Add and Delete buttons.

Once finished customizing Qnext IRC settings, you are ready to chat.

Once you are in, the first opened tab is the Server you are in. To enter your favorite channel, type /join {#channel}. That's it! It's easy! Once you get to the channel, you will see people talking. People in the channel are displayed in the right.

If you are an Op of the channel, you can set/change its topic by directly editing it.

The channel tab begins with the # sign. Tabs for private channels are titled just with the nickname of the user with whom you are chatting. Once someone has typed something either as a query or in the channel, the tab becomes red.

If you don't know any channel name for that network, press Retrieve Channels or type the /list command into the Text field and press Enter on your keyboard. To join a channel simply double click any one and it will open in a separate tab. The more tabs you have opened, the more chat rooms you are participating in.

Qnext IRC allows you to apply some filtering for retrieving channels. Leaving all options in the Retrieve Channels dialogue unchecked means that you will get the entire list of all active channels. Otherwise:

To speed things up you can Retrieve channels from the cache (kept 30 days). You can also get channels corresponding to your specified match criteria, such as to include or exclude definite text, include text with specific channel title, exclude text with non letter or numeric characters, as well as limit the list by the number of users participating.

User Options

Right-clicking on any of the nicknames in the user list will allow you to select the following commands:

Whois prints information about selected user.

Query invites user to private channel. This is equal to double click of the nickname.

Kick throws out the user from the channel.

Ban bans the user.

Kick + Ban is a combination of above 2 commands.

Op means that the channel operator can give someone else channel operators' permissions. By DeOp these permissions are taken away.

Voice gives you the right to speak (to write) in moderated channels, while with DeVoice you cannot speak, you can only read. If you are under the oice option, you will see a + in front of your name.

Ping tests the presence of an active client at the other side of the connection as well as the connection lag.

Version shows the version of the client, for example [johnny VERSION reply] : QNEXT 2.0.0.0

Time returns the time, for example [johnny TIME reply] : Wed Dec 08 13:45:19 EET 2004

Finger shows what is the IRC client used, for example [johnny FINGER reply] : QNEXT IRC CLIENT USER

DCC chat (DCC means Direct Client to Client) will establish a direct communication between two users. If someone requests a DCC chat, you have the option to either accept, or reject it. In a word a DCC chat is equal to a private channel.

DCC Send initiates a file transfer between two users. If another IRC user sends you a file, you will be again asked to either accept, or reject it. There are no size limitations and you can DCC whatever files you want. Yet some IRC servers or IRC clients do not allow sending and receiving *.bat, *.exe files.

All DCC transfers folders can be found at your system at the following local address scheme:
C:\Program Files\Qnext\Your ID Number\irc\dcc\received\Sender's nickname

If you want to go quickly and easy to it, just press Explore button of the DCC File Transfers dialogue or press from the main toolbar.

Basic Commands in IRC

/help - Generates an onscreen list of commands (on most IRC servers)

/names - Displays a list of all nicknames available

/list - Displays a list of the active channels, except for those that are secret

/join {#channel} - Join a channel. Upon entering a channel, you are given useful details about it: a list of users talking in that channel, channel mode settings and the topic

/leave - Leaves a channel

/part - Leaves a channel saying your goodbye message

/quit - Exits your IRC session, (the same as BYE and EXIT)

/nick {nickname} - Changes your nickname

/away [away message] - Toggles your away status

/whois {nickname} - Retrieves information about people who are currently on IRC

/invite {nickname} {#channel} - Invites someone to join the channel you are on. This is required if your channel is 'invite only'.

/kick {#channel} {nickname} - Gets rid of someone on a channel

/topic {#channel} {topic for channel} - Sets/changes a channel topic or views topic information.

/me {action description} - Sends anything about you to a channel or QUERY

/msg {nickname|channel} {text} - Sends a private message, channel or global message

/query {nickname} - Opens a separate window for a private conversation. This command differs from the MSG command only by the fact that it is used to start a private conversation.

/notice {nickname|#channel} {text} - Sends a private channel, or global message and will never open a separate window 'to' the other person. It should be seen as a sort of whispering. It is recommended that robots or other automatons use notices to send information to people.

/notify [nickname|on|off] - Informs you when people logging in or out IRC

/ignore [nickname|user@host] - Removes output from specific people. Ignore all contact from the specified people.

All IRC commands start with a "/" and usually consist of one word.
They are not case sensitive, and can be abbreviated to their first letters. Anything that does not begin with "/" is assumed to be a message to someone and will be sent to your current channel or to a person you are chatting with in a private chat.
Qnext IRC also has a built-in smart command completion. For example: Type "/n" and press Tab from your keyboard. Qnext IRC will prompt you "/nick". Press again Tab, you will see "/names", etc. This will end up when all commands, starting with "/n" have been shown.