Half-Life Fallout's IRC channel is #hlfallout on Gamesurge. If you have a modern IRC client installed, you can click this link to instantly connect to the channel

IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat , and is a very old and established protocol for communication. IRC is based on the concept of Channels on Networks .

A Channel is a 'room' of people who can chat together though a text based medium, a channels name usually begins with a hash character (#) and although there are exceptions to this, there is not much point in discussing them now. #hlfallout is Half-Life Fallout's IRC channel.

Networks are different IRC server providers. Each network can hold thousands of channels, many thousand clients or users (more popular Networks have upwards of one hundred thousand users). Some popular networks are Undernet, EFnet, and DalNet. Half-Life Fallout's IRC network is GameSurge, one of the gamer-oriented IRC networks.

Note: This tutorial is based upon HydraIRC, a relatively new client which is still in beta stage -- don't let that discourage you however, HydraIRC is a quite mature and usable client, it also has a very professional interface.

The first thing that we need to do is download the client, this is a really simple step -- just download the latest installer for HydraIRC. Once you've done that, run the installer and install wherever you would like to -- the default options work fine for almost any man. The final stage of installing presents you with two options, 'Run HydraIRC' and 'View Latest Changes', de-select 'View Latest Changes' because frankly we don't really care about them. Now click 'Finish' and wait for HydraIRC to load -- it should take no time at all.

Once HydraIRC has loaded it will present you with a message declaring that you have no configured identities, we would like to set one up, so click 'Yes'. The Preferences panel will be displayed with the 'User Identities' section selected. We would like to create a new identity so simply select the 'New' button. A new form will be displayed with quite a bit of information that needs to be filled in so let's start from the beginning.

This is the name that will be used for the profile within HydraIRC itself, pick a descriptive name that you can easily identify with.

This is your real name identifier. This is publicly accessible information while you are connected to an IRC server so you may wish to just put your first name or an alias here.

Just fill this field in with your nick.

This section allows you to create any number of nicks for use on an IRC server. You are allowed to create multiple nicks because while you are connected to a specific server your Nickname is a unique identifier to who you are. Fill in the textbox with your nickname and press 'Add', do this with other aliases -- it is common practice to add things such as a back quote (`) or an underscore (_) to your original nickname to create alternative nicknames.

Fill this in with your first preference nick.

Fill this in with 'Windows'.

Once all of this information has been collected, the 'OK' button will become enabled and you can create your identity by pressing this button. You will then be returned to the preferences panel, once again press the 'OK' button and you will be brought to the main HydraIRC interface.

Once HydraIRC has been set up we can now connect to the GameSurge network. This can simply be done by typing:

/server irc.gamesurge.net       

in the input line of the console. You will then connect to the server, this may take a little time, so wait patiently.

Once you have connected, a channel list window will pop up. Because we know what channel we wish to connect to, we can close this window. Finally, to join the Half-Life Fallout channel, we can just type:

/join #hlfallout 

and you will join the channel and can begin to talk to other half-life fans around the globe. Remember that Half-Life Fallout's IRC Channel is governed by the same rules as the forums, we also have some IRC specific rules that disallow MP3 scripts completely and discourage the use of excessive scripting and colours. Following basic internet etiquette is also encouraged in the channel. These rules and guidelines will be enforced by channel ops and repeated offences will result in a permanent ban.

The first thing you will notice is the userlist is the 3-group separation. There are Ops, Voiced and Normal users.

Normal users are the basis of the channels participants.

Voiced users are no different from normal users except when the channel has been set to +m (moderated), while this is set only voiced users and ops may talk in the channel.

Ops run the channel, they can set channel modes, change the topic and kick and ban users from the room.

Idlers are users who are in the channel but not actively participating in conversation. It is quite common for users to leave their IRC clients connected to servers and channels while they are busy doing something else.

There are some basic commands that common IRC clients understand that perform certain actions on IRC.

Performs the said text as an action.

/me waits patiently for Steam to update

will be displayed as such:

 * HLfan waits patiently for Steam to update

Joins the specified channel.

Changes your nickname.

This sets your status to away, with the reason that you specify. To come back from away, just type the command without any specified reason.

Parts the current channel.

Quits the IRC network with the specified quit message.

If there are any questions or problems that you have regarding IRC, posting in this thread will help you receive a quick reply from someone who (hopefully) knows what they are talking about.