IRC

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is something that, if you stay online long enough, you will have to fool around with. It's a real-time internet chat where users chat with each other in channels which are located on a server (which house hundreds if not thousands of different channels). It's often the fastest way to get in touch with another person on BakaBT since many idles the IRC, which is not the case with the forum.

There are two official BakaBT IRC channels on the rizon IRC network: #BakaBT and #bakabt-support.

If you're new to IRC

If you've read the FAQ and your question isn't in there, or you have an account issue you need help with (i.e. something you can't solve by yourself even if you know how to), the support channel is a relatively quick way to get the help you need.

Make sure you read the IRC Rules before joining the channels.

5-Step Guide to getting on #bakabt-support

1. Go to Rizon's webchat page.
2. Type your BakaBT username in the first field (makes things easier for us; the easier it is for us to help you, the more likely we are to do so).
3. Type bakabt-support in the second field.
4. Click 'Chat Now'.
5. If you get a pop-up dialog box saying '"The application's digital signature cannot be verified"', click Run/Ok.

What you need to know about #bakabt-support

1. The typing area is at the bottom of the page, just above the box labelled Public.
2. Users with % beside their name are channel half-operators (a.k.a. half-ops, hops, etc). Usually also site moderators, or site admin whose status hasn't been updated yet.
3. Users with &, @ or ~ beside their name are channel admin, operators and owner respectively. Usually also site admin, unless they're bots.
4. Users with + beside their name are "voiced" users. Voice is a status given to users by half-operators or admins. Users voiced on #bakabt-support are users recognised by BakaBT staff to be helpful in the support channel.
5. Users with no symbol beside their names are (most likely) normal users.
6. Users may offer help and advice with regards to fixing your ratio or finding good torrents to seed. However, only staff will be able to do anything about your account.
7. Commands used in support channel are @help rules (channel rules), @help commands (available commands), @help FAQ (link to FAQ) and @help Wiki (link to Wiki), as well as any other commands that may have been added.
8. BBT is not a mod. It is a bot, and it won't talk to you. It only responds to +ratio <BakaBT username>(shows your tracker ratio). *note* If BBT is not in the user list the +ratio <BakaBT username> command will not function.

What to do once you're in #bakabt-support

1. Describe your problem in detail. The more you tell us about the problem, the more we are able to help.
2. Staff may not reply immediately (we're not always at immediate disposal so have some patience), but someone will talk to you in a while.
3. If no staff replies within 15 minutes, you probably caught us at a bad time (wait around, or come back again in 1-2 hours).

What not to do in #bakabt-support

1. Do not PM (private message) any staff members, unless they ask you to (usually to ask for more sensitive information, e.g. email address, that we need to help resolve your issue). If you do not know how to send a private message you can ignore this.
2. Do not try to help other users (unless you know what you're talking about) or try to impersonate staff. Annoying users will be banned from the support channel.
3. Do not yell at us like we're some customer service rep. We do not get paid for providing support, and will not tolerate verbal abuse.
4. Idling and lurking is not allowed. Users left idling or lurking will be kicked or banned from the support channel.

IRC Clients

This is a list of the best IRC clients available.

ChatZilla

One of the easiest clients to use, if you use Firefox. Since its a Firefox plug-in, it should work on any operating system. If you want a simple, clean IRC client to get in and out, ChatZilla will work fine.

Installation

Follow this link. Then just hit the big green button that says "Add to Firefox". Give it permission to install, let Firefox restart, and it's installed. To use, just go to the "Tools" drop down menu in Firefox and select "ChatZilla".

mIRC

Another popular IRC client for Windows. While free to use, a donation nag window pops up at startup after the 30th day.

• mIRC Homepage
• mIRC on Wikipedia

Colloquy

Colloquy is a full-featured open source IRC client for the Macintosh, iPhone, and iPod Touch.

• Colloquy Homepage
• Colloquy on Wikipedia

Pidgin

Pidgin is a multi-protocol instant messaging program. It supports many common IM protocols out of the box (such as Messenger, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, etc.), and it also supports the IRC protocol.

• Pidgin Homepage
• Pidgin on Wikipedia

Opera

The Opera browser comes with an inbuilt IRC chat client. It's fairly similar to ChatZilla.

• Opera Homepage
• Opera on Wikipedia

Trillian

Trillian is another multi-protocol instant messaging program, coming with IRC support as well. There are currently two available versions of Trillian: Basic and Pro. Both have IRC support, so there's no need to buy the Pro version.

• Trillian Homepage
• Trillian on Wikipedia

XChat

XChat is an IRC client that rivals mIRC not only in power but also in popularity.

It was originally completely free and open-source, but now it only remains free for Linux.

The Windows version is available to try at the homepage, while there is a version compiled by someone else (for free) available at silverex. Keep in mind that the latest free compiled version is still many steps behind the latest official release, and that it is compiled from the Linux source (freely available), rather than the source used in official Windows releases, meaning that free compiled versions may not function as well as the official releases.

• X-Chat Homepage
• XChat on Wikipedia

Mibbit Webchat

For those who don't want to install more software on their computer, Mibbit is the solution. You can register an account to store all your servers and channels so you don't have to do it each time you go to the site, but you can always use it without an account.

• Mibbit Homepage
• Mibbit on Wikipedia

Rizon Webchat

For even greater convenience, you can use Rizon's Webchat client. It only allows access to channels on irc.rizon.net, but if you're just looking for a quick way to get onto #BakaBT or #bakabt-support through a browser this is your best bet.

Since the server is automatically set to irc.rizon.net, you can bypass the "/server" step in the instructions below.

Rizon Chat

Connecting to BakaBT

Most guides here were made with ChatZilla in mind!

BakaBT uses the IRC server:

irc.rizon.net

The main chatroom is:

BakaBT

And the support room is:

bakabt-support

How to connect to #BakaBT

• Start your IRC client
• Enter the Nickname you want into the bottom left button, beside the input bar.
• Now, to join the server. Type (or copy/paste) into the input bar:

/server irc.rizon.net

• If your nickname hasn't been used yet (by you or another person) it will tell you the nickname needs to be registered.
  To do this type (or copy/paste) into the input bar:

/msg nickserv register your_password your_email

Where "your_password" is the password you want, and "your_email" is your e-mail address. An activation code will be sent to your email address (used for registration). Read the email, type the command into IRC and your nickname will be registered (one nickname/group of nicknames per email address). Registration is not usually required to join a channel, but some channels explicitly require one (such as #BakaBT).

• The battle is done at this point! To connect to a channel, so you can talk to people, type (or copy/paste) into the input bar:

/join #BakaBT

How to reconnect to #BakaBT

• Start your IRC client
• Your Nickname should still be in your client, so leave that part alone.
• To join the server again, type (or copy/paste)into the input bar:

/server irc.rizon.net

• Instead of asking you to register this time though, it will ask for your password. To do that, just type (or copy/paste) into the input bar:

/msg NickServ IDENTIFY password

Just replace "password" with the password you gave when registering.

• Now, you can reconnect to the chat room by typing (or copy/paste) into the input bar:

/join #BakaBT

How to auto-connect, auto-join and auto-identify

To auto-connect a server, select the tab of the server you wish to auto-connect to in the future (you must have a window open assigned to that server in the first place!). Right click within the window, and select 'Open this network on startup'.

To auto-join a channel, select the tab of the channel you wish to auto-join in the future. Right click within the window and select 'Open this channel on startup'.

To auto-identify, go to the toolbar at the top, click Chatzilla -> Preferences -> Select the server in the panel on the left (in this case irc.rizon.net) -> click the 'Lists' tab -> Press 'Add...' in the Auto-perform section -> Fill in the following (remember to replace "password" with whatever your password is!):

/msg nickserv identify "password"

Connecting to different channels

To connect to another channel when first starting up, just replace #BakaBT with the channel you want (like #bakabt-support). If your already connected, type (or copy/paste) into the input bar:

/join #channelname

Where "#channelname" is the channel-which-you-want-to-connect-to's name.

Channel stats

We now have channel stats thanks to Rawh.
The wiki stats can be found at:
http://manticore.student.utwente.nl/stats/bakabt.html

Avatar & Details

Now you might wonder why some people have their name in a color and an avatar next to their name.
This is also possible for you by following these steps:

1. Go to http://manticore.student.utwente.nl/cgi-bin/upload.pl and follow onscreen instructions

User and password are known by the ops on #bakabt, please ask them for it!

2. Go to http://manticore.student.utwente.nl/cgi-bin/bakabt.pl and add (or edit) your name, sex and picturename.
3. Poke Rawh on IRC for manual update OR wait till it updates automatically (at 00, 06, 12, 18 hour).
4. Look at the stats afterwards on http://manticore.student.utwente.nl/stats/bakabt.html.