Irc hosting questions.

[Toxik dragon]

Hello

I am trying to set up an irc chat for a forum I mod at but I am new to irc. Sorry for the noob questions and I hope this is the right place to post this.
Thanks for any help

1. How do I set up an irc server.

2. If at all possible can I set up a channel with an existing efnet sever and how would I go about doing that.

[munky]

1) use an existing irc server (irc.efnet.info will work)
2) to "set up" a channel, simply join a channel that doesn't exist. it helps to have a bot to help you maintain ops. to get an irc chat for your forum, you can set up a website with cgi:irc or jpilot

[lucy]

another good website chat program to check out is pjirc

[Toxik dragon]

1) use an existing irc server (irc.efnet.info will work)
2) to "set up" a channel, simply join a channel that doesn't exist. it helps to have a bot to help you maintain ops. to get an irc chat for your forum, you can set up a website with cgi:irc or jpilot

Ok just to make sure I am understanding you I would join the channel with the name I would like to use and that makes the channel for me and it stays for good right. For severs I could do that on any server I wish right.

[wundr]

Ok just to make sure I am understanding you I would join the channel with the name I would like to use and that makes the channel for me and it stays for good right.

Yes, and no. The channel will exist for as long as someone (anyone) is in the channel. If everyone leaves the channel, the channel will no longer exist. Some IRC networks have a "ChanServ" which is run by the network for maintaining channels for users, although EFNet doesn't offer that (on EFNet, it is the user's responsibility to maintain and keep control of their own channel, not the network's). If you plan on having a core number of people (I'd recommend at least 4 or 5) on separate internet connections that can stay in the channel at all times and give each other ops in the channel periodically, or if you are able to run your own bots ("robots" to control a channel for you, but you have to set them up yourself), then EFNet may be perfect for you. If you want channel services, however, you may want to explore a different network.

For severs I could do that on any server I wish right.

All channels on EFNet exist on all EFNet servers (listed on the servers page, linked to from the front page of this site)

[Toxik dragon]

Ok thanks for the help. I will have to find a different network because I can not guarantee someone will always be on. Again thanks for the help.

[munky]

technically, all #channels exist on all servers, you can join &channel and it will be a local channel (on your current server only)