I used IRC sparcely when I was a kid and honestly thought it had died out or wasn't heavily used anymore. That is, until I started doing more with OpenStack and found out the community is alive and well. I know that there are websites out there on how to set up either an IRC client or a ZNC broker, but nothing that put it all together. So this post is for you as much as it is notes for me incase I need to redo my setup. So lets begin...
The easy way of connecting to an IRC server is directly, however, there is an issue with that. First, when you disconnect, you'll lose all chats that are happening, or maybe someone did a shoutout to you and it is now unheard. So that's why we add an IRC broker, ZNC, as shown below (Image from ZNC's website).
For my setup, I used:
In this process, I compiled the source for ZNC since there have been many security and stability updates not included in the apt-get install version.... $ apt-cache show znc | grep Version Version: 1.4-2
So first, I installed all of the dependancies necessary for ZNC:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev libperl-dev
Then I downloaded the source code, untarred it and went into that directory.
wget http://znc.in/releases/znc-latest.tar.gz sudo tar -xzvf znc-latest.tar.gz cd znc*
Next I configured the source, and compiled the source using the make command:
./configure make
The make command is going to take a bit of time, 20-30 minutes depending on which Pi you have and how it is configured. After that, we can install ZNC and do the setup, don't forget that you'll need to be sudo.
sudo make install znc --makeconf
Here are the setup questions/answers...
-- Global settings -- [ ** ] [ ?? ] Listen on port (1025 to 65534): 6667 [ ?? ] Listen using SSL (yes/no) [no]: yes [ ?? ] Listen using both IPv4 and IPv6 (yes/no) [yes]: no [ .. ] Verifying the listener... [ >> ] ok [ ** ] Enabled global modules [webadmin] [ ** ] [ ** ] -- Admin user settings -- [ ** ] [ ?? ] Username (alphanumeric): USERNAME [ ?? ] Enter password: [ ?? ] Confirm password: [ ?? ] Nick [USERNAME]: [ ?? ] Alternate nick [USERNAME_]: [ ?? ] Ident [USERNAME]: [ ?? ] Real name [Got ZNC?]: James [ ?? ] Bind host (optional): [ ** ] Enabled user modules [chansaver, controlpanel] [ ** ] [ ?? ] Set up a network? (yes/no) [yes]: no At this point, your ZNC broker is roughly set up on what ever port (Default is 6667) you specified above and your IP address. Be sure to choose your Username carefully, as that will become the default option for the next few questions. That IRC info you'll need to enter in the ZNC server as well. You'll want to add networks to your ZNC broker. The main one for me was the irc.freenode.net server, port 6697. You can install some additional features like Fail2Ban under the Global Modules, and setup IP limits, buffer sizes, connection delays, etc. For me under the webadmin Settings, I have SSL, IPv4, IRC and Web checked in my listening ports. And a maximum buffer size of 500, Connect Delay: 5, Server Throttle: 30, and Anon. IP Limit of 10. Also I have the 2 boxes checked: Disallow IP changing during each web session and Hide version number from non-ZNC users. Don't forget, if you lose power, your Raspberry pi will need to have these services started back up again. You can set them up as services later too so they autostart with the boot up. Setting up Colloquy...
Now, we need to set up Colloquy. The information here is the standard info you provided above: Chat Server should be your IP address of your home or of the ZNC broker depending on your setup, Port # should match the port you set above, and Username mentioned above.
There not a whole lot more to it than that. I hope this helps and if I forgot anything or you need help, let me know!
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AuthorJames Benson is an IT professional. Archives
August 2022
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