GeekShed IRC Network
GeekShed Bot Policy
Apr 22nd
A bot is defined as any client which joins a channel on the GeekShed IRC network and interacts with it through one or more automated scripts. If your own IRC client runs scripts which can be automatically triggered you are considered to be a bot and may be banned from the network for joining channels without the owner’s permission. To avoid this, be fully aware of the scripts that your client is running and ensure any trigger scripts are disabled in channels where permission has not been given to run them.
The following is an example of such a script:
Bots are welcome on GeekShed providing that they abide by the Terms of Service. Although the whole of this document is relevant the parts especially relevant to bots are sections 7 and 8.
The most important thing to remember is: bots should NOT be joined to channels without the permission of the channel owner.
If you have any questions on allowed bots, please visit us in #help on irc.geekshed.net.
The following is an example of such a script:
<Phil> !uptime
<darkly57> I have been awake for 6days 7hrs 6mins 23secs
Bots are welcome on GeekShed providing that they abide by the Terms of Service. Although the whole of this document is relevant the parts especially relevant to bots are sections 7 and 8.
The most important thing to remember is: bots should NOT be joined to channels without the permission of the channel owner.
If you have any questions on allowed bots, please visit us in #help on irc.geekshed.net.
Ban Appeals
Apr 13th
If you are banned from a channel on GeekShed you will find no help in other channels, especially #help. This post lists the ban appeal procedures for various channels on GeekShed. If the channel you were banned from is not listed on this page and you wish to appeal the ban you should PM the person who banned you. If they do not want to hear you out you should accept this and not PM them further.
This table lists the ban appeal procedures for channels:
Search For Channel:
| Channel | Appeal Procedure |
What is SSL? What Benefits Does it Offer, and How do I Use It?
Mar 23rd
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and is a method of encrypting data being transmitted over the Internet that is used by e-commerce sites and other sites that require sending and receiving sensitive information.. This means that when you give your credit card or bank information to PayPal or Amazon, to name two, your information is protected. The same can be done for your IRC connection.
The main benefit of connecting to IRC via SSL is that all content you send to the server is encrypted, as well as all data the server sends you. This is useful if you are connecting from a public hotspot and want to protect your passwords. If you are worried about the content of the messages in the channels you’re in, you’ll be protected on your end; however, unless everyone in the channel is also using SSL, the copies of the messages sent to them are in plain text, and could be read by anyone sniffing packets between the unencrypted user and the server. To ensure that everyone in the channel is using SSL, you can apply channel mode +z.
Since the directions for connecting over SSL differ based on the client and operating system you are using, please refer to your client’s documentation on that. The port GeekShed uses for SSL is 6697, and every server can host SSL-based connection.
Should you require assistance, feel free to leave a comment here, or ask in #help.
(We do not offer SASL support)
Related: GeekShed Certificate Authority · Login Service
Can People on GeekShed See My IP Address
Feb 17th
Every now and then, a question that arises in #help is if people can see the IP address of another individual. Since GeekShed encrypt users’ IP addresses and hostmasks the short answer is no, other people can not see your IP address.
The long answer is the following:
The only people that can see a user’s IP address is the user, and network staff. Anyone else will see an encrypted version of the IP address, or an encrypted version of the hostname if the IP address was able to be resolved.
Examples:
- Instead of seeing host127-68-124-93.range127-124.virginmedia.com, other users will see protectedhost-A8B9B24A.range127-124.virginmedia.com
- Instead of seeing 134.65.154.12, other users will see AD171E0.223C44F1.789AD83A.IP
Some users claim that they are able to see the IP address of other users. This is incorrect. What they are seeing is the IP address of the page they see when they try to visit a domain that does not resolve.
Examples:
- If they claim to know the IP address of a staff member, with the geekshed.net vhost, the IP they really see if that of the server the geekshed.net website resides on.
- If a user of OpenDNS claims to know the IP address of the virginmedia user (from the previous example), what they will really see is 208.69.36.132, which actually resolves to hit-nxdomain.opendns.com.
- Some clients may resolve the “primary” domain name itself, in which case the user would see 212.250.162.12 for virginmedia.com
Disclaimer: this all goes out the window if the user unsets usermode x, which is the mode that hides their IP address/hostmask. This mode is set by default on connect and is removed either by doing “/umode2 -x” or “/hs off”. If umode x ever gets unset it can be turned back on with “/umode2 +x”
GeekShed Management Script
Jan 5th
GeekShed has an officially supported management script written by the GeekShed staff along with users Zetacon and GrimReaper. It offers a range of features including canned messages to help people with common questions as well as some decent channel and nickname management features.
We have checked out the tags directory at http://www.geekshed.net/gs-script/ so you can find each version of the script. We recommend using the latest version (i.e. the one with the highest version number). The script is the one ending in .mrc. The .sig file is the GPG signature of the script and has been included from versions 1.8 for posterity. Public key Phil Lavin (Freelance Programmer) can be found on major key synchronizing servers.
Load it into the remotes section of your script editor just like any other script or place it in your mIRC install dir and type:
We have checked out the tags directory at http://www.geekshed.net/gs-script/ so you can find each version of the script. We recommend using the latest version (i.e. the one with the highest version number). The script is the one ending in .mrc. The .sig file is the GPG signature of the script and has been included from versions 1.8 for posterity. Public key Phil Lavin (Freelance Programmer) can be found on major key synchronizing servers.
Load it into the remotes section of your script editor just like any other script or place it in your mIRC install dir and type:
/load -rs gs-chanscript.mrcAny problems, come see us in #help on irc.geekshed.net
Login Service
Jan 4th
We have, for a while now, had a login service which links to our services database to allow you to login to areas of the site, such as the quote database, using your services login. This has always been an experimental feature however we are now happy that it’s working great and have finalized it. We have applied an SSL certificate to the site to allow your username and password to be encrypted as it passes over the Internet for our auth service to verify.
We hope to be able to use this service in the future for lots of cool areas of the site including web based nickname and channel registration.
We hope to be able to use this service in the future for lots of cool areas of the site including web based nickname and channel registration.
What Ports Can I Use to Connect to GeekShed?
Jan 2nd
Besides the default port 6667, all GeekShed servers accept standard connections on the following ports:
6660, 6661, 6662, 6663, 6664, 6665, 6666, 6668, 6669, 7029, 7070, 1494, and 1755
All servers also accept SSL connections on port 6697.
Should you experience difficulties in connecting, you can try another port or another server. Should you still have difficulties, you can post in the forums where someone will be able to assist you.
All servers also accept SSL connections on port 6697.
Should you experience difficulties in connecting, you can try another port or another server. Should you still have difficulties, you can post in the forums where someone will be able to assist you.
Who owns GeekShed IRC?
Dec 26th
GeekShed IRC is owned by Geek Shed Ltd. GeekShed Ltd. is a UK registered company (company #07055433) boarded by Allan Jude and Phil Lavin as directors and Marcus Joyce as secretary. Allan, Phil and Marcus all have equal share holdings.
GeekShed Ltd. exists for administrative purposes and GeekShed IRC is run as much as a democracy as possible. Reasonable caution is taken with access to the network and not all staff hold the same access rights. Access is granted as appropriate for the task each staff member is required to perform.
GeekShed Ltd. is funded solely by donations and uses these for administrative costs and for projects that directly benefit our users.
GeekShed Ltd. exists for administrative purposes and GeekShed IRC is run as much as a democracy as possible. Reasonable caution is taken with access to the network and not all staff hold the same access rights. Access is granted as appropriate for the task each staff member is required to perform.
GeekShed Ltd. is funded solely by donations and uses these for administrative costs and for projects that directly benefit our users.
IRC Clients
Dec 21st
At least once a week, we get asked about IRC clients that people can use. Although GeekShed offers the TFlash flash-based chat client that can be used and embedded on one’s site, unless you’re a casual chatter on a few channels, it is often beneficial to use a dedicated IRC client. By using a client, you are able to have more features such as scripts, logging, and more advanced channel moderation tools.
Below is a list of some IRC clients. It is not an exhaustive list, so if you do not like any of the clients, search around the web for one that you do like.
Do you recommend any of these clients, or one that isn’t listed? Feel free to add a comment, and let us know.
Below is a list of some IRC clients. It is not an exhaustive list, so if you do not like any of the clients, search around the web for one that you do like.
| Client | Supported Platforms |
| mIRC | Windows |
| IceChat | Windows |
| X-Chat 2 | Windows |
| Colloquy | Macintosh |
| X-Chat Aqua | Macintosh |
| Linkinus | Macintosh |
| Konversation | *nix |
| ChatZilla (Firefox addon) | Windows, Macintosh, *nix |
| Opera | Windows, Macintosh, *nix |
| BitchX | Windows, Macintosh, *nix |
| Irssi | Windows, Macintosh, *nix |