~ilovestig@somewhere.com

That leading tilde (~) indicates that you are not running identd on your machine. As Phil explains it, identd is an age-old service that runs on port 113 and was designed for shared shells. It’s essentially a process that confirms that you are who your ident says you are. For the full, geeky details on identd, see RFC 1413.

Basically, your client sends your required ident as part of the initiation commands when you connect to GeekShed. The server then checks to see whether you have an identd running and uses the ident reported by that in your hostmask. If the server does not find identd running on your machine, it adds the tilde (~) to your ident.

Note: don’t confuse any of this with the tilde (~) you may see in your nick list as an indication of a channel’s admins. Those are nick prefixes.

How do you enable Identd on your machine?

Many clients either have Identd built in or include the option to turn it on. Check the documentation for your particular client. Note however that there are clients that will not provide support.

Additional Troubleshooting Information

You can connect to GeekShed even if you cannot get identd running on your machine. You’ll just have the tilde (~) show up before your connection information. If you cannot get it to work, relax because there’s no penalty.

That said, if you investigate things further, you may find that you need to open up port 113 on your firewall or enable identd on your router. For more information, check out Section 4.3. “No identd” of IRC Connection Problems or Setting Up Identd on the IRCPolitics site.

—tengrrl

Note that your client may have an option to keep an auto-join locally. Check your documentation for details on using a client-side system if you want to keep your settings on your machine(s). This explanation will focus on the server-side system only.

What is required to join channels automatically?

Your nickname has to be registered, and you have to identify before you can use the AJOIN command. Additionally, the channel that you want to join has to be registered. Remember that you can only be in 100 channels, so you can only include 100 channels in your AJOIN list.

How do I join a channel automatically?

To add a channel to the list of those that you join every time you connect to GeekShed (your AJOIN list), use the following command:

/msg NickServ AJOIN ADD #channel

For instance, /msg NickServ AJOIN ADD #topgear would add the channel #topgear to your AJOIN list.

How do I add a channel that uses a key to my AJOIN list?

If the channel you want to add uses a key, you need to include the key when you use the command:

/msg NickServ AJOIN ADD #channel key

For instance, /msg NickServ AJOIN ADD #topgear hAmsT3r  would add the channel #topgear with the channel key “hAmsT3r” to your AJOIN list.

Can I just add every channel I’m in right now?

Yes, you can. Join all the channels you want to add, and use the command:

/msg NickServ AJOIN ADDALL

The command will also automatically include the keys for any channels to your AJOIN list.

How do I see a list of all the channels I join automatically?

To see a list of all the channels on your AJOIN list, use the command:

/msg NickServ AJOIN LIST

Use wild cards with this command to list only the channels on your AJOIN list that match a specific pattern. For instance, the command /msg NickServ AJOIN LIST #top* would return all the channels on your AJOIN list that begin with “#top” (for instance, #topgear).

How do I remove a channel from my AJOIN list?

To remove a channel from your AJOIN list, use the command

/msg NickServ AJOIN DEL #channel

For instance, /msg NickServ AJOIN DEL #topgear would remove the channel #topgear from your AJOIN list.

How do I delete all the channels that I join automatically?

To remove all the channels from your AJOIN list, use this command:

/msg NickServ AJOIN CLEAR

The command will delete all the channels from your AJOIN list. When you connect to GeekShed again, you will not join any channels automatically.

What if I get banned from a channel I usually join automatically?

If you are banned from a channel, please be sure to remove it from your AJOIN list, using the AJOIN DEL command above. Keeping a channel you are banned from on your AJOIN list may result in accidentally evading the ban.

Video Demonstration of the AJOIN commands

If you’d like to see some of these commands demonstrated, take a look at UKGeek’s video below, which was entered in our birthday competition last year:

—tengrrl

[11:20] Sheldon: [Bunny] Go Hokies!

That’s a channel greeting, an individualized greeting that is announced to the entire channel. It’s different from the Channel Entry Message, the private message sent to everyone who joins a channel. You’ll only see greeting messages for users with operator or founder status and only in channels where the messages are turned on.

There are two parts to setting up greeting messages: (1) a channel founder has to turn the greetings on, and (2) the channel operators have to set up the specific greetings.

Part One: Turning greeting messages on (or off) for a channel

Who can change the greeting setting for a channel?

Only the channel founder can turn greetings on or off.

How do you can turn greeting messages ON for all channel operators?

To turn channel greetings on, the channel founder first has to assign a bot to the channel. Once a bot is assigned, the channel founder uses the following command:

/msg BotServ SET #channel GREET ON

For example: /msg BotServ SET #topgear GREET ON

Once the setting is turned on, the channel bot will display the personal greeting for any operator or founder who joins the channel. Operators and founders still have to set up their greeting message for it to appear in the channel (see Part Two).

How do you can turn greeting messages OFF for all channel operators?

To turn channel greetings back off, the channel founder simply changes the command setting from “on” to “off”:

/msg BotServ SET #channel GREET OFF

For example: /msg BotServ SET #topgear GREET OFF

Part Two: Setting up your personal greeting message

How do you add a greeting message for yourself?

To add a greeting, you use the following command:

/msg NickServ SET GREET [message]

For example: /msg NickServ SET GREET I come with Bacon!

After setting the message, the bot will announce the greeting when you join channels where you are an operator and the greeting option is turned on. For instance, when the user LordBaconCheeseburger joins #topgear, where he has ops, everyone in the channel sees this:

[23:49]<&Stig> [LordBaconCheeseburger] I come with Bacon!

How can you check what your greeting is set to?

If you want to check your greeting, use the INFO command on yourself:

/msg NickServ INFO [YourNick] ALL

For example: /msg NickServ INFO LordBaconCheeseburger ALL

The system will return information about your login, including the greeting you have set. Here’s the information for LordBaconCheeseburger, for instance. Note the bold line indicating the greeting message:

[23:54] -NickServ- LordBaconCheeseburger is TFlash NextGen
[23:54] -NickServ- Is online from: ~TFlash@somewhere.net
[23:54] -NickServ- Time registered: Apr 15 05:23:55 2011 UTC
[23:54] -NickServ- Last quit message: Quit: LordBaconCheeseburger
[23:54] -NickServ- E-mail address: LordBaconCheeseburger@somewhere.net
[23:54] -NickServ- Greet message: I come with Bacon!
[23:54] -NickServ- Options: Protection, Security, Private, Auto-op

How do you change your greeting message?
To edit your greeting message, just use the command again, with the revised version of the message. It may be useful to copy the original message into a text, revise it there, and then paste in the revision.

If I wanted to change the greeting message for LordBaconCheeseburger, for instance, I would use this command:

/msg NickServ SET GREET I come with Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato!

The new message will replace the old one.

How do you turn off your greeting message?
If you prefer not to have the bot greet you when you join channels, you can remove the message completely. To remove the greeting, use the command without any message information. The command would be:

/msg NickServ SET GREET

Note that you can only remove your own greeting message. To turn off all the greetings in a channel, the channel founder must use the BotServ command explained in Part One.

What makes a good greeting message?
Your greeting message can say whatever you’d like. Ideally, choose something appropriate for all the channels you join. If your greeting uses inappropriate language, the channel founder may ask you to change your greeting or remove you from the channel staff.

—Posted by tengrrl

1. Switch to the nick that you want to group
   • NOTE 1: Before you enter the next command, make sure that you are using the nick you want to add to your existing group. Do NOT be using your main nick. Example: if I wanted to group JayneCobb to my account, I would /nick JayneCobb.
   • NOTE 2: If you use a registered nick when the next step if performed, it will first be dropped, then grouped to the main nick. Example: if I try to group JayneCobb (which is registered) to my main nick MalcolmReynolds, Services will first drop JayneCobb, then have it join the MalcolmReynolds group. By being dropped, any permissions JayneCobb had will be gone.
2. Enter the following command in the server/status window: /msg nickserv group main_nick password, where main_nick is your primary nick, and password is the password belonging to the primary nick.
   Example: I want to group JayneCobb to my primary nick, MalcolmReynolds, and the password for it is S3reni+yV@ll3y (you do use something secure for your passwords, right?). I would type the following as JayneCobb: /msg nickserv group MalcolmReynolds S3reni+yV@ll3y
3. Look for nickserv to either tell you that you have joined the group of your primay nick or give you an error message, such as “you must wait at least 60 seconds before using the group command again”.

Once you register your nickname, you can be added to the auto voice and op lists in other people’s channels. This enables you to be a permanent staff member in channels. You are also entitled to a vhost once you have been registered for 90 days.

Registration provides you with many benefits and is completely free.

To register your nickname on GeekShed, you must first be using it. If you are not currently using it, change to it with the command:

/nick <nickname>

For example:

/nick CrazyUser

Once you are using the nickname, you may register it in one of two ways. If you’re using GeekShed’s Flash client, register your nick from the “Options” menu at the top of the window. In any other client, use the following command:

/ns register <password> <e-mail>

For example:

/ns register supersecretpassword crazyuser@hotmail.com

Following this, you will be sent an e-mail giving you the details required to finish off the registration. Follow the instructions in the e-mail.

Each time you connect and start using the registered, you will be told that “This nick is owned by someone else”. You must ‘identify’ to it using the following command:

/ns identify <password>

For example:

/ns identify supersecretpassword

If you use mIRC, you can load the following script into the Remotes section of your script editor (press alt+R to access this) to identify you automatically. Just replace ‘YOURPASSWORDHERE’ with your actual password:

on 1:NOTICE:*This nickname is registered and protected*:?: {
   if ($nick == NickServ) {
      ns identify YOURPASSWORDHERE
   }
}

on 1:NOTICE:*This nick is owned by someone else*:?: {
   if ($nick == NickServ) {
      ns identify YOURPASSWORDHERE
   }
}

If you require help, come and see us in #help on irc.geekshed.net