Private Chatting on IRC

Private Conversations

/MSG nickname message

Use the /MSG command to send someone a message that only that person can read. Say you are "YourNick" and you want to talk to your friend "buddy". /MSG buddy hello, how are you? On your screen, you would see: -> *buddy* Hello, how are you? On buddy's screen, if he is using ircII he sees: *YourNick* Hello, how are you? To answer such a message using ircII, buddy would type: /MSG YourNick Fine, thanks! If buddy is using mIRC, he will instead get a new "query" window dedicated to this private conversation with you. Everything you /MSG him goes to that window. As soon as he responds to you in that window, if you are also using mIRC you will likewise also get a "query" window.

/QUERY nickname and /QUERY

In mIRC, if you initiate a /MSG you don't get a "query" window until the other person responds to you. You can set up a "query" window on your side right from the beginning by using the /QUERY command: /QUERY buddy In ircII, you can have a private conversation by using /MSG nickname repeatedly, but that can get cumbersome. That's where the QUERY command comes in handy. When you issue the above command, all subsequent text will be send as private messages to that nickname, except for "/irchelp/" commands. Use /QUERY with no nickname to end a private conversation. Here's an example of a private conversation between you as "YourNick" and your friend "buddy", as seen from your point of view. Statements from your IRC client program start with "***", outgoing messages from you to buddy start with "-> *buddy*", and incoming messages to you from buddy start with "*buddy*".

/QUERY buddy
*** Starting conversation with buddy
Good morning
-> *buddy* Good morning, buddy.
*buddy* Hi, YourNick. How is life ?
Pretty good. I have to get back to work, bye.
-> *buddy* Pretty good. I have to get back to work, bye.
*buddy* OK, talk to you later.
/QUERY
*** Ending conversation with buddy

/CTCP nickname PING

/CTCP #channel-name PING

Sometimes you are talking to your friend and suddenly it seems like he's not paying attention. This may be due to server "lag" on either end, which is the roundtrip delay between when you say something and your friend sees that message. Normally lag is less than a few seconds even when you are talking to people on the other side of the planet, but sometimes the servers temporarily suffer from serious lag. If you suspect this is the problem, you can test your lag with a sonar-like ping signal under the Client-to-Client Protocol (CTCP). If you are just talking to one person, ping that person. If you suspect you are generally lagged to a lot of people, ping a channel with say 10 people which is the same as pinging each person on that channel separately. The range in ping response times will tell you if you are lagged in general.

/CTCP buddy PING
*** CTCP PING from YourNick!foo@hot.school.edu to buddy: 903330542
*** CTCP PING reply from buddy: 1 second

The last line is the part you care about. It says you are lagged less than 1 second to buddy, which is very good. Note that in most clients including most versions of ircII and mIRC, this is aliased to /PING nickname, or /PING #channel-name, but not always. Some Mac clients such as Ircle use /CPING instead.

DCC CHAT

/DCC CHAT nickname /MSG =nickname message /DCC CLOSE CHAT nickname DCC stands for Direct Client Communication, where you and your friend's client programs connect directly to each other, bypassing IRC servers and their occasional "lag" or "split" problems. Like /MSG, the DCC chat is completely private. If you are "Yournick" and your friend is "buddy", here's how to use DCC chat: You type: /DCC CHAT buddy You see: *** Sent DCC CHAT request to buddy While buddy sees: *** DCC CHAT (chat) request received from YourNick Now buddy types the same thing but using your nick: /DCC CHAT YourNick The connection goes through and you see this (he sees something similar). The numbers are his IP number (the numeric version of his computer's hostname) and his port number. *** DCC CHAT connection with buddy[123.4.56.78,54321] established Now to talk to buddy, in graphical clients like mIRC you will probably have a separate window for the DCC chat so that everything you type is sent to buddy. Just type normally in that window. Alternatively, from any window you may use a /MSG with an equals sign immediately before his nick, which distinguishes this DCC CHAT message from a regular /MSG buddy whatever: /MSG =buddy now we're talking! When you're done talking, either close the graphical window (if there is one available) or manually close the connection: /DCC CLOSE CHAT buddy *** DCC chat:<any> to buddy closed 

source: http://www.irchelp.org