FlightGear IRC channel
The FlightGear IRC Network is an online system that will allow you to talk to a lot of people around the world and is related to everything about FlightGear. It's mostly used by developers, but it is also a good place to ask for help if you are having a question.
Connecting to the network
It consists of localised servers that are all linked up to form a seamless chat network so if you are based in England you would connect to a nearby server in England and you would see exactly the same people as someone connecting to a server in the USA.
To connect to the IRCnet network you first need a suitable client. You can also use XChat (Linux and Windows), X-Chat Aqua (X Chat Mac), Pidgin, Colloquy (for Mac/iOS), mIRC, Konversation or any other client.
When you first login to the network you must pick yourself a unique nickname for the current chat session. Nicknames can be up to 31 characters in length and contain numbers and some punctuation characters. Some examples of nicknames you can use are:
- Fred
- BIG_fred
- ^Fred^
- Fred-
- ^Fred
- fred007
It doesn't matter about capital or lower case letters in the nickname since they are treated the same when people want to contact you and there are some weird and obscure rules about nicknames such as them not being able to begin with a "-" character. Most of these rules have no rhyme nor reason to them but we didn't write the software, we just have to try and tell people how to use it. Have an experiment and see what suits you best.
Once you found your personal unique nickname you may want to register it with NickServ (see below).
Official hosts
| Host | Location |
|---|---|
| de.irc.flightgear.org | Germany |
| irc.flightgear.org | currently an alias for de.irc.flightgear.org |
The port to connect to is 6667 (or 6659 for SSL) for each server.
These servers are interconnected to form the FlightGear IRC network. Please choose the host closest to you geographically.
The FlightGear IRC network has several channels, some of which are listed below. To obtain a real list, use the IRC command "/list".
| Channel | Use |
|---|---|
| #flightgear | Main channel (English). Due to spamming it is required to have voice, register your nick and contact (query) lru for autovoice. |
| #flightgear-blender | Blender |
| #flightgearFR | FlightGear Channel for French Speaking |
| #flightgearIT | FlightGear Channel for Italian Speaking |
| #flightgearNL | FlightGear Channel for Dutch Speaking |
| #flightgearPL | FlightGear Channel for Polish Speaking |
| #fg_school | Flight School |
| #fgms | fgms related stuff |
| #airliners | IFR Navigation Squawk |
| #fg_cantene | Off topic community |
| #fg-ru | Russian Flightgear Community |
| #wiki | Wiki |
| #flightgear-forum | Forum |
| #help | general help on IRC |
| #staffers | Server Admins |
| #flyingclub | FlightGear Flying Club |
Network Services
NickServ
NickServ allows you to "register" a nickname and prevent others from using it. The following commands allow for registration and maintenance of nicknames; to use them, type
/msg NickServ COMMAND
For more information on a specific command, type
/msg NickServ HELP COMMAND
Some of the common commands are:
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| REGISTER | Registers a nickname. |
| GROUP | Adds a nickname to your account. |
| IDENTIFY | Identifies to services for a nickname. |
| GHOST | Reclaims use of a nickname. |
This service is intended to provide a way for IRC users to ensure their identity is not compromised. It is not intended to facilitate "stealing" of nicknames or other malicious actions. Abuse of NickServ will result in, at minimum, loss of the abused nickname(s).
ChanServ
ChanServ allows you to register and control various aspects of channels. ChanServ can often prevent malicious users from "taking over" channels by limiting who is allowed channel operator privileges. Some available commands are listed below; to use them, type
/msg ChanServ COMMAND
For more information on a specific command, type:
/msg ChanServ HELP COMMAND
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| REGISTER | Registers a channel. |
| RECOVER | Regain control of your channel. |
| FLAGS | Manipulates specific permissions on a channel. |
MemoServ
MemoServ is a utility allowing IRC users to send short messages to other IRC users, whether they are online at the time or not. Both the sender's nickname and the target nickname must be registered in order to send a memo.
MemoServ's commands include:
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| READ | Reads a memo. |
| SEND | Sends a memo to a user. |
| SENDGROUP | Sends a memo to all members on a group. |
| SENDOPS | Sends a memo to all ops on a channel. |
| DELETE | Deletes memos. |
For help on any of the above commands, type:
/msg MemoServ HELP COMMAND
To see a list of all available MemoServ commands, type:
/msg MemoServ HELP
HostServ
HostServ allows users to request a virtual hostname. Normally we only allow IPs to be shown on a users connection (so no dns lookups are made upon a new connection). To hide your host to other users you are free to select a vhost from a predefined list (or a uniquely requested one) via hostserv. In that case your selected hostname will be shown to others instead of your real IP.
To see the list of all available commands, type:
/msg HostServ HELP
Some commands of interest are:
| IRC Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| OFFERLIST | Lists all available vhosts. |
| TAKE | Take an offered vhost for use. |
| REQUEST | Requests new virtual hostname for current nick. |
For further help type /msg SERVICE help (replace SERVICE with the name of the service)
Other hosts
| Network | Channel | Description |
|---|---|---|
| irc.freenode.net | #flightgear | Only for emergencies. |
How to get in there with ChatZilla
When using ChatZilla, go to your Mozilla/Firefox browser and enter irc://mpserver12.flightgear.org. When ChatZilla has connected to the host, click "IRC" and "Join channel...". Pick the preferred channel.
To get directly to the main channel with ChatZilla, you can also enter irc://mpserver12.flightgear.org/flightgear in your browser.