Introduction: Hacks #86-94

Way back in Chapter 1, you were shown how to connect to IRC using a variety of clients. This chapter aims to show you a multitude of alternative ways to connect to IRC, or at least make the process a bit easier.

To make it easier for other people to connect to your IRC network and join your IRC channel, you can place convenient links on your web pages. If a user has an IRC client installed, he can just click on such a link to be transported into your channel. If he doesn't have an IRC client installed, that's not a problem—Java Applets embedded in a web page, or even a pure HTTP client, can also be used to connect to IRC.

You don't have to be near a computer to use IRC. This chapter also contains hacks relevant to those who wish to access IRC from their mobile phones or Pocket PC devices.

For those of you who are concerned about missing out on the action while you're away, you can also explore the possibility of setting up an IRC proxy, which will let you access IRC from anywhere in the world without missing any messages that were sent while you were disconnected.