How to Download Our Releases From IRC

If you already familiar with IRC, you can skip to step five.

1. In order to get on IRC, you need a client that can understand the IRC protocol. A simple IRC client for beginners is HydraIRC. The most popular IRC client is mIRC, but it can be challenging if you have never used IRC before. If you use Firefox, and would prefer not to install another program, you can get the Chatzilla extension.

2. Once you have the program installed, open it up.

HydraIRC
In HydraIRC, it will ask you if you want to set up an identity, click yes. The identity description is just a title for this grouping of information, you are not required to put your real name in the real name box, username can be anything, and nick is the name that will appear to other users. It is a good idea to add more than one nickname to the identity in case one of them is taken. The last two boxes aren't really necessary for our purposes, so you can just leave them blank. Click ok. To connect to a server, click on the far left button on the top (the power plug). Type "IRC://irc.irchighway.net:6664" in the URI box, and select the identity you just entered. Then click ok.

mIRC
mIRC will also prompt you for information when you first open it. In the IRC servers pulldown menu, select, IRCHighway. The full name box doesn't have to be your actual name, and the email address can be bogus. Then type a nickname, and a different nickname into the nickname and alternate box respectively, then click ok. To connect to the server, click on the far left icon which looks like a lightning bolt.

ChatZilla
After you restart Firefox, go into Tools > ChatZilla to start up ChatZilla. The first thing you need to do is set your nickname, which is done by typing "/nick <nickname>" (Including the forward slash). To get to the server our channel is on, type /server irc.irchighway.net"

3. Before you enter our channel, make sure you aren't using someone else's nickname. You will see a message similar to this somewhere in your status window if you are:

-NickServ- This nickname is registered and protected. If it is your
-NickServ- nick, type /msg NickServ IDENTIFY password. Otherwise,
-NickServ- please choose a different nick.
-NickServ- If you do not change within one minute, I will change your nick.

If you see this message, you must change your nickname, by typing /nick <new nickname>. If you don't see the message, but want to be cautious, you can wait one minute before joining the channel and see if your nickname is changed. While you are in the channel, if your nickname is changed to Guest, you will be kicked from the channel and unable to rejoin until you change your nickname.

4. Type /join #ossu to get into our channel. If you try to join our channel with a Guest nickname, it will tell you that you are banned. If it tells you that you are banned, and your nickname is not Guest (and we have not banned you for posting direct download links) leave a message on the forum with your IRC nickname and we will look into it.

5. Alrighty, now onto the good stuff. The first thing to do when you enter the channel is READ THE TOPIC. Even if you have joined before, don't assume that the triggers are the same as last time. Using triggers that aren't in the topic creates useless spam and will most likely earn you a kick from the channel. If you don't know what a trigger is, keep reading to find out.

6. In order to download our releases, you need to type a trigger, which is basically something you type to trigger an event. Depending on the bot, the trigger will either automatically start sending you the release, or will send you a message telling you how to download the release. For most of our releases, you will type "!Mx0" to get the information on how to download. You will receive a notice that says something like "Mx0 Chapter 100: /msg <bot name> xdcc send <pack>" The bot name is the nickname of the bot that will send you the chapter, and the pack number is like its inventory number on the bot. The pack number rarely corresponds to the chapter you are trying to download.

7. Once you get the notice, type only the part of the message that is after the colon exactly as it is displayed (including the forward slash). The bot will acknowledge your request by either immediately sending you the chapter, or telling you all of its send slots are full, are you are now in the queue. If you are in the queue, there is nothing you are do but wait. Messaging the bot more times will not speed up your send so don't bother. You might as well chat or do something productive while you're waiting. Leaving the channel while you are in queue will remove you from the queue. If for some reason your download is interrupted, an advantage of IRC over direct downloads is that you can usually resume the download from where you left off.

8. Once the chapter is done downloading, you're almost done! The chapter will usually be located in the same directory as your IRC client, or in a subdirectory probably called "download," unless you specified a different directory.
NOTE: There will probably be many people asking for a direct download link in the channel. Please be aware that we do not allow direct download links within one week of a release. Failure to follow this policy will result in a ban.

9. Unzip and enjoy. Stay and chat in the channel for a bit while you're at it. (Good things happen when we break the channel peak Grin

)

If you have any problems getting things to work, feel free to post below and we'll attempt to help you out.