Good Evening and Welcome everyone :-) I think we'll wait until 9:05 mins for the tardy to get here. I am a member of the Starlink-irc staff and I try to hold classes for our users information from time to time as the need arises. The lesson will be conducted with the channel moderated; there are several good reasons for this. It cuts down on the clutter in the window and lets those who want to learn, do so with fewer distractions. Also, it will allow me to cover the material with a more efficient use of all our time. Please try to refrain from nick changes while the class is in progress. The lesson will be transcribed and made available on request after the class is finished, for those who desire a copy. If you at any time have a question, comment or suggestion, type /msg Wullie I have a question Your questions will be answered as quickly as possible. And of course the staff are invited to jump in if they feel a need to comment. I suggest that you type /log on now to keep a copy of this session. The goal of this class is to inform you in some detail about the use of a powerful tool in IRC, for your self-protection and peace of mind. The level of material to be covered is mainly for newer users, although experienced users may find it to be a useful review. Occasionally, you may be harassed or very annoyed by a user that you have no desire to chat with. You have a way to stop and prevent such unwanted pestering, with the powerful and versatile irc command "/ignore". The /ignore command allows you to stop getting some, most, or all messages from any undesirable user. This can include private messages, DCC, ctcp, invites, notices, and channel messages, depending on how you configure the /ignore command syntax. The settings are all optional and you can choose exactly what level of "ignore" you need. The first and most basic syntax is very easy; just type /ignore nickname This will stop all traffic from that nickname to your client by default. However the wiseguy user can get around that by merely changing his nickname. For example you set "/ignore wiseguy" ... "wiseguy" can just change his nickname to "smartguy" and begin to bug you again! So now you /ignore smartguy and he changes his nickname again and again. This is not much help or protection, so far! You can see how easy it is on irc for him to use a nick change to, smartguy.... and get around your previous /ignore wiseguy . We need a way to make it tougher for wiseguy. To do that we need to know more about his Internet Service Provider or ISP, so lets do a /whois nickname. The whois may look something this: wiseguy! badman@modem3.some.net.com That is a IP alphanumeric address of the form "nickname!userid@port.host" OR the /whois might look like wiseguy!badman@123.456.789.3 That is a IP numeric address of the form "nickname!userid@host.port You can see that for alpha, the port is right after the @ sign, and for numeric, it moved to the very end. Now that we have seen his complete address we can set a tougher /ignore on him using wildcards to replace the easily changeable parts of his ISP address. So we will change wiseguy to *!* to cover any nickname change and @modem3. to @*. We now can type /ignore *!*badman@*.some.net.com ( or for a numeric IP /ignore *!*badman@123.456.789.* ) The first wildcards *!* will continue to ignore any "nickname!badman" and also the * right after the @ will cover any "port".some.net.com This means that even if he reconnects to his ISP on a different port, the /ignore still covers it. So now you have effectively ignored "anynick!badman@any.port.some.net.com, as long as he continues to be badman@some.net.com, he is on your ignore list for as long as you wish it to remain! The syntax "*!*userid@mode.host" is usually enough to stop the vast majority of annoying users. This is a type "3" user@host.mask in mIRC, and can be simplified by typing "/ignore Nickname 3 " mIRC will figure out the wiseguy!badman@modem3.some.net.com for you and add it to your ignore list. NOTE: You can use /msg CStar whois Nick, to see the very same user@hostmask Once in a while a determined wiseguy may have more than one account (username) on his ISP or have access to another ISP Company, and will delight in reappearing after you thought you were done with him. If that happens, don't worry or get upset.... just set a new /ignore "*!*username@mode.provider" Eventually he will run out of accounts and/or ISPs. It is probably best not to even talk with them after the first time that you were bothered. They want to have the power they feel by harassing you, don't get upset or rattled, just set a new /ignore and continue to have fun in peace. If you refuse to acknowledge their existence, they will usually go look for new victims. There is another type of abuser that may try to attack or annoy you by using clones. They usually seem to come back immediately, time after time, even after you try to set the /ignore. Again, you have a quick solution for this type of jerk! In mIRC use /ignore nickname 4 ... this syntax will cover all nicknames & userids @ all port from. somenet.com in the form *!*@*. some.net.com Unfortunately, it also ignores all users from .some.net.com, including possibly some of your own IRC pals, who may be using the same ISP Company! So it is probably an ignore that you will wish to remove as soon as possible. To remove an ignored user easily look in the File/Options/IRC/Control/ menu in mIRC, you will find the Ignore address list. It is good to remove users from your list after a time, most wont come back and its easy to re-ignore them if need be. There is a handy switch to make your ignores timed in mIRC. They will automatically expire after a time interval that you can also set from the command line, the timer will run for the number of seconds that you specify with the -u# switch. This is set like this.... /ignore -u900 nickname 3 That will set a type "3" ignore that will be automatically removed in 15 minutes. (900 seconds) Now that I have showed you the -u# switch, its time to see the configurable switches in mIRC. The optional switches do the following things. -r Removes the ignore you specify -p Ignores Private messages -c Ignores Channel messages -n Ignores Notices -t Ignores CTCPs -i Ignores Invites -k Ignores Control codes (bold, colours etc.) -x Specifies this user/address should be excluded from ignores -u# switch specifies a delay in seconds after which the ignore is automatically removed. What can we do with these? If you enter /ignore -pntiu900 WiseGuy 3, everything EXCEPT channel text (-pnti) from the person with the nick Wiseguy. Any attempt by WiseGuy to send you notices, private messages or a ctcp message will be completely ignored by mIRC, and it will not display to you at all. WiseGuy will have no clue that he is being ignored unless you tell him so. This ignore will automatically remove itself after 15 minutes (-u900). And since you used a type 3 hostmask to identify him so that simply changing nick won't help him. It uses his ident and domain to identify him. Note: if you have a /query window open with someone, private messages from them won't be ignored even if their address matches an ignore address. WiseGuy can still chat in any channels that you are in with him, this is very handy for channel ops, in case you need to kick or ban him for bad behavior "on channel". You can use the various switches as desired.... Example: /ignore -t WiseGuy 3 This one just ignores ctcps from that person and so blocks out things like sounds and dcc sends without blocking their chat messages. That may be useful when someone is annoying you with non-stop sounds. Likewise... /ignore -k WiseGuy 3 will block all color codes that might be sending you up the wall! I know that this has been very mIRC intensive up to this point, but I now use mIRC almost exclusively now, as do a large majority of irc'ers. For the other irc clients the /ignore command still works......... I think that for ircII: /ignore user@host ALL = the same thing as /ignore nickname 3 For PIRCH98: Go to "Options/Ignore", check the "Enable Ignore" box & click "OK" Then you can add people to the ignore list from the command prompt by typing /ignore nickname or address. Ircle & Homer: have similar controls to use the /ignore command Be sure to read the help file with whatever irc client you are using for the details. I have been told that WebTV users also have an /ignore tool in their IRC scripts. In summary: /ignore is a powerful and effective tool -- when you ignore someone, depending on the options that you set, you won't see what they say on channels you're in, you wont get any messages or notices from them, you won't see dcc send or chat requests, and you don't see CTCP's (pings, versions, etc.) from them either. This is your tool for dealing with people who harass you or annoy you excessively, and much better than having to ask someone else to do something about it for you. Now... having just said all that about the use of /ignore, I need to make you aware of its limitations. When you use /ignore your IRC client still receives the information, you've only told your IRC client that you don't want to see it, this means that your IRC client still has to deal with anything that the ignored user is trying to send to you. Using /ignore will filter out everything coming from certain nicks or addresses. What it doesn't do though is stop the noise from coming through your connection. So the badguy can still attempt to flood your IRC client, possibly slowing your system down or even causing you to be disconnected from the server. If you suspect that someone is trying to flood your client, try disconnecting from your own ISP and then reconnect. Hopefully that will cause them to lose your address and stop the flooding. In extreme cases you can come to #Terranova or #Channels and ask one of the staff for advise. That leads me to a short addition for this lesson. Part 2. Logging & Buffer Saves Many times folks will appear in #Terranova or #Channels asking for help and a staff member might ask for a log (or copy) of the events that relate to the request for help. If you don't have anything to show us there is usually very little that we can do to help you. A lot of users do not know that they have a couple of easy options for saving recent events to a file. The simplest command to begin logging (saving) is to type /log on in the window that you wish to save the text in. But what if you are not already logging when something happens that you want to save? Then we can use the very convenient buffer save option to capture recent events. I will now play a short graphic illustration of where to find this option. < picture played here > Just open the menu and click on buffer/save as, then name the file and a location to be able to recall it later. I prefer to save these files with the *.txt extension, this makes them very easy to open with MS Notepad or WordPad. You can also save the buffer in query and DCC Chat windows in the same way. If you wish more details, use mIRC Help, keywords logging or /savebuf. I am almost finished with the lesson but I have a few tips for you first. mIRC had a bug in it that made it possible for someone to flood your modem or printer port. I don't know if the bug is fixed but, to prevent it for sure, type the following at the command line: < remember to use the ctrl+enter to paste this > /ignore -p com1*!*@* /ignore -p com2*!*@* /ignore -p com3*!*@* /ignore -p com4*!*@* /ignore -p prn!*@* /ignore -p lpt!*@* To avoid accidentally ignoring CStar type /ignore -x CStar 3 This concludes the lesson for tonight. I want to thank you all for your attention :) I will remain in the channel to answer any questions that you may have.