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[Free] IRC Bouncer (24/7 Persistent Relay Connection)

Synergetrick

By Synergetrick
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Synergetrick Member

Synergetrick

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Hi there,
 
You might remember me from threads such as "Fixing the 'oh you broke into my base to kill me? Modreq for grief!' problem", and you'll probably see me in my hilarious upcoming AMA entitled "[redacted]".
 
In all seriousness, I'm here to promote IRC usage. In fact, I'm here to offer you guys free things (related to IRC) - bouncer services. Use IRC or want to get started (particularly you mods - you should all be on IRC)? Read on.
 
tl;dr: I'm offering IRC bouncer services shortly. Have a forum account, an IRC account, and host cloaking enabled, then PM me on the forums.
 
Ask me questions IN THIS THREAD.
Request a bouncer VIA PM.

UNAVAILABLE UNTIL I GET THE DDOS-PROTECTED SERVER (SOON™). YOUR CALL IS VERY IMPORTANT TO US, PLEASE HOLD AND AN OPERATOR WILL BE WITH YOU SHORTLY.

Obligatory: What is IRC (tl;dr)?
Anything I say here will essentially be indirectly quoting Wikipedia or going far too in to depth, so I'll just quote it directly:
 

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a protocol for live interactive Internet text messaging (chat) or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file sharing.
 
IRC was created in 1988. Client software is available for every major operating system that supports Internet access. As of April 2011, the top 100 IRC networks served more than half a million users at a time, with hundreds of thousands of channels operating on a total of roughly 1,500 servers out of roughly 3,200 servers worldwide.


It might be old, but it's anything but dying. Anyone can start up an IRC network, but maintaining it may be a bit of a challenge. NerdNu is currently on GameSurge (but I'm trying to convince jcll to move us to a better network - they don't even support SSL for crying out loud), which is located at irc.gamesurge.net.

So, what's a bouncer (tl;dr)?
When you connect to IRC via server: You connect to a leaf server of a large cluster of servers. When you disconnect, your presence vanishes.

When you connect to IRC via bouncer: You connect to this bouncer server, which is connected to the leaf. When you disconnect, your presence is maintained by the bouncer. When you reconnect, your last x messages are relayed to you; called "scrollback".
 
Being me, I'll probably be looking at coding my own variant of it at some point in the near future to offer extended features. Until then, we're using ZNC.

"Server"? Servers cost money!
They do, but I work at an incredible hosting company (a few people here can vouch for its greatness). As part of my employment, my services are free. These same servers host part of NetChat - my own IRC network, alongside my personal and own company's website.

So what about DDoS?
DDoS won't be a problem. Shortly we're launching DDoS-protected IPs in Seattle, which is where I'll base this server when they go live. You won't have a problem with external abuse.

What about "internal abuse"?
That's a good point - I own the server (and have direct access to the network it's sitting on). So other than common-sense reasons such as "I have a correctly calibrated moral compass", why should you trust me?
 - I run my own IRC network, which has withstood hacking attempts, nonstop DDoS, and user impersonation. I know what it's like on all fronts for victims of any of this.
 - I don't care to read your private channels. Right now I consistently have forty-five IRC tabs open and not one of those is "general stuff". I don't want any more information.
 - I understand the value of private information. I don't want to know about the super-secret launch date of the next revision unless you're willing to tell me directly.
 - I can't see your password even if I cared to. It's encrypted using what appears to be Blowfish.

 

Any terms and/or conditions?

 - This is a privately offered service. I reserve the right to deny, suspend or terminate anyone's access to the bouncer service at any time, for any reason. Realistically, I probably won't unless you do something impressively stupid (such as getting permabanned from the servers or impersonating someone to defame them). I will not be one bit sorry.

 - This service is strictly for players, staff or otherwise, of NerdNu.

 - Any attempt to access another user's account on the bouncer will be met with a lovely termination of your access and an entry into iptables against your IP. Logs of the incident will also be forwarded to the head admins so they can take action as they see fit. Just to clarify, my account isn't on this server anyway.

 - Don't share your bouncer account. This is more for your own protection than mine, but it's a condition of usage anyway.

 

This sounds like effort, why should I use this?
 - More people need to use IRC. It's a great communication medium and you have 24/7 access to harrass talk to the tex mix. This is an especially prominent point if you are a staff member.
 - GameSurge is bad enough with connections without factoring in user dis/connection. Why not have a semi-permanent presence that only drops when (not if) your node netsplits?
 - You have a constant presence on IRC. That means PMs reach you at any time of the day, you'll receive them when you log on.
 - Even if my server disconnects from IRC for any reason, you'll still get your scrollback when you connect. It's one great feature of the software I use.

 - This works from any IRC client. Many times I've started a conversation on my desktop, then continued it on my phone thanks to scrollback. It acts just like an IRC server, you don't need any special client.
 
So how will I get this?

UNAVAILABLE UNTIL I GET THE DDOS-PROTECTED SERVER (SOON™). YOUR CALL IS VERY IMPORTANT TO US, PLEASE HOLD AND AN OPERATOR WILL BE WITH YOU SHORTLY.
 
IRC Prerequisites: An IRC client (HexChat, KVIrc, Irssi, Colloquy, Pidgin, it doesn't matter), an IRC name registered ("/msg authserv help register"), and IRC host masking enabled (I believe you have to do this on the GameSurge website).

Firstly, you need an account on the forums, and you need to PM me your in-game name name here. There's no other way to obtain an account for this and there never will be. I'm not putting up anyone outside of NerdNu.

Secondly, you need to have a pre-existing IRC account, and have host cloaking enabled. While my server can withstand DDoS attacks, prevention is better than a cure. and host cloaking helps.

Thirdly, I'll reply with the server address, a username and password. You can change that password when you connect to it by PMing a bot on the bouncer called "*controlpanel", which I'll detail in the private message.

Finally, log into the server, change your password, and go wild. Your channels will be saved, you can message "*nickserv" to save your nickserv password and make it auto-authenticate when the server connects just in case the bouncer is dropped from the network.
 
Use this thread to discuss it, I'll answer any questions in here. Do not PM me with questions please, there are other capable people who can answer your questions. Anything particularly good will be added to this OP.
 
On an unrelated point, I really don't like BBCode. Markdown, anyone?

Edited by ElliotSpeck
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Synergetrick Member

Synergetrick

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I think I missed the part where the current IRC system is broken?

Either you don't understand what a bouncer's for, or you're referring to my general dislike for GameSurge. Assuming it's the latter, I'll throw in a few reasons why I (and many others) dislike it:

 

A) AuthServ (in general). Primarily, it's account based and not nickname based. This is really quite silly. If someone nicks your name, you can't get it back. There's no killswitch:

[01:18] <Speck> Test nickname, please ignore.

[01:18] *** You are now known as Draykhar.
[01:19] *** You are now known as Speck.
[01:19] <Speck> Test initiative complete.

I can hold this until he asks me nicely and I agree. Otherwise? Too bad yo.

 

B) The netsplits.

 

C) The downright strange method of hostmasking (in particular, the lack thereof given the community that GameSurge hosts), but that's a bit of a tangential topic.

 

D) They don't give out group associations anymore, which are still a big thing for communities. I'm pretty sure the majority of GameSurge staff are simply permanently AFK.

 

E) They don't even support SSL. SSL setup (including certification) has been a step in the compilation wizard for UnrealIRCd for a while now. Even before it wasn't difficult at all.

Edited by ElliotSpeck
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Denevien Member

Denevien

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Sure can! This is one feature I adore about my bouncer for my other networks; I can start a conversation on my desktop, then have to go somewhere, connect to it from my phone and see a scrollback of the continued conversation.

Do I need a different app or program? Or does this use my existing clients?

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coolgamerovr90 Member

coolgamerovr90

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I know this may sound like a really strange question, as I am not very familiar with ZNC at all, so I could use any IRC client I like with it and it would work ok? Like I could switch between HexChat and AndroIRC without any problems? I'm also assuming no WebChat based IRC client would work with it except mibbit or ChatZilla, if you want to call that web based, more like Browser/Server based. I know that GameSurge's webchat IRC client probably wouldn't work at all, since you can't specify what server you would like it to connect to.

Edit: This question is pointless, ANY IRC client would work apparently, GUI clients like IceChat and HexChat, console based clients like IRSSI and WeeChat and even web based clients like mibbit to browser based clients like ChatZilla, and then there are mobile phone clients like androIRC and andIRC, They all will work with no problem at all

Edited by coolgamerovr90
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CROCKODUCK Member

CROCKODUCK

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I am sorry, and I hate to be a bother here but, just a few questions.  1: Who are you? I have seen you on S once or twice, you're not on nerd.nu/staff unless you're an alt, or the rumor that you're an mod who was banned who is returning (kind of an odd rumor.)  2: You're asking for alot of people to put ALOT of trust into you by asking for everyone to basically switch to your personal system of IRC.  Personally I am not comfortable with that.  

 

Edit: Just personal opinions, no need to downvote, please convince me otherwise.

Edited by CROCKODUCK
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Synergetrick Member

Synergetrick

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I am sorry, and I hate to be a bother here but, just a few questions.  1: Who are you? I have seen you on S once or twice, you're not on nerd.nu/staff unless you're an alt, or the rumor that you're an mod who was banned who is returning (kind of an odd rumor.)  2: You're asking for alot of people to put ALOT of trust into you by asking for everyone to basically switch to your personal system of IRC.  Personally I am not comfortable with that.  

 

Edit: Just personal opinions, no need to downvote, please convince me otherwise.

 

The downvoting wasn't me, I've just been working out how to respond to this, so here's your answers:

 

1. I've been around essentially forever under one account name or another. Any account I had on the servers was realistically just an alt of this one, which was my first. I've never previously been a staff member for NerdNu, however I have supported in a technical capacity for quite some time (e.g., I'm responsible for dispensers working with water/lava buckets, working on anti-grief / new killstreak plugins for S).

 

2. That's up to you. You're not paying me anything, so I'm hardly going to go out of my way to convince you to use this, it's merely a free service offered to those that require it. If you don't want to use it, that's fine. I will refer you to the fifth heading in the OP, however.

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Guest Former Staff

Guest Former Staff

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I wanted to pop into this topic to say thank you for offering this service to people it is clear that you have put a lot of time into having this set up and questions mostly answered before offering. I love the innovative solutions you're bringing forward for people to take advantage of, which is what I hope people do, take advantage of what you're offering.

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Synergetrick Member

Synergetrick

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I wanted to pop into this topic to say thank you for offering this service to people it is clear that you have put a lot of time into having this set up and questions mostly answered before offering. I love the innovative solutions you're bringing forward for people to take advantage of, which is what I hope people do, take advantage of what you're offering.

 

Thanks Barlimore!

Just waiting on the DDoS-mitigation protected IP still. It should be at some time this week. The server itself is ready to go.

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redwall_hp Member

redwall_hp

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I, for one, would enjoy this service. I've been trying (with little success) to set up a ZNC box and connect it to GameSurge. If you've managed to get it working, that's awesome.

 

Do you support push notifications to Colloquy Mobile? There's a nifty ZNC plugin for that. It sends a push whenever a highlight or username mention occurs.

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Synergetrick Member

Synergetrick

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I, for one, would enjoy this service. I've been trying (with little success) to set up a ZNC box and connect it to GameSurge. If you've managed to get it working, that's awesome.

 

Do you support push notifications to Colloquy Mobile? There's a nifty ZNC plugin for that. It sends a push whenever a highlight or username mention occurs.

I don't have the module loaded because I use AndChat which sort of supports it in itself, but I can load it for those who require it.

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