Welcome to DareNET

Revision as of 21:19, 15 April 2010

Welcome to DareNET

What is DareNET?

DareNET is an inclusive, multi-purpose community centered around an IRC network. We aim to bring people together in a culture of etiquette and respect to have vibrant and fair discussions about the issues of our time in a way that celebrates intelligence, friendship, difference, sameness, the past, and the future. We currently maintain our own server and services software, which allows us to provide our users an experience not found on most other networks. To help you get started, we've provided a brief guide for new users below, so read on!

Before continuing on, we suggest reading over our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), which makes clear what is and is not acceptable behavior here on DareNET -- it's mostly common sense.

Connecting

You can connect to DareNET in one of two ways:

1. By using our webchat client, which allows you to connect to DareNET through your web browser,
2. or by downloading an IRC client. You can find a list of IRC clients for various operating systems here

Downloading and setting up an IRC client is often preferred by most users, though does require a bit of effort on your part. Should you decide to go this route, the server you should use to connect to DareNET is irc.darenet.org.

We also support SSL-enabled connections. For more information, please see our Using SSL guide.

I've connected...now what?

Once you've connected to DareNET, you will probably want to register an account. Why register you ask? Well, your DareNET account allows you to use all the great features we provide, such as our IRC services (e.g., NickServ, ChanServ, HostServ, MemoServ, etc.), build a profile on our site, post to the forums, creat albums and share them with friends, register your nickname (preventing others from using it), register chat rooms (channels), etc.

Now, on to the good stuff...

DareNET Account Registration

Registering is fast and easy, simply visit the account registration page, choose the username you'd like to use, enter your e-mail address and you're all set!

Your account username is an arbitrary name independent of your nickname. It is how NickServ, ChanServ and other services recognize you, and is used to login to our web site. Please keep in mind this is NOT nickname registration. Don't worry though, we'll cover that a little later in this guide.

The e-mail address that you use must be valid as your password will be e-mailed to it.

DareNET knows that you care about how your personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy very seriously. You can review our Privacy Policy here.

Authenticating/Identifying/Logging into NickServ

Great, you now have a DareNET account! In order to use it on our IRC network, you will need to authenticate (identify) to NickServ. There are several ways you can do this, we'll explain the most commonly used commands below:

/msg NickServ@services.darenet.org AUTH <account> <password>

Where <account> is your DareNET account username, and <password> is your account password. For example, let's say your account username was JoeCool and your password was aPpLe321. To authenticate, you would use: /msg NickServ@services.darenet.org AUTH JoeCool aPpLe321

Alternatively, you can use the short hand versions of the above command:

/NickServ AUTH <account> <password>   OR   /auth <account> <password>

NOTE: For those migrating from other IRC networks, /identify <account> <password> AND /NickServ IDENTIFY <account> <password> work as well.

If the command is used correctly, you will receive a notice from NickServ similar to the following:

-NickServ- Authentication as YOURACCOUNTNAME successful. You are now logged in!
-NickServ- Remember, DareNET's staff will NEVER ask you for your account
-NickServ- password. The only place to receive assistance with account
-NickServ- related matters on DareNET is in #Support
-NickServ- Last account login: 33s ago at this Host/IP (nick!user@1.2.3.4) [0 failed login attempts since last login].

In addition to the authentication methods shown above, our servers support a "login-on-connect" method, which will automatically log you into NickServ while you're connecting to the network. It will also exempt you from any DNSBL checks, and automatically set user mode +x (hiding your host/ip address). For more information on how to setup "login-on-connect" for your IRC client, go here.

NOTE: Webchat users can use the "login-on-connect" method simply by selecting the "Login to Services" checkbox on the connection details page, and entering their DareNET account username and password, as shown below:

Changing your Password

Since you registered through our web interface, you will most likely want to change your password. You can easily do this by using NickServ's PASS command on the IRC network:

/msg NickServ@services.darenet.org PASS <old password> <new password>

Registering your Nicknames

Here on DareNET, we allow users to register the nicknames they commonly use to their account. By registering your nicknames, you will be able to prevent others from using it -- securing your identify on the network. NOTE: You must be authenticated to your account and using the nickname you would like to register before using the command below:

/msg NickServ REGNICK

If it's successful, NickServ will send you a notice similar to the following:

-NickServ- Nick YOURNICK has been registered to you.

Registering an account does not always mean you automatically on the associated nickname too. To prevent others from taking your nicknames, claim them using the step shown above.

Hiding your IP address / Host - (Hostmasking)

One of the perks of being a registered users is that you can hide your IP address/host from other users. A little extra piece of mind! If this is a feature you would like to take advantage of, simply use the following command (make sure you have authenticated to NickServ):

/mode yournickhere +x

Alternatively, you can have NickServ automatically set you +x when you identify to your account. To do this, use the following command:

/msg NickServ SET AUTOHIDE on

Securing your Account/Nickname

We have a few, optional, suggestions to securing your account, which include:

Suggestion #1:

Enable the RECLAIM option for your account:

/msg NickServ SET RECLAIM on

NickServ's RECLAIM option protects your nicknames when you are not using them. Should another user try to use any nicknames registered to your account, NickServ will automatically change their nickname to something more suitable.

Suggestion #2:

Add your own hostmask to your account's allowed hosts list:

/msg NickServ ADDMASK <yourident@your.mask.here>

If you would like to add the host you're current using, simply omit the part after ADDMASK and just use: /msg NickServ ADDMASK

Once you have performed the above command, you may delete the default mask set for your account by using the following command:

/msg NickServ DELMASK *@*

The above steps protect your account by denying logins from clients who's host does not match one of the specified hostmasks for your account. Should you try to authenticate from a different hostmask that is not specified you will have to issue NickServ's AUTHCOOKIE command to have a cookie sent to your email. Once you receive that cookie, you can then authenticate to your nickname and add the mask if you wish.

Channel Registration

As a registered user, you have the opportunity to register channels (chat rooms) with ChanServ, our channel services bot, which provides both useful and powerful features to aid channel owner's in maintaining and protecting their channel. For more information, please review our channel registration guidelines.

Other General Information

Some other general information that you should know:

Support Channel

Should you ever find that you need assistance with something that is related to DareNET, you can always step into our official support channel, #support, where our trained support staff will be pleased to help you.

Nickname vs *Account

Most of the commands provided by NickServ, ChanServ, or any other service on DareNET, allow for an account or online users to be referenced. When referencing an account, you should use *account (note the asterisk prefixed to the account name). For example:

<SomeUser> /msg NickServ INFO *NiTeMaRe
-NickServ- Account Information for NiTeMaRe
-NickServ- ----------------------------------------
-NickServ- Registered on: Tue Mar 18 07:44:30 2008
-NickServ- Last seen: Right now!
-NickServ- Infoline: NiTeMaRe is cool!
-NickServ- ----------End of Account Info-----------

This signals to services to use the account name directly, useful for when a user is offline and you want to add/remove them from your channel's userlist, send them a memo or even do a NickServ INFO on their account. If you do not prefix the account name with an asterisk (*), services will treat it as a nickname that is currently being used on the network, which may not produce the outcome you expect!

Invite your friends!

If your friends are already here, send them a friend request. If they're not, you can easily invite them to join. Simply visit the Invite friends page (note, you must be logged in). Once their, import your contact list and select the people you'd like to invite!

Supported networks and email providers include (over 50 in total!):

DareNET uses the emails you enter on the invite friends form only to invite your friends and acquaintances to join DareNET on your behalf. DareNET will never spam, rent, or sell any email addresses you enter for invitations. You may not use this email form for any purpose except inviting people you know to join DareNET. We do not store your login information.