Welcome to DareNET

DareNET is an inclusive, multi-purpose community centered around an IRC network. 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 we begin, you should take some time to become familiar with our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), which makes clear what is and is not acceptable behavior here on DareNET - it's mostly common sense.

Connecting

There are currently two different methods available to you:

1. You can use WebChat to connect to DareNET through your web browser, or
2. You can download an IRC client, you can find a list here.

Downloading and setting up a client is often preferred, though does require a bit of effort on your part.

The server you should use to connect to DareNET is irc.darenet.org.

Once connected...

Once you've connected to our network, you'll probably want to register a NickServ account. What does NickServ do you ask? Well, it keeps track of what nicknames are registered to you, what channels you have access in, vhosts, allows you to use the forums and build a profile on the site, etc. It's an essential part of DareNET and allows you to use all services we provide to our users.

Now, on to the good stuff...

NickServ Account Registration

Your account name 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. We'll cover that a little later in this guide.

To register an account, visit the Account Registration page

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

Authenticating / Logging into NickServ

Great, you've registered an account! In order to use it on the network, you'll need to authenticate to NickServ. This can be done by using one of the following commands:

/nickserv AUTH accountname password

or

/auth accountname password

NOTE: For those migrating from other IRC networks, '/identify accountname pass works as well.

If the command is used correctly, NickServ will notice you with the following message:

-NickServ- Authentication as YourAccountNameHere 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

Alternatively, our servers support a "Login-on-connect" method, which will automatically login you in to NickServ while you're connecting to our servers. It will also exempt you from any DNSBL checks. For more information on how to setup "Login-on-connect" for your IRC client, please go here.

Registering your Nicknames

You'll no doubt want to secure your identity. Here on DareNET, we allow users to register nicknames they commonly use to their account. By registering your nicknames you'll be able to prevent others from using it. NOTE: you MUST be using the nickname you want to register and logged into your account when using the below command:

/nickserv regnick

If it's successful, NickServ will notice you a message like the following:

-NickServ- Nick NickHere has been registered to you.

Hiding your IP address / Host

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

/nickserv SET AUTOHIDE on

Securing your Account/NickName

DareNET staff suggests a few optional and smart steps to securing your nickname.

The first step would be to enable reclaim by typing the following:

/nickserv SET RECLAIM on

When you have reclaim set your nick is protected from other users when you are offline, if a user tries to use any one of your nicknames without authenticating to your account then it will change there nickname after 1 minute automatically.

The second step would be to add your own host with the following command:

/nickserv ADDMASK yourident@your.mask.here

and then deleting the default mask with the following command:

/nickserv DELMASK *@*

This command will protect your account from being authenticated to without you being on any one of the specified hostmasks on your account. If you try to authenticate from a different hostmask that is not specified you will have to issue the "authcookie" command to get a cookie in your email. Once you receive that cookie you can then authenticate to your nickname and add the mask if you wish.

Other General Information

Some other general information that you should know:

Nick vs *Account

When referencing to an account in ChanServ, NickServ, or any other service on DareNET for that matter, you should use *account, as shown in the example below:

This is useful when a user is offline and you want to remove them from your channel's userlist, send them a memo, or even do a NickServ info on there account! If you do not put a * before there account then services will treat it as a nickname that is currently being used on DareNET.