[irc/freenode/web-7.0.git] / content / kb / connect / chat.md

Title: Connect
Slug: chat
---
To access the <span class="freenode">freenode</span> IRC servers, you'll first
need an IRC client.  Text clients include irssi, WeeChat, and ERC.  Graphical
clients include XChat, Smuxi, and Quassel for Unix and GNU/Linux, and mIRC for
Windows. There is also the [freenode webchat](//webchat.freenode.net).
Packages for various IRC clients may be included on your operating system
install CDs and links to web sites for the client software can be found
[here](http://www.irc.org/links.html).

Once you have a client, you'll need a server.  You can simply use
`chat.freenode.net` to reach our main rotation of servers; or, you can find a
more geographically-local server [here](#).

After you've obtained your client and the name of a server, you may still need
a bit of help in getting connected.  Take a look at this
[tutorial](http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/irctutorial.html) or this [IRC
primer](http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/ircprimer.html) on
[irchelp.org](http://www.irchelp.org/) which contains a variety of other useful
information as well.
Commit	Line	Data
c7279396	1	Title: Connect
	2	Slug: chat
	3	---
6db5d50e EK	4	To access the <span class="freenode">freenode</span> IRC servers, you'll first
	5	need an IRC client. Text clients include irssi, WeeChat, and ERC. Graphical
	6	clients include XChat, Smuxi, and Quassel for Unix and GNU/Linux, and mIRC for
	7	Windows. There is also the [freenode webchat](//webchat.freenode.net).
	8	Packages for various IRC clients may be included on your operating system
	9	install CDs and links to web sites for the client software can be found
	10	[here](http://www.irc.org/links.html).
	11
	12	Once you have a client, you'll need a server. You can simply use
	13	`chat.freenode.net` to reach our main rotation of servers; or, you can find a
	14	more geographically-local server [here](#).
	15
	16	After you've obtained your client and the name of a server, you may still need
	17	a bit of help in getting connected. Take a look at this
	18	[tutorial](http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/irctutorial.html) or this [IRC
	19	primer](http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/ircprimer.html) on
	20	[irchelp.org](http://www.irchelp.org/) which contains a variety of other useful
	21	information as well.
c7279396	22