mirc faq - section 6

This is section 6 of the mIRC FAQ with features, tips and answers to questions about mIRC.
The first parts (Sections 1 - 5) of this file will introduce IRC and mIRC to you. This section 6 is the actual FAQ. The last part (Section 7) consists of a tutorial or reference manual for mIRC�s "programming" features. If you want to learn the 'what and how' of creating Aliases, Popups and Remote Commands and Events in mIRC, check out the last part of the FAQ. I can highly recommend these sections to you all!

The mIRC FAQ is � copyright 1995-2002 Tjerk Vonck tjerk@mirc.com
Thanks to Tjerk Vonck for allowing the mIRC FAQ distribution on mIRC.org.

The 32-bit mIRC no longer supports Windows 3.1 or WFW 3.11. Older versions used to work on Win 3.1 and WFW 3.11 if you installed the Win32s 32-bit extentions. There was and is no difference in functionality between the 16 and 32-bit mIRC apart from things old Windows versions simply don't understand. On Windows 3.1 or WFW 3.11 simply use the 16-bit mIRC.

On Windows 95, 98 and all newer Windows versions no problems running the 32-bit mIRC (mirc32.exe) are to be expected. By default Windows installs all things you need when you install your modem (or network adapter) and Internet software. It does not matter what kind on Internet connection you use. mIRC works fine with modems, cable connections, DSL, ADSL, and all sorts of network solutions. trv

No, sorry. mIRC just comes in two tastes for Windows; a 16 bit and a 32 bit one. These issues will work on Windows 3.x, Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, XP, and NT, but not on Windows CE. mIRC also does not work on the Atari, Commodore, WebTV, Macintosh, UNIX or Linux operating systems. We have no plans to make mIRC versions for these systems in the future either. Sorry....

Several people have reported to use mIRC succesfully on OS/2-Win and on Linux with the Windows emulator Wine! I assume mIRC also works in a virtual Windows environment on the Macintosh but there also is a perfect IRC client for Mac's, written by Onno R. Tijdgat, called Ircle.

All IRC programs for WebTV, Linux, Mac's etc. are perfectly mIRC compatible. With all IRC programs you will see all your friends using IRC with mIRC and vice versa.

If you are using Windows95 first find out if you're trying to run mIRC32.exe with a 16-bit winsock. You need a 32-bit winsock to run the mirc32.exe on Win95. If you have a 16-bit winsock use the 16-bit mirc.exe. Also read section 6-2.

In the File/Options/Connect/Local_Info/ dialog box, you'll see mIRC needs your PC's Local Host name and IP number. This info is needed to be able to set up DCC Send/Chat connections to other users.

Generally speaking you can leave both fields blank, set 'On connect, always get Local Host and IP Address' to active with method Normal and everything should work fine. But if you don't have an actual IP address (such as with TIA, Twinsock, SLiRP, or some other SLIP emulator), or if your stack is strange or there is some network oddity, it might not fill in these fields correctly.

The simple solution is to switch to the Server method and use the IRC server you want to connect to, to find your system's address information. Eventually clear the Local Host and IP Address fields first. Then set 'On connect, always get Local Host and IP Address' to active and select the 'Server' method. Now re-try to connect...

In the unlikely event the above method didn't help you could uncheck "On connect, always get IP Address and Local Host" and manually enter your PC's Local Host name and IP number. If you are using TIA, Twinsock, SLiRP, etc., simply enter _your provider's_ local host name and IP, not your own. (Your provider�s IP is not 192.0.2.1 or anything like that! That�s a dummy IP used by these emulators. If you don�t know your provider�s local host name and IP, ask them!)

Also setting the Ident server to active might help. (See section 6-7) (Note: You must be disconnected from any IRC server before changing the Ident server settings.)

If none of the above solutions helps it is possible that mIRC cannot complete the reverse look up it tries and gives the "Can't resolve host name" error when your IP name is not properly configured in your provider's DNS. This is not something you can solve yourself. In this case you have to ask your provider to correctly assign an IP name to your IP Number to solve the problem. For your provider setting up the IP name on the DNS is not that hard, and doesn't take much time.

If you can't get mIRC connected to one particular IRC server and you get this error you should first give another server a try... If you can connect to any other server you should check if you made a typo in the setup of your initial server address. (File/Options/Connect/IRC_Servers/ Edit)

If you get this error with whatever IRC server address you try, it is very likely your provider's DNS (Domain Name Server) is down, malfunctioning or very slow. Especially if mIRC always worked flawlessly for you. Besides waiting or giving your providers helpdesk a phone call you cant get this fixed.

mIRC needs a DNS to translate (resolve) the IRC servers' IP Address you specified, into an IP Number. (For example, the IP irc.law.emory.edu resolves to the IP Number 170.140.50.195) (To see this give the command "/dns irc.law.emory.com" in mIRC) You could bypass the need for the DNS lookup by specifying the IP Number in your server setup instead of the IP Address for every server.

Under File/Setup/IRC_Servers/Add or Edit server, specify your IRC servers like this:
Description : irc.law.emory.edu (Emory University)
IRC Server : 170.140.50.195
Port : 6667

You will get a "Not enough user parameters" from mIRC if you try to connect to a server but you didn't have the local host filled in, or had it filled in incorrectly. Check your entry under 'File/Options/Connect/Local_Info/Local Host.� Also check to see if you supplied mIRC with a valid E-Mail address under 'File/Options/Connect/ E-Mail:'. (See section 8, too.)

Note: The e-mail address is used internally by mIRC and cannot be seen by others when they do a /whois on you. Some have noticed the "email:" field in the User Central dialog (/uwho command). This field is made up of your or the other person's user@host (your username plus your local host name)... in many cases you'll notice that it doesn't reflect the actual e-mail address.

Although mIRC is shareware and you have to register it if you like mIRC and/or if you continue to use it after the 30 days evaluation period, this is NOT a message from mIRC. mIRC will not block features or cease to function if you havent registered yet. This message is an error message from the IRC network you try to use.

If you receive this message and/or you get disconnected that quickly, your Local Host name and/or IP number might be wrong, or not filled in at all. Look under 'File/Options/Connect/Local_Info/', and check if the local host is correct and if the IP address (number) is filled in automatically... An easy way to solve a wrong IP Address is setting the 'On connect, always get' "IP Address" and "Local Host" to "ON" and restarting mIRC.

If this doesn't help you could be trying to connect to a NON-public server!! Try another server to check this...

An ident server normally is maintained by the Unix machine of your network provider... It is a kind of nameserver that guarantees your Identity. Since most standalone windows machines are not correctly backed up by an ident service, such a server is built into mIRC. IRC servers can do an Ident request to your Ident server and then expect a standardized kind of answer. More and more IRC servers require you to be identified in some way, and they will disconnect you if you're not identified ! Also if you don't react, or do so in the wrong way, they can decide to disconnect you.... You can check if you're properly identified by doing a /whois on yourself. The first line in the reply should NOT contain a ~ (tilde) or a - (minus). If you have a ~ or - in it try activating the Ident server.

mIRC's built-in Ident server can be switched to active under File/options/Connect/Identd/. Set it to :
User ID: (The part before the @ in your E-mail address normally)
System: UNIX (ALWAYS fill in UNIX !! not dos, win or *whatever* else !!)
Listen on port: 113 (The standard ident port number)

A problem that Proxy and Firewall users will experience is that, despite checking the Ident Server to active, mIRC will never reply to an Ident query. This is because mIRC might never get the ident request! The proxy or firewall won't pass the Ident request through from the IRC server to mIRC... That just means you'll be seen as nick!~account@machine.net which is not the end of the world, unless you happen to be using a server that requires an Ident reply and disconnects you... This can't be solved by mIRC or any other client. You will need to fix the settings of your proxy or firewall, find another server or get your provider to set up proper identing... trv

Could it be your DCC is blocked by the LOCK option?
In the File/Options/General/Lock/ menu you can disable certain mIRC features and LOCK them with a password. This way you can block the DCC funtion, limit the channels mIRC can join to a small set, and disable the /run and /dll commands. When the DCC is LOCKed you will see a message like "DCC Send locked in options dialog" will show in the STATUS window.

The sending person causes most troubles.
DCC file sending and initiating a DCC Chat (contrary to file getting and accepting a DCC Chat) requires that mIRC knows your correct IP Address. Without an IP number, mIRC will perfectly work as far as normal chatting is concerned, but won't allow DCC file sending or initiating a DCC Chat.

In almost all cases that DCC sending and chatting is messed up, the initiating sending party causes the troubles. This is caused by wrong Local Host and/or IP Address settings at the senders side. The Local Host and IP Address settings are found in the File/Setup/Local_Info menu. Typically if the senders IP Address is not correctly set, the recieving party will get the dcc offer and then try to confirm and connect to the incorrect IP Address. Of course, this doesn't work and you both sit there waiting. The sender will see the "Waiting for acknowledgement..." forever while the other person -did- acknowledge correctly....

This problem is normally very simple to solve. Also if you can not get files from another person ask him/her to check the IP Address settings in his/her IRC client as these settings are often wrong.

The cure.
1) Disconnect from your IRC server.
2) Clear the current text in the Local Host and IP Address boxes under File/Setup in the Local_Info dialog.
3) Select both 'On connect, Always get' Local Host and IP Address options in the Local_Info dialog.
4) Set 'Method' to Normal.
5) Leave the Local_Info dialog and the File/Setup menu both with 'OK'.
6) Reconnect to your IRC server and try to send a file.

If this doesnt work experiment with the 'On connect' .. settings... !! ie. For instance, try to use the 'Server' method instead of the default Normal one. (Read what this does in section 6-3) or try to set your Local Host name by hand and let mIRC look for only the IP Address on each startup.

Could it be your DCC is blocked by the DCC Ignore function?
In the File/Options/DCC/Folders menu you can set mIRC to save certain file types in certain directories and/or to ignore certain file types. By default mIRC will ignore all files exept the file types that are considered safe, like *.bmp, *.gif, *.jpg, *.log, *.mid, *.png, *.wav, *.txt, *.zip.

As you see mIRC will IGNORE executables and all sorts of script files by default. This safeguards you against the ignorant acceptance of virusses and other harmfull files. If you want to be able to accept other files by DCC, like *.exe, *.com or *.vbs files you have to add these to the list of accepted file types. When a file is offered to you and automatically rejected by the DCC Ignore a message like "

DCC 
Send from domino rejected (Defrag.exe, file type ignored)

" will show in the STATUS window.

Could it be the sender has wrong IP Address settings?
In almost all cases of DCC problems the initiating (sending) party causes the troubles. In almost all cases where DCC Send (or Chat) stops functioning (suddenly) or never worked at all, this is caused by wrong Local Host and/or IP Address settings at the senders side. Typically if the senders IP Address is not correctly set, the receiving party will get the dcc offer and try to confirm and connect to the -incorrect- IP Address. Of course, this doesn't work and you both sit there waiting. The sender will see the "Waiting for acknowledgement..." forever while the receiving person -did- acknowledge correctly. Here the sender has a wrong setup, not the receiving person. This problem is normally very simple to solve by setting the correct IP Address.

Do you have incorrect download directory settings?
If you get some error message like "invalid directory" or "cannot write to file" you have to check and fix the download directory settings in the DCC/Options/ dialog. Is the default set to a valid directory? It sounds stupid but also full harddisks block getting files very effectively!

NetCruiser, Twinsock, and Internet in a Box are not 100% Winsock compliant, and some users experience DCC problems with mIRC and other programs... complain to Netcom or the others... Some people also get the error "unable to create socket" on IBOX and other winsocks. If this happens, try to connect again (choose File/Connect or type '/server'). This sometimes works.

In channel, query and DCC chat windows mIRC uses a nice select-and-copy-in-one-move feature. Copying is done automatically as soon as you release the mouse button you used to select the text with. Just highlight the text and release. Isn't that a nice feature? Use ctrl-v to paste the copied text.

The normal Windows' "Copy" menu is not just left out due to ignorance, but is due to the use of colored text in the graphical windows in mIRC. Windows does not support colored text in standard text boxes, and Khaled had to write all text box/windows routines himself! :-) And since using cut or paste in a channel, query or chat window makes no sense anyway, he was able to invent and implement this feature.

All text shown in mIRC outside the channel windows (in settings, menu's, dialogs and on the edit box line) can be copied, cut and pasted normally using the ctrl-c, ctrl-x and ctrl-v key combinations.

mIRC allows you to fully modify the default color settings of all kinds of text and message windows. Look for the dialog under the Tools/colors/ menu item. Virtually everything can be shown in whatever color you like most. By default the colors are set in a way that clearly distinguishes the various kinds of messages you'll encounter on IRC. Do not hesitate to experiment; the Reset button will set all defaults back!

In addition to the configurable colors which you can set 'locally' in mIRC to indicate different kind of messages, you can also use colors on your text lines seen by others. Use the ctrl-K key combination to insert special control characters in your text. Add a number from 0 to 15 to use one of the 16 available colors.

All font settings can be done from the windows' System Menus (those menus under that little horizontal bar or small icon in every top left corner of ANY window in mIRC and Windows), the /font command or the Tools/Font menu item.

Use /font or select the 'Font' option in the System menu and a fonts selection dialog will pop up. Here you can choose whatever fonts are available on your machine. This could be New Times Roman, Arial, MS Sans Serif,..... whatever you like. You can also set the font size and set it to bold. (italic is available but disabled for most fonts at the moment) The settings you set here will be saved as the default for the window you are in.

Very easy! In all channel, query and DCC windows open the system menu (the top left little icon) eventually by typing ALT - (ALT minus). You will notice a /background/select/ dialog. Select any bitmap you like and it will be placed in the background of the window you were in. To change mIRC's main background right-click on it and a selection dialog will open.

A script is nothing but a combination of automated reactions your mIRC performs for you, often combined with simple commands to control or trigger these reactions. mIRC has three sections in the Tools/ menu in which it can be "programmed" in some way: The Aliases, Popups and the Remote sections. With these sections, in combination with the Users and Variables sections, you can completely program and modify mIRC's behaviour on IRC. The combination of Aliases, Popups and lines in the Remote section usually is called a script.

First of all you have to make sure you really need a script. Scripting is not difficult but if you simply want to auto-op your friends on your IRC channel, or if you want to ban or ignore an annoying person, mIRC is perfectly equipped already with functions that do exactly what you want. In this case read the section about the auto-op, protect and ignore lists.

In case you really need a script to make mIRC do some advanced tricks nobody thought of before, read study and learn the sections on programming mIRC in chapter 7 of this FAQ. I strongly discourage the use of scripts created by other persons. If you did not write your script yourself, chances are high you have noo idea what exactly the script is doing and you, and your PC, are in the hands of the author of the script, a person who could very well turn out to be a malicious hacker. I'm not trying to get on your nerves here but you should realize scripts are very powerful. It is easy to write something that allows others to access and completely ruine your PC, or to read copy and spread all the private documents, email and passwords stored on your PC.

Note; By default mIRC does not come with any scripts or settings that can get you in trouble. The default settings in mIRC for DCC file transfers etc. are perfectly safe. All changes to settings that, in combination with other settings, or careless behaviour, could get you into trouble will display a warning message before any changes are made.

Of course creating a script can be great fun. You can program lots of usefull things in mIRC and I encourage you to share your tricks with your friends on IRC.

When you look in the Address Book in mIRC, in the Control section, you will find the Auto-op, Protect and Ignore address lists with which you can easily auto-op and protect your friends on your IRC channel, or ignore an annoying person. This set of 3 lists provides you with the most basic channel maintnance possible in mIRC. No scripting is needed to use these functions. If you need better, smarter, but also more difficult to understand functions or behaviour, you should check out mIRC's 'remote' capabilities explained in section 7 of this FAQ. For starters these functions will do fine I think.

For mIRC to be able to op, protect or ignore a person on IRC it matches the nickname or address of that person with the nicknames and addresses you have in the op, protect and ignore lists. In the address definitions you can use wildcards.

The full address format of a person on IRC is Nick!Account@machine.
Lets assume that Bill responds to a "/whois bill" with:
Bill is gates@pentium.company.com * Billy A Lot Of Names Gates
Bill @#mIRC
Bill irc.server.company.com (A superb company)
Bill 666 seconds idle
Bill End of /WHOIS list.

If you don't care about channel takeovers and other annoying things, you can just specify the nick (Bill) of the person you want to auto-op, ignore or protect. If you want to be sure you 'op' , ignore and protect the right person, and not a faker, specify them by their address if possible. In that case, Bill would be best referred to by
bill!gates@pentium.company.com

You could also use *!gates@*.company.com if he works on several machines with different nick's....

To add a user to the lists use the /auto, /ignore or /protect command (like /auto *!gates@*.company.com), or use the command while specifying an [Address Type:addresstypes], or add a user by simply typing him into the specific edit box. Make sure to switch the functions to active by the checkbox under File/Options/IRC/Control totally right of the function markers of the edit box. Or use the commands /auto [on|off], /ignore [on|off] or /protect [on|off] on the command line.

You can make the auto-op, ignore and protect more specific by specifying some parameters.

The auto-op and protect can be set to make people operator and/or protect them only on certain channels if you want. In that case just specify the channel names. like
/auto [#channel1,#channel2,...] and
/protect [#channel1,#channel2,...] (protect only works with nicks!)
If you dont specify one or more channel names mIRC will op and protect the person on all channels where you're operator.

The ignore can be set to ignore only certain actions from a person. mIRC distinguises between private messages, text in channels, notices send to you, ctcp commands and invitations. From the command line you can use: /ignore [-pcntik] [type] where p = private, c = channel, n = notice, t = ctcp, i = invite, k = color. (more parameters discussed in the help file!) In the ignore section an ignore will look like nick!userid@host.domain,private,channel,notice,ctcp,invite. If you dont specify any of these additional parameters mIRC will just ignore somebody totally.

mIRC's scripting language is very flexible and easy to learn. By reading the Help file and the sections in the end of this mIRC FAQ, you easily learn the basics of mIRC's scripting. More advanced scripting questions can be asked to the usenet newsgroup alt.irc.mirc. If you don't know what to write in your script, or if you have noo idea how to start, try looking in some of the pre-fab scripts spread over the web and on IRC.
As always beware of using a script you do not fully understand. Many scripts writers included backdoors in their scripts that can make you do things that are out of your control. Therefore read reviews and documentation from and about the script. Many help channels refuse to help with pre-fab, or third party scripts. The only way to get help with such a script is from the author or other users of the script. Most mIRC related help channels on IRC -will- help you with stand-alone remote lines and small scripting problems.

In short; Trojan horse attacks are attractively disguised files that you download and run, resulting in harmful and dangerous consequences ranging from takeover of your IRC channels, erasing of your hard disk, theft of your account passwords, etc. These (Trojan) viruses are not mIRC or IRC specific, they just spread like fire on IRC.
Trojans are typically files with suffices like "ini", "exe", or "com", such as "dmsetup.exe" or "script.ini". These days nearly all Trojans are spread in the guise of a free game, handy tool or other software. You probably downloaded one from a WWW or FTP archive, ICQ file exchange, or through IRC's DCC file transfer (by manual /dcc get or, even worse, an "auto DCC get" feature which allows anybody to send you anything, including not only Trojans but also other viruses, porn, and more illegal things).
Typically the Trojan needs to be run manually at first (by you), and then installs hacked files all over your disk silently. There are many different versions of those files, but almost all of them interfere with your mIRC placing backdoors in scripts. The files then auto-send themselves (using an 'ON JOIN' event) to everyone who joins the same channel as an infected user without the users knowledge.
At http://www.irchelp.org/ you will find detailed instructions and information on all kinds of problems you may encounter on IRC. At this site the best help for problems like this is concentrated and organised by people who are on IRC 24/7, in the Help channels and alike. Read http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/security/trojan.html to learn all about the virusses on IRC, mostly called Worms or Trojans, that might tackle you.

Prevention: NEVER download files from people or sites which you aren't 100% sure about. Never use the "auto DCC get" feature, and always scan your DCC gets with a decent virus scanner. Note that mIRC by default does NOT accept files from strangers. This has never been otherwise either. If you accepted files by the "auto DCC get" feature in mIRC, you have switched this option ON yourself, really. Do not, never ever, accept anything you have not requested. Do not accept anything from someone you don't know, no matter how attractively packaged.

Removal: Removal of script.ini, dmsetup.exe, and other trojans is a difficult subject. The many variations of the files have different removal techniques. http://www.irchelp.org is a great information resource for removing these worms. Research all information resources before trying to remove the worms to help determine the best removal techniques.

Use the Tools/Remote/ section.....
mIRC can react to CTCP commands given by other users. You can customize your responses to CTCP commands and offer files: features that usually require scripting but here are handled by the Tools/Remote/Commands section. It is this section in mIRC that can handle OPME, KICK, MYLEVEL, or XDCC SEND commands for you, if you configure it well. Setting up the remote section is not an easy task, but the way it works guarantees full freedom to make it do what you want it to do.
As soon as your mIRC receives a CTCP command from somebody else, it checks if that command is defined and if so, it matches the required user level against the level of the remote user. If the remote user has a suitable user level his command is executed... All commands given to you have to have the format '/CTCP '. If a command is defined on several levels, the highest ranked one is executed. See the help file included in the mIRC package for detailed instructions and read the tutorial in section 7 of this FAQ.

Use the Tools/Remote/ section.....
Events are all things happening on channels or in private conversations on IRC. People joining, leaving, getting opped, deopped, greeting you, even plain talking all are Events... You can configure mIRC to react however you like to almost anything that can happen in IRC. See the mIRC help file for further instructions and read the tutorial in section 7 at the end of this FAQ.

(In the Tools/Remote/Users section..)
You can add your friend Bill with access level 2 to the Users list in two ways:
1. Specifying the nick -- "2:bill"
and/or by...
2. Specifying the address -- "2:bill!gates@pentium.company.com"

Of course, specifying the address is the safer option. Wildcards are supported, such as "2:*!gates@pentium.company.com". In which case all nicks bill could use on his account are recognized. To get the ON OP, ON DEOP, ON SERVEROP and ON NOTIFY events working you *have* to specify a person by his nick !! It won't work if you specify his full address only... In the case of bill, you could use BOTH Users list lines mentioned above. You could just type the nick and/or address straight into the Users section under Tools/Remote but mIRC also has special commands to add people to your Users list straight from the command line. Look in the mIRC help for the commands /auser, /guser and /ruser.

It is quite common that every time you do a /list, you get disconnected part way through. Even if you try a partial list, eg. "/list #love", it runs for about 90 seconds and then disconnects you. Sometimes using a local IRCserver helps.

You didn't do anything wrong... It is important that you realize what happens if you do a /list command. The server generates a list of all channels (about 2000 on Efnet) and quickly sends that list to you. BUT, because the data throughput isn't infinite, the whole output of the /LIST command is queued in a buffer on the server. At some point that buffer gets overrun, and the server, detecting this ('reached maxsendq'), disconnects you. This mechanism is made to disconnect people who generate more characters per second than any 'normal' person uses for normal conversations. It's a protection mechanism, but unfortunately the server does not recognize that the data stream you caused is simply the result of your harmless /list command, and disconnects you.

You can also tell mIRC to show only channels with a minimum and a maximum number of people. Also, if you specify a #string, then mIRC will only list channels with that string in their title. BUT, for the problem described, this does not matter/help at all!! The server ALWAYS returns the entire #channel list and mIRC (like all other clients) takes care of the filtering!! So, asking for a partial list to prevent you from disconnecting won't make ANY difference!!

So, this isn't an mIRC bug. It's a pity, but there's nothing you can do to prevent this from happening. It's just one of all-too-many IRC oddities. Try using some other servers, as many aren't quite so touchy. To facilitate users on relatively slow modem connections the list of channels is also saved to a file "channels.txt" in the mIRC directory. The channels list dialog has "Apply" and "Get List" buttons. If "Get List" is pressed then a fresh list is read from the server, if "Apply" is pressed then the latest list you downloaded earlier is used to search for channels etc. This means that you once you successfully retrieved a list once, you can decide to use that list in later IRC sessions! Or you can share lists with other people. Of course a list wont be totally up to date every time but for the major channels that doesn't really matter and you'll never get list-disconnected again :-)
Oh ... check out the list window popup menu !! Once you've done a "/list" the list is stored in memory and available for re-processing with keys, min/max settings and additional filtering! Right click in the channels list window and play with the parameters you can set!

You can protect yourself from people who are flooding you with the automatic anti-flood system. Look in the File/Options/IRC/Flood/ section. A server usually disconnects you for sending too much data to it in a certain period of time, *or* if you try to send it data when it hasn't finished processing your previous data. The new flood protect makes sure -others- cant make you to send too much data to the server. Usually a server has a buffer of about 512 bytes. mIRC therefore counts the number of bytes you've sent to a server and if this exceeds a certain number, mIRC waits for the server to be ready again, before it continues sending data. In the mean time it nicely buffers unsend lines. This should protect you properly from all sorts of ctcp floods and so on... You set the amount of bytes mIRC may safely send (for instance 350 bytes), the amount of lines it may buffer (like 20), the amount of lines it may store maximal per user (like 3) and how long the flooder should be ignored (like 30 secs) by the command /flood 350 20 3 30 This flood control method *only* works for messages being triggered by other users. So you can still flood *yourself* off the server. (like with the /list command)

mirc.exe 16-bit :
You can't just start the 16-bit mirc.exe a second time. If you want to run a second copy of mIRC16 (don't ask me why), it's best to rename your mirc.exe to mirc1.exe and also copy your mirc.exe to another instance, like mirc2.exe. ( In the windows File Manager select mirc.exe and with File/Copy copy it to mirc2.exe, and with File/Rename rename it to mirc1.exe. Both copies can be kept in the same directory (the mIRC home dir.))

Do the same for the mirc.ini file that can be found in the c:\windows directory or in mIRC's home dir. (Unless specified otherwise mIRC uses the mirc.ini file found in c:\windows. ) Copy mirc.ini to a mirc1.ini and to a mirc2.ini. Now in the Program Manager, rename the mIRC icon to an icon called mIRC1, and use that to start the first copy. 'Under' the icon, on the startup line, state "c:\path\mirc1.exe -i c:\path\mirc1.ini" to make sure mirc1.exe will use the mirc1.ini! Also, make an icon called mIRC2, and use that to start the second copy. On the startup line 'under the icon' state "c:\path\mirc2.exe -i c:\path\mirc2.ini" to make sure mirc2.exe will use the mirc2.ini! The -i startup line parameter tells mIRC to use the file after it as ini file. If you want to place the mirc.ini files in another directory than your windows or home dir, make sure to specify the full and correct path! You can now startup both exe's and configure them independently..... Nice huh?

mirc32.exe 32-bit :
If you use the 32-bit version of mIRC you CAN run a second instance without problems without having to provide a second, renamed .exe file. You don't have to rename and or copy the mirc32.exe. BUT you still have to create 2 shortcuts with unique mirc.ini names on the startup-line to get your 2 mIRC's working independently and not interfering .... Don't forget that :-)

And what it does and doesn't do. ;o)
In mIRC, you can make yourself invisible with: "/mode {your_nickname} +i". The title of the STATUS window will show (+i) after your current nickname. If you change nick, you will remain invisible under your new nick. Use "/mode {your_nickname} -i" to make yourself visible again.
Nobody can detect your changing from invisible to visible or vice versa.
When you're invisible, you are always visible to all the people who are on the same channel(s) as you are. When you join a new channel (while invisible), everyone in the channel sees you joining. Also, leaves are NOT hidden. Also, when people do a "/whois " they will see a normal whois list on you if the nick they enter matches your's exactly.

Users NOT on the same channel as you WILL NOT be able to see your name if they do /who <#channelname>. Also, if they do /names to list all the people currently on IRC, they won't see you. Also doing "/who *part.of.your.address.net*" won't result in your nick turning up.
The point of being invisible is not to be able to stroll along channels like a ghost without anyone seeing you, but to hide (a bit) from users that scan channels with /who to find you.
If they scan channels by actually joining them, then invisibility won't help you.

To get rid of annoying people: first make yourself invisible ... then change your nick and make sure those people can't join the channels you are on in order to find out your new nick. (also, doing: /ignore {other_persons_nick} helps a lot !

Assuming you have a sound card or a speaker driver allowing you to play sound files on your PC, you can make some funny use of sound on IRC with mIRC. Already available in mIRC before version 3.7 was the /wavplay {c:\path\sound.wav} command which allowed you to play a .wav sound file locally to you. In version 4.7 playing of Midi files is added and the command renamed /splay. With this command you can for instance play wav's and midi files to alert you when your friends join IRC or when people get kicked or whatever else. You can 'program' these events in mIRC's remote section.

The /sound command allows you to send a request to any other party to play a .wav or .midi file he and you both have. First set mIRC to Accept sound requests under File/Options/Sound Requests/ The command syntax is /sound [nickname|#channel] {filename.ext} [action text]. As you see in the play request an action text may be specified which will display on the other side. I have to stress that the actual wav or midi file is NOT sent to the other party. We dont want to stuff the net with data you know :-) The command just triggers playing of the sound file at your and somebody elses machine. So make sure that the other party has the file you want to start. A "/sound friend tada.wav does a tada" command done by you will result in '*friend* does a tada' and the tada sound at your side (the *friend* confirms the destination to you) and the action "* afriend does a tada" with the tada sound played at your friends side...

This command currently only works in between mIRC users and people using compatible clients! The command format is /sound [nick|#channel] {file.ext} [message]. The message will show as an action to the receivers and both you and they will hear the wav you selected. mIRC will look for your sound files in the directory you set under File/Options/Sound Requests/

Now you're playing with sound you might like the support for Microsoft's Agent as well. See http://www.mirc.co.uk/agents.html for more info!

mIRC supports all popular web browsers. You can easily surf the web with your friends and exchange addresses of the best pages you find. mIRC's URL catcher automatically stores URL's from text passing by in channels, privates and topics in a listbox; the URL List.

You can also send one or more URL's to the channels you are on (or to any private conversation you are in) by the URL window popup menu. (Popup menus are activated by the right mouse button !!) You can store URL's for future reference and set them in any order you want by the use of markers. Newly found items are appended to the end of your URL list with the '?' marker. When the marker for a URL is changed to something else it is sorted into the permanent list. In the URL options dialog box you can set mIRC to delete '?' marked items on exit. Also a new string is created which represents the page your Netscape currently shows. You can use this $url in popup menu definitions and in remote definitions.

To get the hang of it first enable the URL catcher in the File/Options/URL Catcher/ menu. Also fill in the place where your www browser can be found. From that moment on mIRC will find and store all www addresses passing by on the channels you are in. You can see this going on if you open the URL window (use the URL button on the Toolbar or the /url command). Then if you want to view an URL in your www browser just highlight it in the URL window and select 'view' from the URL window popup menu (right mouse button). Alternatively you can set mIRC to react to a double click on an URL in the URL window.

Lets first explain that there are 2 sorts of fingering on IRC. First there is the IRC finger that almost all clients can handle. This is a CTCP command with the syntax '/ctcp nickname finger'. The reply you will get to this CTCP command is usually a one liner set by the user you do the finger on. In mIRC you can set this reply under File/Options/Action_Lists/ at the Ctcp_finger_reply line. Some other clients use the alias '/finger nickname' to shortcut this CTCP finger command but thats not the official way...

The other finger command comes from the finger system familiar to UNIX users. On UNIX systems you can finger the address of another user to find out some more about that person. Normally this fingering will give you the persons home address, telephone number or other usefull info. This info is given to you by a central finger server and you need a finger client to get it. mIRC already has a finger -client- built in for a long time under Tools/Finger. If you specify a users address, mIRC will try to get some info on the person at the other end. The '/finger {nickname|users_address}' command is doing the same thing. (If you specify a nickname mIRC will try to find out that users address and finger it.) Mind the syntax difference from the IRC finger command !!

In the newest mIRC, a finger server is built in to enable you to provide finger info even if your school, provider or company doesn't maintain a central finger server. Under Misc/Options/Servers/ you can enable this Finger server. You also have to provide a text file with the info you want to give. This file should meet a certain syntax as explained in mIRC's help file. A last remark; dont be surprised if you find that the UNIX finger is hardly used on IRC !

mIRC offers an unique built-in Fileserver. This Fileserver feature is a combination of DCC and FTP. You open the server window to someone, (it's a special DCC chat window), restricting them to a certain directory tree, and they can browse your file listings, change directories, read text files, or get files.

The syntax to set up a DCC server connection to somebody is:
/fserve {nick} {max gets simultaneously allowed} {homedir} [welcome file]

"Max gets" is so that the other person doesn't bring down your machine with too many parallel gets. 4 is probably a reasonable number. The other person will have access to his homedir and all dirs DOWN in the directory tree from that homedir on. "Welcome file" is a text file you can write and specify that will welcome users to your file server. It's optional.

Examples:
/fserve Kreet 3 c:\temp\serve c:\temp\serving\welcome.txt
/fserve Mookies 2 c:\outgoing c:\network\mirc\welcome.txt
/fserve Friend 7 c:\

Keep in mind that you can't set up a server to yourself... you need others to test your server...
Typing help in the file server will show the available commands, which are styled after Unix and DOS. "ls" or "dir" will show a directory listing, for example. Even switched commands like "ls -k" (show file sizes in kilobytes) and "dir /w" (show a wide directory listing) work. The server supports all normal ftp commands like cd <dir > , cd.., dir, ls, get, .... but NOT put, hash etc. Safety risks are none or minimal due to the major restricting of available commands.

Of course, the /fserve command can be used in your Remote section....
Set up a simple Tools/Remote/command like :
1:server:/fserve $nick 3 c:\temp\serve
Set the commands to active (/remote on) and off you go....

Other people only have to type "/ctcp yournick server" to activate the server. You can't set up a server to your own mIRC!! So, others have to test your server !! In the directory c:\temp\serve, you place all files other people are allowed to get from you. The people using your server will have access to the c:\temp\serve directory AND ALL directories BELOW it.. like c:\temp\serve\games.

With mIRC you can use the software package 'Monologue' to speak out text at your wish. You can make it to say out loud whatever you want that happens on IRC; on channels or in private chats etc. With the recently introduced support for Microsofts Agent the use of Monologue has outdated a bit by the way... Better see the information on http://www.mirc.co.uk/agents.html for more information on the use of agent before you use Monologue!

Monologue was sold in a software package with older Soundblaster sound cards. Monologue is not for free and not shareware either ! It is made by the Company First Byte (http://www.firstbyte.davd.com/html/fbinfo.htm). The software is some years old but I heard a 32 bit version is in development and also the 16 bit version works rather well.. and a lot of people have it. Therefore mIRC supports it to have Text To Speech support.

First you have to make sure Monologue is properly installed on your PC and working in good order. It has a built in test function and should work properly with the test and clipboard support before trying it from mIRC. To use it with mIRC you have to enable its DDE support. Through DDE mIRC communicates with it. Once you enabled the DDE support you can fire up mIRC and give it a try.

In mIRC the '/speak {text}' command is used to send text to Monologue. It is used like :
"/speak this is a test"
"/speak can you hear me ?"
"/speak this is fun" Try it !!

It is fun indeed ! Once you manage to speak one-liners from a mIRC window by this /speak command, it is not that hard to get it speaking whole channels or conversations ... assuming you can handle programming mIRC's remote events section. (Read and study section 7.) It is not meant to be a plug and play solution ;o)

-- A firewall is not a feature, it is something you need to solve, something to get around. --

One potential drawback to an Internet connection is that other Internet users could gain access to files and data residing on your PC. This can be prevented by establishing a security system such as a "firewall" or "proxy". A firewall usually consists of a UNIX machine that is placed between your PC and the Internet, and all traffic between you and the Internet must pass through that machine. So a firewall is not something included in mIRC, or something active on your PC. The problem is that most firewalls also block your possibilities to use IRC. Normally spoken firewalls block all IRC traffic and access to an IRC server, unless specific precautions are made and a Socks compliant firewall is used.

If your provider or employer uses a Socks compliant firewall that blocks your IRC access you can set mIRC to connect to the firewall to reach the outside world. In this case, and -only- in this case, set mIRC to use the Socks firewall under File/Options/Connect/Firewall/. Your provider or employer should be able to provide you with the necessary settings.
In other, similar, situations you can use a HTTP or HTTPS Proxy to connect to IRC with mIRC. A HTTP Proxy is NOT something like Internet Connection Sharing, WinProxy or WinRoute! For HTTP Proxies in the /File/Options/Connect/Firewall/ menu in mIRC select the 'Use Firewall' and 'Proxy' options. Fill in the HTTP Proxy Hostname and Port settings. Normally you can copy these from your webbrowser! For more info see http://www.mirc.co.uk/help/proxies.html.

If you never heard about firewalls before it is VERY unlikely you are behind one! In this case stay away from the firewall settings and dont enable it. Also if mIRC works for chatting but things like DCC File Sending are blocked this normally cant be due to a firewall problem, and enabling mIRC to use the Socks firewall wont help you!

This section on mIRC's built in DDE support is initiated by Prophet's quick DDE Reference. Thanks for allowing me to include parts of your work in the mIRC FAQ!

What is DDE? - DDE stands for Dynamic Data Exchange. DDE is used by programs running under Window to communicate with each other. In the typical case one of the programs involved acts as a DDE server, the other as a DDE client. The server is always accepting requests and commands and the client is requesting information and giving commands to the server. Good examples of the use of DDE are mIRC's support of WWW browsers by the build in URL catcher and the support of the text to speech program 'monologue' by the /speak command. Read more about them in the sections 6-22 and 6-25.

Setting up mIRC's DDE server - To be able to control mIRC from within another application, program or another copy of mIRC running on your PC, you first have to make sure the DDE server is set to active. The server settings are found under File/Options/Servers/. You should always specify an unique service name but for now the default 'mirc' will do fine. The service name is used by mIRC to identify DDE commands given to it. To be able to play a little with the DDE things having only one copy of mIRC running will do fine for now, but for usefull future use you might have to start a second copy of mIRC or get another external DDE client/server. If you want to have a second copy of mIRC running dont forget to give it an unique DDE service name! The default server name for mIRC is 'mirc', but you can change the server name to anything more suitable.

How is DDE used? - To use DDE to provide information (or give a command);a POKE, or to ask for information; a REQUEST, you just need two simple commands.

The /dde [-r] {service name} {topic} {item} [data] command.
The /dde command defaults to sending a poke unless you specify the -r switch in which case a request is sent. If you are sending a poke then all four arguments including the 'data' field are mandatory, if you are sending a request then the first three arguments are mandatory. This is why you might have to use a "" in the 'item' field; it acts as a filler and isn't actually used for anything. This filler is important because you might have the /dde or $dde mixed with other commands or text in an alias, and mIRC has to know the exact number of parameters when parsing. At the moment only one poke 'topic' exists; the COMMAND.

Instead of using the /dde -r to send a DDE request its often a lot better to use the $dde indentifier. The $dde {service name} {topic} {item} identifier sends a request and retrieves any data returned by the specified service. All three arguments are mandatory (as explained in the above paragraph). Any retrieved data is inserted in the position in the alias or command where the $dde was issued. Several request 'topics' exist; CHANNELS, CONNECTED, EXENAME, INIFILE, USERS, SERVER, NICKNAME, VERSION, PORT.

COMMAND topic. (Only for POKE's)
This allows mIRC to control a second client similar to the remote CTCP DO command. The command topic is used in conjuction with the /dde command like /dde {service name} command "" [instructions]
Here are a few examples, assuming your mIRC uses the default DDE service name, 'mirc':
/dde mirc command "" /join #test123
/dde mirc command "" /msg #test123 hello everyone
/dde mirc command "" /notice $me testing 1 2 3
The /dde command can be used in the Remote/Events and Commands Section in the Alias section and straight on the edit box.

CHANNELS topic (Only for REQUEST's)
The CHANNELS topic is a REQUEST which returns a single line of text containing the current channels the listening mIRC is on. The requests can be used from the command line, an alias, or in a remote. To be able to use and process the returned data mIRC uses the identifier $DDE to represent the data. Note that the active channel is marked by a star! Examples:
/say $me is currently on $dde mirc channels ""
/echo 6 $active I am currently on $dde mirc channels ""

CONNECTED topic (Only for REQUEST's)
This topic returns a single line of text with "connected", "connecting" or "not connected". Examples:
/echo 6 mIRC is currently $dde mirc connected "" to a server
/echo 6 mIRC is currently $dde mirc connected "" to $dde mirc server ""

The other topics for REQUEST's are EXENAME, INIFILE, USERS, SERVER, NICKNAME, VERSION and PORT. Lets just give some examples:
/msg $active The mIRC exe name path and filename is $dde mirc exename ""
/echo 6 mIRC's ini file is $dde mirc inifile ""
/say users on #mirc are $dde mirc users #mirc
/echo I (would) use $dde mirc server ""
/echo 3 my current nickname is $dde mirc nickname ""
/echo 4 My version is $dde mirc version ""
/echo 5 mIRC is connected to port number $dde mirc port ""

A known Windows95 flaw causes some people to report that mIRC (and several other Internet programs) tries to use the winsock software of an old provider, even if all references to that provider seem to be deleted from Windows95's setup. This blocks the capability of DCC Sending files and Initiating DCC Chats. If, for some reason, no matter what you do, mIRC picks up the software, user ID (Local Host name) from the Internet Service Provider that you no longer wish to use, you can fix this by editing the registry. If you open Regedit and look at MyComputer \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \System \CurrentControlSet \Services \VxD \MSTCP you will see the Domain and NameServer fields from your old provider and maybe even references to old winsock software. These fields will persist even if you uninstall Dial-Up Networking or other winsock's and re-install and go through the TCP/IP settings again ! The best way to solve the described problem is going to Start/Settings/Control_Panel/Network/ double click on TCPIP/ select DNS_Configuration/ and set the HOST field to the hostname (ID) you have on your new provider. If this fails edit the registry by hand, but do this with care!!