Single IRC login from multiple locations
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Loading ...Lucas Nussbaum has posed an eerily familiar question: what is the best way to maintain a single and constant IRC presence, accessible from multiple locations? After some experimentation with different solutions (including Irssi + Irssi-Proxy), I finally settled upon a combination of Bip IRC Proxy, an SSH tunnel and my favourite GUI IRC client. I was planning to write a guide, but I came across an excellent one which explains the whole process. Managing the SSH tunnel is easy with gSTM.
Now I can use the same nick from multiple sites at once. It is completely transparent to other people, so it doesn’t matter where in the world I am provided that I have an Internet connection with an SSH and IRC client. I am not forced to use a particular IRC client, and I don’t have to give up a GUI. I can even stay logged in at both home and work at the same time.
My primary feature request would be for Bip to have the capability to set myself as Away when I have no IRC clients connected. At present, it only provides the option to change my nick in this circumstance, which is too heavy-handed and pollutes the channel with announcements.
Nice, as long as it works properly. I’ve tried many solutions in the past, and they all break on something, causing chaos. Currently I run a screen session with irssi on my Linode, which works well. Though, it would be nice to connect with a local client and not feel the lag. I might give Bip a try. :)
Comment by Ycros — January 5, 2007 @ 8:41 pm
Icecap http://icecap.irssi2.org/ is going to be the best answer to the question “what is the best way to maintain a single and constant IRC presence, accessible from multiple locations?” when it’s ready. The project’s something to keep an eye on.
Comment by foo — January 9, 2007 @ 12:04 am
Why does anyone feel the need for a single and constant IRC presence? What’s wrong with logging off once in a while?
Comment by Scott — January 9, 2007 @ 6:09 pm
I use screen + irssi, works like a charm. Only downside is if you crave the gui goodness.
Comment by Andy — January 13, 2007 @ 1:51 am
Andy,
screen + irssi does not have adequate notification when I receive a message. With a bip + $IRC_client setup, I can have notifications automatically show up on my desktop. With irssi, I would have to keep checking the irssi window to see if I had received anything.
Comment by Sridhar Dhanapalan — January 13, 2007 @ 3:36 pm