Howto use Ksirc for getting Instant Help for Mepis
Since there is a Mepis help channel on irc.freenode.net, you can
get help face to face from people in the #mepis chatroom. You can ask
your questions and get an answer in realtime. It can happen that
nobody answers though there are people in the room. This is most
probably due to the fact that people have to sleep, eat , do things
away from computer but stay logged in.
Software
Mepis Linux comes with many applications that allow IRC (Internet
Relay Chat). Kopete, the KDE instant messenger is one of them but a
dedicated IRC program is Ksirc. You find it in the K-Menu under
Internet – More Programs.
KSirc Usage
When you start it, the connection management screen shows up:
In the Connections menu is the New Connection item. Choose it and
you get the next screen presented.
In the Server/Quick connect textbox type irc.freenode.net
(that's the server), Port stays at 6667. That's all for this dialog, click on the Connect
button now and you reach the following screen:
You are connected to the chatserver now but didn't step into a room yet. Now
you need to know some simple commands to get this working. IRC commands
start with a Slash (/) as the first character of an input line, followed by
the command itself without a whitespace between. Everything gets sent by
hitting the enter key.
/join #roomname ... lets you step into a chatroom
/nick yourNewNickname ... let's you change your alias (nickname)
/quit ... quits (oh! how interesting ;o) a chat session
/help ... lists all commands available
/help command ... shows help information for a single command
In the above picture you see the command to join the #mepis chatroom. If you
are there, you get the final screen for chatting and asking your questions or
just saying hello.
First thing you maybe want to do is change your nickname. Example to to
this is shown above. At the right part you see all currently connected
chatusers with their nicknames. If one name is tagged with an "a" in front,
the user is away. Type a nice "Hello all!" and hit enter and wait if people
resond (which they usually do if they're not working on something.
Hope to meet you there!
STIBS
