How to use Instantbird and Pidgin messengers for IRC chat.

Instantbird and Pidgin messengers are best known for talking to contacts on multi-networks. And they both support Google Talk,MSN,Aim and more. But did you know that you can also use Pidgiand Instantbird to connect to and chat on IRC networks? Until a few days ago, I did not know this myself.Until I searched on the web and found out that you can connect to multiple IRC networks on both messengers.

There are several IRC chat messengers, but they are not very user friendly,in fact several that I tried I could not use at all. And a lot of IRC clients are only free for a trial period. After which time you have to pay to carry on using it.

But Instantbird and Pidgin are both free messengers. And as well as supporting most email accounts,they also support IRC,where a lot of other ordinary messengers don't.

Here is how you can connect to IRC networks on both Instantbird and Pidgin. Go to the account set up,select IRC,from the list of accounts.
The IRC server address on both Pidgin and Instantbird is set at irc.freenode.net, and connects to the Freenode network server by default. But you can change the server address to a another network of your choice. 

For example, I want to connect to Dynastynet network. So I type in the server address for that network-which is irc.dynastynet.net.

And then choose a user name and you can also add a name that you want to be known as, but this is optional. And note, you do not need to create a password to connect to IRC,unless you have registered your user name, or nickname as it is called in IRC. On IRC, your user name is your nickname. Then click connect and you are now connected to the IRC server. You can also connect to multiple IRC networks at the same time on Instantbird and Pidgin just like you are on an IRC chat messenger.

You can do all of the things on Instantbird and Pidgin that you can on IRC chat messengers,commands,you can join and create channels. And Pidgin has the added feature of a channel finder, and will scan and find a list of all channels on the server you are connected to. And you can then just join that channel.

Instantbird, like Pidgin will connect to any IRC network server, but it does not have a channel finder. But if you know the channel you want, you can just type in the channel name, and it will connect you to it. And on Pidgin if the channel you want is not in the list, you can still connect to it by typing in the channel name. For example #andreaborman.

You can search for a channel not on the channel list, for example type #channel name. And you can also create your own channel, as I mentioned. But if you do want to create your own IRC channel, you will first need to register your nickname, and create a password.

After you have registered your nickname, you will have to enter your password every time you connect to the Freenode, or other IRC server that you have registered your nickname with. You can edit your IRC account on both Pidgin and Instantbird to enable automatic log into the server. To do this go to account and select modify account, and where it says password,enter your IRC nickname password and click save. You will then be logged in automatically every time you connect to the IRC server,where you have registered your nickname.

It is also a good idea to register your nickname anyway,to stop someone else from using it. And you do not have to create a channel to do this.

Also IRC text messaging is easy and looks better on both Pidgin and Instantbird than what it does in an IRC chat client. So if you have been using Pidgin or Instantbird for normal chat,the layout will be familiar to you. You can also save the channel, and set up both messengers to log you into that channel next time you start Pidgin or Instantbird.

So Instantbird and Pidgin do have a lot of additional and customizable features for both IRC and normal chat that IRC chat clients don't have. But they do not support voice or video chat. Although the Linux version of Pidgin supports voice and video chat on Google Talk only. The windows version of Pidgin does not but there are other messengers for that.

Both Pidgin and Instantbird work very perfect on IRC and are a real alternative to the complicted and difficult to use IRC clients.

I am just leaning about IRC, and I have set up my own IRC channel on Rizon. It is at irc.rizon.net my channel is called #andreaborman
Which is my channel name. 

It is about computers,Internet and computer software. And no, I do not have any strict rules about staying on topic like other channels do. If some one is talking about Linux, and another person wants to change the subject to Windows, that is fine by me. My IRC channel is just a try out and I have only just created it. But it could catch on.

Links-Pidgin Messenger-download link-click here.

Instantbird Messenger-download link-click here.

Images top-Instantbird and Pidgin in action on IRC. Pidgin also scans for channels on the IRC server you are connected to. The layout of both messengers is simple,making it easy to send and receive messages on IRC.