Oldest IRC Server Going Offline

Matty_ writes: "Looks like the oldest IRC server in continued operation on the Internet is going to be turned off for good. According to the server's MOTD, the server will be shut off no later than January 1. Aparently the University of Colorado can no longer support the software and hardware, as well as provide the network resources, specifically the extra bandwidth required for the various DoS (Denial of Service) attacks from which EFnet servers still suffer. They chose not to accept the liability and decided to retire the server."

Comments

special treatment

[acm]

I don't understand why they can't just limit the server for use of the students of CU (hey, and maybe CSU too :).

I've tried logging in to that server countless times under the colorado.edu domain and have gotten rejected due to too many users logged in at ocne. You'd think they'd give some priority to their students.

Another network?

[autopr0n]

From what I understand, EFnet is a real mess because they don't use things like ChanServs/nickservs, etc, so stupid script kiddies will try to DDoS servers and users in attempts to take over channels (yes, extremely stupid)

I wonder why the colorado.edu people didn't just move to another network? Undernet, I believe, supports more advance authentication methods. There's slashnet :) and some others. They could also have tried going it alone, as a server for the local university.

I don't really think IRC is dying per-se, but these big networks are really becoming untenable. In my experience, it seems to be dividing up into niche community networks like slashnet, espernet (RPG stuff) with a few major rooms -- such as #slashdot and #kuro5hin on slashnet -- where most people hang out.

Also, in all this time I never knew what Efnet stood for, just finding that out was worth clicking the story :P

Re:Another network?

[ThatComputerGuy]

You're completely correct about EFnet being a real mess, and it is in large part due to takeover attempts. Check stories 1 and 2, posted on /. some time ago, for just some of the recent events.

I frequented EFnet all the time, but eventually left because I got tired of basically it's lameness. No nick/chanserv means people rely on their own bots to control their own channels. Once the botnet goes down thanks to some scriptkiddie's DoS, the channel is free to be occupied and the takeover is complete. Or you can hammer away at the irc server(s) the botnet sits on, causing a netsplit and once again allowing a takeover. There is usually some protection against this now, which means that during a netsplit nobody can gain OPs, but this can still lead to plenty of chaos.

At the time, I checked out DalNet and a couple of others that use nick/chanserv, but for one reason or another didn't like them (I mean, what the hell kinda name is DalNet?). I think Undernet is the more popular one for warez now, as it uses these server-side protection services.

I was involved in takeovers at one time, which meant I both gained and lost a number of channels-- at the time, either of the sides would likely have said that it was more of a contest, or a game, than just being assholes, since the chans involved weren't really that important, just hangouts. Of course, at that time we also didn't think twice about how much bandwidth we were chewing from the servers. Oh well.

Having said that, I usually only go back for warez now...

Oh, and I might as well say... ShannoW, you asshole, I liked that chan!

Huh?

[Grendel Drago]

skr1p+ k1dd1ez0rz are Luddites? Puh-leaze. They're vandals, pure and simple. They like breaking shit because it commands fear and respect among their peers. Nothing new here, folks. Same shit stupid kids have been doing for ages to get attention.

-grendel drago

Re:DDOS Attacks and IRC

[Osty]

What is with IRC and DDOS attacks? If you abuse it you lose it... What about this do the DDOS attackers not understand, they are only hurting themselves, if the whole internet gets shut down because of their antics then what? Don't they see they are only hurting themselves?

Most of them don't realize 100% what they're doing. They're stuck in the old "IRC war" mindset, where most people were on dialups, or if they were lucky on a faster connection at college. It didn't take much to packet a person off when they were at 28.8 or less. As broadband has become more widespread, however, it gets harder and harder. That means the kiddies need more bandwidth to do the same thing (hey, sounds like a drug addiction ...). At a certain point, it became easier to attack the servers themselves than the people and bots in a channel you wanted.

That's only one scenario, of course. There's also many kiddies that somehow feel they have a personal (real or imagined) beef with an IRCop, and so they attack that opper's server. They don't realize they're hurting more than the single person they have a problem with.

Few kiddies can see past their own personal anger to the actual damage they're doing. They have the bandwidth (countless compromised machines with broadband connections -- thank you, @Home), and they have no qualms about using it. Part of the problem could be solved simply by getting people to fix all those compromised machines, or more drastically by getting rid of broadband altogether (not a realistic course of action, and not one I would condone even if it were realistic). The deeper problem lies in the mindset of the kiddie -- they're often your typical angsty teen, and this is a way they can gain power. It's very sad, but what can you do?

Some new IRC-like services that are available

[Cardhore]

There are some other services like IRC now that are secure and highly available, and have some features that usenet and irc don't have.

Freenet 0.4 is shaping up; expect the final 0.5 release shortly. Try downloading the newest nightly to get on. For those who aren't in the know, freenet is a peer-to-peer encrypted datastore. Each node shares part of that datastore, and freenet efficiently routes and stores data that you insert. Also it is anonymous as you can not easily tell who inserts data and who requests it

Now build on top of that is a program, Frost , that acts like Napster and a message board, a la Usenet. There are different message boards, and all messages are send & recieved anonymously.

Now both of these programs are in beta, but they do work, although large files tend to get lost in Freenet as of yet.

The final project is IIP, or Invisible Irc Project, available at http://www.invisiblenet.net/.

Also available there is a nifty program called "Psst" which allows for encrypted instant messaging. You can use it in conjunction with your normal IM program, and it's really easy to use and install.

One final note is that all of these program are cross-platform, open source, and binaries are available for windows & linux.