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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."
I guess we'll have to use the other IRC server now.
this is sad - for the first time the 133t cyber d00dz have won. Freedom->abuse of freedom.
The server will be flooded from now to Jan1. People will want to just chat on it "one more time"; the costs will be much higher than normal.(Also the 5|41P7 81DD33Z will want one more go at it) Of course, that means that the University may pull the plug on it even earlier...
Everything is mainstream now.
Four years ago, Jarkko Oikarinen wrote a history of EFnet. In late '9, irc.colorado.edu reached 1000 users. Interesting read for anyone interested in how EFNet became what it is today.
What do you think of MusicCity now?
A current list of efnet servers can be found at efnet.org. I realize that sometimes this site is somewhat less than reliable itself, but it is updated regularly to reflect reality.
-- I Am Not A Terrorist.
someone volunteered their bandwidth to host the machine... they could even get colorado.edu's sysop to update the DNS entry.
Other than that, I can't see much else to do with it. It's only worth nostalgiac value. I'll be watching eBay for when someone puts it on sale. *grin*
I'm done with sigs. Sigs are lame.
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.
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)
:) and some others. They could also have tried going it alone, as a server for the local university.
:P
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
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
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I believe that LISP is the main reason for the downfall if this particular IRC server. Someone obviously spent too much time trying to come up with a solution to this DOS attacks with LISP, which left almost no money for MUCH more important programmers and network admins. DAMN you LISP!
I'm surprised they lasted this long. IRC itself is on a long spiral down, thanks to the ungrateful bastards that DoS the servers. People can't afford all that extra bandwidth. Where will the skript kiddiez go after the Big 3 die? MSN Chat?
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?
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
www.haidacarver.com
If more large IRC servers shut down, I believe that other IRC servers ,charging for use, would come into existence to fill the void left by the loss of EFnet and the like. It's happening everywhere else on the Internet, which is why it seems quite possible.
You die too easily.
Yeah, the lamers DoS the irc network, and us /.ers DoS the network's webpage... yeah, aren't we just great?
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
hmm immature kiddies. god thats a shame though, oldest server using IRC and its shutting down because of a bunch of unapreshative packet kiddies who are being immature because they pissed off the network by being stupid and want shit like channels and accounts back. to them all i have to say is get a life. stop ruining good things. want to be elite then go learn something useful and perhaps even code something to help the world rather that hurt it.
VAX
.
You know how many efnet servers have closed or reduced availability because of the kiddiez? More than one, I can tell you.
While reading the MOTD, I noticed this:
They [the University] can no longer accept the liability of running an IRC server
Given IRC's tendency towards being a haven for piracy, especially software and music, and given recent attempts by the RIAA/MPAA/$FOO_EVIL_ENTITY to prosecute servers and ISPs who host pirated files, one has to one if this server being taken down is a response to or a preemption against legal threats...
Some peoples comments here have been a little misinformed/out-of-date but, I'll spout some knowledge for your enjoyment.
Chanfix, a sort of ChanServ, has been put into operation on EFnet. Making packeting for channels relatively pointless. As of late, I've noticed less DoS, but I may just not be feeling it.
There is no, and probably never will be, any variation of NickServ. The "nicks/channels aren't owned" philosophy that EFnet was famous for is dying out. But, I don't think it will ever die out so much as to put in some type of NickServ solution.
As for EFnet politics, they're still there. But some progress has been made. The efnet.org website is the most official, functional website the network has ever had. There's been attempts to put comittees together for various area's, such as CoderCom. The voting site is functional and got some use where I had access to it, I don't know about it now.
But there still is work to be done. I personally haven't seen much in the way of enforcement of most things that were "voted" on by the admins. But this could be my not-in-the-know fault. All in all, EFnet and IRC in general is surviving. EFnet has remained at a stable, if not very slightly growing, lower to mid 70k users. Other networks have grown to surpass us, last I checked DALnet had over 100k users and they're doing quite well.
IRC is far from dead. All servers delink eventually, it's just the way of things. But the network is still the same stuborn machine it's always been and will continue to be.
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
Efnet as well as Dalnet and a few other major IRC networks are bombarded by script kiddies on a daily basis, dalnet almost shut down like last year because of it. a bunch of morons with stolen cisco routers were flooding them with dos attacks. which made chatting on the network about as fun as sending one line e-mails at a time. the problem isnt the servers its the morons who are against them. IRC is a free service and if people dont start to respect it, its eather going to slowly leave or start charging. I dont know about you all but i use it regularly and i would personally like to give these 12 year old h4X0rs a peice of my mind. or perhaps a visit from the fbi might help change thier ways eh? well iam not wasting my time tracing a bunch of wanna-bes but something certainly needs to be done.. perhaps a new irc protocall wouldnt be a bad idea.. following the example of ssh perhaps, making it secure and allowing the servers hosting irc to reject all the DoS crap they get daily.
just a thought
VAX
.
On the PtP issue: do what other groups have done: Bandwidth limit the PtP prototcols. This way they're not censoring it, and bandwidth is preserved. Many even open up the pipes during otherwise low-traffic hours.
By continuing to refuse to implement tools like ChanServ and NickServ, Efnet servers and admins made a WAR zone of themselves. I think they digged their own graves; if people would not fight on who owns the channels, thier wont be no DoS to Efnet servers.
EFNET, Register the phreaking channels!!
This is the one of three remaining .edu servers. US EFnet at one point in time was made up over 50% edu's.
l
.edu makes up about 50% :) IRC got it's start with colleges, that is a fading trend however as major ISPs are mostly the ones holding the torches. This does seem to parallel the Internet itself though, doesn't it? Starting with educational institutions and then being supported by commercial endeavours.
A list of dead EFnet servers can be viewed at http://outcaste.shits.in.the.pigpond.com/dead.htm
Notice that
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
How little bandwith do they have if 22.5Mbps matters?
EFnet's official website is http://www.efnet.org/ They have a server list that is updated automatically like once every 10 mins. Enjoy.
I thought that was the oldest server, when did they appear?
:) but 9 years of beer really wears a brain out...
/kill is worth it... but I guess it grows old :)
I think I started chatting back in 92 AFAICR... I do remember typing irc.eff.org
Anyways, it's really a shame that these servers are going offline one by one, I guess it's more like "we don't have anyone that wishes to administer our irc server but we don't want to look like [insert any unjustified insults here] so we'll go out with a comment that will put more preasure agains those lame script kiddies, diverting the real issues", I'm sure most DDoS exploits can be patched easily, so it's probably the lack of people that wishes to administer the server. We can't blame them for that, I mean, most of us used the service, but how many would actually give away a box and bandwidth for it?
Of course, having the power to
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
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
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
EFnet is not going down in flames. Our global user count continues to grow. As we speak we have 2 brand new servers being setup to link to our network, one of them is at uu.net. We have an automated services that keeps channels from becoming opless, and allows irc admins to 'restore' the original ops in a chan should something happen. Much more is to come as well... I don't at all consider us "going down in flames"
irc, believe it or not, is how i defined my "internet identity" so to speak, and i know many people who agree that it definitely somethign special. its entirely to sad to see the one network that offered the most freedom to its users get a leg chopped out from underneath.. the way i (and we) grew up on irc is a far cry from how kids are growing up on other forms of internet communication (aol instant messenger and icq, etc). hell, i remember when irc meant one of three things: dalnet, efnet, or undernet. "Time is simply a way you humans meausure your own decay!" -Thundercleese
"Everything we say and do is right." -a mooninite
Steve Gibson brags on his web site how he read the RFC for IRC and easily was able to act like a super Op. If it's that easy to find holes in the protocol, then why not just add a few security measures to the protocol and have the servers update their software? Sendmail, BIND, and the like are always updating their server software. Won't someone maintain ircd? Yes - it's tragic that the large IRC networks may be going the way of the dinosaurs. Then again, then last time I personally was on EFNET was at least 6 months ago. The last ime I used it regularly was more than 2 years ago.
VE6LSH
EFnet has great channels Like #videopimp and #futuramavcd but DALnet is great too.
irc.prison.net is a good way to connect to EFnet. That is what I use to connect
This is exactly what we do at my University. We went with Packeteer and have never looked back. Before we limited p2p clients, they were utilizing 80-90% of our T1 pipe, and hardly anything else could get through. Now that they're limited, the students (and professors) don't complain that the network is slow all the time. Those that use p2p clients don't seem to mind -- they're still getting their warez and illegal music, just not as fast.
Without you I'm one step closer to happiness without violence.
IRC is still one of the best place to find warez, movies, pr0n, all that good stuff...
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Don't forget the dot com flameout...EFNet also once had 250+ servers...now it's down to 38.
38 servers on EFNet now, 38 servers on EFNet...
Take it down by DOSin it around...
37 servers on EFNet now...
Electrawn
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.
Got friends?
How many "clients" on EFNet are bots and how many are actual users.
I'd put money on the fact that the actual user count has gone way down since inception, EFNet is about 75% eggdrop bots holding channels or nick holders.
And 25% of those are probably Mark's bots.
Quantity never equalled quality. While EFNet may never die, Opers on EFNet need to wake up to some cold hard facts:
1) Channels have owners.
2) Nicks have owners.
When Opers maintain a policy of not getting involved in such disputes, parties involved will go to war to maintain control, turning EFNet servers into a battle ground.
Finally, as the servers start dying out and the leftist liberals running them can no longer maintain the anarchy of script kiddies, warez and kiddie porn, the only way to save the network is to run services that keep order.
Electrawn
Electrawn
irc.colorado.edu
Users: 758 Opers: 5
(1%) of EFnet Population
It is sad to see it go. Too bad some people ruined it for others.
the oldest IRC server in continued operation on the Internet is going to be turned off for good...
... specifically the extra bandwidth required for the various DoS [snip] attacks [snip]. They chose not to accept the liability and decided to retire the server.
"THE OLDEST IRC SERVER". Didn't you read???? ...people didnt's spell like "l33t d00dz" in these days...
Damn, what a waste!
R.
I would just like to note that IRC-2.mit.EDU has been running for far longer than irc.colorado.edu. However, it has not been part of EFnet for a good many years now.
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
It's been good serving the IRC community for the last 12 years.
Huh? I'm pretty sure that no part of 1988 was 12 years ago. Either that first year must have sucked, or math isn't a big thing at the University of Colorado.
when abs.net (whom hosts baltimore-r (now known as hidden51)) would get attacked, uworld (the primary oper service bot on undernet, also hosted at abs (talk about putting all your eggs in one basket)) would be down too, making it nearly impossible to reop channels. Granted EUworld was there as a backup, sometimes. EFnet Does have a channel service far superior to that of undernet and dalnet, and here's why. #1 Chanfix doesn't care what your channel name is, or what type of activity goes on there. It simply ops the top five 'regular' ops and leaves. #2 No User Login or Registration. You aren't forced to apply for protection on EFnet, and there are no 'passwords' you have to 'login' to the bot with. #3 No Oper Intervention. Chanfix monitors the network for opless channels, and when it senses one, it simply joins, reops and leaves. You don't have to kiss an opers ass to get them to reop your warez channel like you do on other networks which are too facist to allow protection for channels with questionable content. and as far as irc.att.net.. it did NOT have the most bandwidth. It ran off four T1's. The bandwidth was nearly maxxed with 10,000 users. And it wasn't delinked due to DoS. It was delinked because the way it was setup, att.net had to pay a third party (superlink.net) to host the server every month, provide the long haul T1's, and pay for hardware. They simply got sick of paying for it with 0 return, and decided to focus on the att.net community port. Also, the ircadmin of the server had problems with undernet routing, which made her frustrated, and I believe influenced the delink. As far as the best opers, I'll agree with you there.. =] dB
This has happened many times before.
irc.blackened.com went down for similar reasons.
It was the first IRC server to break 5,000 clients among other firsts.
At one point, the packeting got so bad the entire state of Arizona's bandwidth was effected (or something to that effect.)
For a good resource on EFNet history, I recommend
the EFnet history page at the-project.
From deep in the University of Colorado, in the dark recesses of a server room long forgotten by the passing students but still held in the hearts of those who have never stood in front of her...
;)
...a sob is heard...
Farewell to you, irc.colorado.edu! I'll try to come by and pet you before I head into finals.
Ryan
"All your base are belong to this file I send in order to have your advice."
https://voting.blackened.com/pastvotes/0022.shtml
I have the capability to run an IRC server if I really wanted. I enjoy using irc (#alt.fan.elite on Starchat), and I have met good friends through IRC (in real life, as in go out have a beer etc) but as for running a server, I've decided that I'd rather try skiing through a revolving door before I ever bothered running an IRC server.
/that/ much bandwidth. But one DDoS attack could easily put you into excess bandwidth charges - as well as knocking your server offline.
/ignore if a user was being a pain in the ass). In our channel, we solve it the other way - everyone gets ops. It runs remarkably smoothly that way.
Why? Firstly, the politics. IRC is supposed to be fun, but the politics amongst the routing teams, opers, network admins etc. is just lame. Half of the friggin' admins like to think they are God.
Secondly, running an IRC server is like painting a huge DDoS bullseye on your server. Normally, IRC doesn't take up
IRC is supposed to be fun but the combination of lame admins and lame lusers make it an unpleasant chore. So I'll stick to being a mere user in an out of the way channel that's mode +s.
As for Starchat, at least they've done some things to protect themselves from DDoS attacks - they've made it non-trivial to find out the actual names of all the servers and the way they are linked (/map etc. are disabled), IP addresses are masked so users won't get DDoSed, ChanServ and NickServ are implemented. StarChat's still relatively small so they aren't the big DDoS target the large networks are. But even with this network, there's more than enough lameness to go around.
Looking at the bigger networks - look at the application process for adding your server to DALnet. The process seems about as fun as an IRS tax audit. Half the time, the IRC networks are their own worst enemies. I think a lot of the problems with IRC could be solved if there was no such thing as ops (instead, server-side
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
Ah, yes, because god knows ham radio fans are never full of themselves.
I just realized something while reading this. The dal people usually despise the efnet peoples, and yes, the efnet peoples think dal peeps are a bunch of script kiddies. But my point isn't that. Does anyone remember 'the mentors last words'? Something like 'We exist without race, nationality, religeous bias...' Well, this doesn't exactly ring true anymore. Seems you can be discriminated against now because of what network you chat on. I guess times change.
Can all fish swim?
http://netsplit.de/networks/
People not only use IRC -- millions of people use it every day. I was first introduced to it as a low-cost way to keep in contact with European and Australian offices. Some nets are growing at an astounding pace, as well -- QuakeNet (where no warez or porn are allowed) is little over three years old, and recently hit the 60,000 simultaneous user mark.
The biggest reason it's going offline is the DoS attacks that it's had to endure. I agree that they can't go on the way they've been, but going offline may not be the right answer either. I'm sure the server will continue running in some dark room where only the sys admins know about it, and only 'special' people get access to it.
But the point is, punk-ass imature little brats have ruined something that we all love. When a group of people vandalize buildings to the point they can't be used, the building gets torn down. It's pretty much the same thing. And it sucks that the villian doesn't pay for that either.
~LoudMusic
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
I remeber chatting on there back in 91, run by quatradeck(quarterdeck?) corp? outta cali?, met a lot of intresting people there, gone and drifted since then...and to think...it's been 10 years since that. I think the server eventually folded around 93-94 when the company closed up shop.
Om, nomnomnom...
Wouldn't that be a lark - your IRC experience, sponsored by the Colorado Buffaloes football team.
I find it interesting that CU is choosing to shutdown an IRC server when they allow programs like http://www.cunap.com
hmm i couldnt tell if you were, A. Advertising your lame channels or B. A actual fan of videopimp and futuramavcd. Not that iam dissing DivX or getting movies online but is this really the place to get more hits to your rooms? i mean if i made a room today on say dalnet called #IamMakingMoneyOnAllYouMoronsThatComeInOffSlashdot would it really benefit the community for me to paste it all over the comments? hmmm? yea and besides those not intrested in the "videopimps" can check out some of the more interesting channels on EFnet, theres a nice little feature called a chat list *grin*
VAX
aww but that ruins the kids fun of scanning whole class A networks looking for "EFnet" servers.
although, for the sake of those of us with humor, we as a community do have that effect on things dont we = ) perhaps it shows the power of thousands of eager geeks = ) i can remember when i was on 56k and trying to read pages linked off slashdot. It was usually something like "Connecting to "fill in url"......
and the the progress bar going about this much every few mintues
|=| | (such wonderful graphics i know)
followed by a cannot load site error, lol
but hey web masters cant complain we also spend alot of $$ as a community and they probly make alot off our popup adds alone = )
lemme see 10cents a click times 50,000 tricked slashdot users.. yea sounds like we should all make sites and "get rich quick"
VAX
..
During that time, i'm sure there are no such word
"mirc friends" like today
-- Hasbullah bin Pit (sebol)
Seems the poster doesn't know IRC history.
First IRC server on the world, has been obviously tolsun.oulu.fi. This server is *still* running as part of IRCnet (The other side of The Great Split).
Saying "Oldest server on EFnet going offline" is correct "oldest in world" isn't.
JV
Or you could do what Rutgers University does and threaten students with nasty emails promising account revocation if you exceed 200 megabytes of traffic per day.
Ah.. Brings back memories of efnet '93-'94. There was plenty of people, the right amount I would say, before Win95 was released and AOL was connected.
Granted, there were lots of idiots (myself included) but man, there was alot of cool people back then. Mainly college students, if you knew what IRC was back then you had some sort of intelligence.
I remember hanging out mostly on #punk (we frequently waited for a split to take over #metal).
Fuck Ajit Pai
That would certainly help, but from my experience at universities, it seems that bandwidth expands to whatever your capacity is. Funny, I remember at my universiy we doubled the bandwidth coming in and out, and within several months we were back up to nearly 100% saturation. It never stops!
Moon Macrosystems. Sun's biggest competitor.
200 megabytes?! I've done Debian updates that have taken up more than that...
I am not an idiot. Please use my name to email me.
"That's right, I'm quoting myself."
-Upsilon
I've been trying various IRC networks but the people I met were all appallingly stupid, self centered and uneducated. Is there a network for topic oriented intelligent debate? Something where you can discuss anything from a Mozart opera to a math theorem without having to deal with totally moronic preteens?
I wonder if irc is giving away to IM... Although I still like the chat room, community aspect of IRC. Perhaps AIM could go with a MIRC-like interface and support rooms?
.. hmm shows how much you go on dalnet these days, you should see some of the bullshit bots, make money, well if ad banners can make money than so can fake channels and lotsa spam bots.
What? I get moderated as a troll? No wonder slashdot is so impossible to read at high moderation settings these days. For those of you who weren't around iRC in the early and mid 90s, that rhyme was nostalgic, hence the smiley. I don't see *how* nostalgia could possibly be construed as anything but on-topic for a discussion of the oldest irc server going kaput.
Ob IRC: Seriously, though, where *do* folks on the west coast hook up nowadays?
Strange that actually it looks the probably biggest IRC network (over 100 000 users in busy parts of day) (I'm not sure if dalnet isn't actually a bit bigger, but it really doesn't matter ;) IRCnet is not very known. In fact it also includes *.fi, including irc.oulu.fi, so the very first core of IRC is the member of it as well, and this supports the claim of IRCnet to be original IRC network. It suffers from many problems as EFnet has as there's no chanserv or nickserv at IRCnet as well, however I think the DoS attacks aren't so frequent at IRCnet (altough they happens), even when it's larger than EFnet is.
l
There's story about The Great Split in '96 (EFnet vs. IRCnet) at http://www.irc.org/history_docs/TheGreatSplit.htm
There's also IRCnet's homepage, surprisingly at http://www.ircnet.com/.
Anyway, do anyone know what's up with Jarkko?
It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end. -Douglas Adams