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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.
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?
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!
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
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!
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.
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
Those of us sick of the crap simply start running our own servers. I used EFNet to hang out on a single channel. When everything started going to shit, and since I had cablemodem access (now DSL), I simply put up my own small server, and notified everyone where the channel's new home would be. Problem solved.
I really do miss the early days of IRC though. Before the 'net became flooded by the damned AOL kiddies. #flirt and #ircbar on EFNet were a riot. Oh well. We've lost this culture just as we've lost ascii art, since email clients all have HTML now. Usenet will be next, I fear. You even have people in the mozilla group posting shit with HTML. *sigh*
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.
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?
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.
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
I thought the oldest IRC server, in pedantic sense, was tolsun.oulu.fi, a SUN box that now sits in University of Oulu computer museum...
...and mind you, that machine was not taken down because of network abuse - there were two reasons for its ruination, actually: 1) it could easily be replaced with a 386 running Linux to increase its general performance, and 2) some idiot lost the power source wiring diagram when they took it down for maintenance one day.
EFnet is the first "separate" IRC network, yes, but the old IRCNet is still up and running, and is one of the most popular mostly-European networks. (Some say that's infortunate...)
(Well, at least irc.oulu.fi works just fine for me =)