Connect:irssi

Connecting with irssi

This guide will tell you how to connect to our bouncers using the irssi command line IRC client which is available at https://irssi.org/download/. This client can also be downloaded on most variations of linux using the following command:

   apt-get install irssi

For the purposes of this guide, we have used Irssi v1.0.5

Configuration

irssi needs to be configured to connect to our bouncer, so to do this we need to add the network and server. Firstly we need to add a server using the "/network add" command. The syntax is as follows:

   /network add <name>

The network name can be named anything for example "MyNewBouncer"

   /network add MyNewBouncer

We then need to add the server to the network using "/server add". The syntax of the command is as follows:

   /server add [options] [server] [port] [username/network:password]

The options that can and need to be used are as follows:

Option	Required	Description
-network [network name]	Required	This is the name of the network you added using "/network add"
-auto	Optional	If this is specified, irssi will automatically connect to the network whenever it is started
-noauto	Optional	If this is specified, irssi will not automatically connect to the network whenever it is started
-tls	Optional	If this option is specified, you will connect to the bouncer using SSL (Note: Port 1339 must be used)
-tls_verify	Optional	If this option is specified, irssi will verify that our bouncers certificate is valid (Recommended)

Below is an example of the "/server add" command that will add the bouncer to the network that we have created:

Once the server has been added. You will be able to connect to the bouncer. See Section Below.

Connecting

If you have added the bouncer to irssi using the above method, you can connect using the following command:

   /connect <name>

You can also manually connect to your bouncer should you need to by using one of the following commands:

   /server -tls <server> <port> <username>:<password>

or

   /server -tls <server> <port> <username>/<network name>:<password>

Examples of this are shown below:

   /server -tls apple.bnc4free.com +1339 TestOne:foo

or

   /server -tls apple.bnc4free.com +1339 TestOne/Freenode:foo

Note regarding TLS/SSL

You may find that when connecting to the bouncer, you receive several messages in the status window relating to SSL (If you are using the SSL port) that look like the below:

   -!- Irssi: Certificate Chain:
   -!- Irssi:   Subject: CN: apple.bnc4free.com
   -!- Irssi:   Issuer:  C: US, O: Let's Encrypt, CN: Let's Encrypt Authority X3
   -!- Irssi:   Subject: C: US, O: Let's Encrypt, CN: Let's Encrypt Authority X3
   -!- Irssi:   Issuer:  O: Digital Signature Trust Co., CN: DST Root CA X3
   -!- Irssi: Protocol: TLSv1.3 (256 bit, TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384)
   -!- Irssi: EDH Key: 253 bit Unknown
   -!- Irssi: Public Key: 2048 bit RSA, valid from Apr 22 10:17:40 2020 GMT to Jul 21 10:17:40 2020 GMT
   -!- Irssi: Public Key Fingerprint:  45:92:4B:89:E5:9F:AD:9D:ED:E9:32:D8:A7:4D:C7:3A:A9:59:DD:56:28:6F:47:C7:56:AB:BB:E5:29:43:F0:1D (SHA256)
   -!- Irssi: Certificate Fingerprint: B7:23:B2:E4:BC:D1:AC:7B:FA:70:CB:D7:8D:EF:B8:3F:5F:DC:66:46:14:D0:27:69:DB:98:34:3E:20:17:1E:6D (SHA256)
   -!- Irssi: Connection to apple.bnc4free.com established

These messages can be safely ignored or can be disabled completely using the following command:

   /set tls_verbose_connect off