IRC: An alternative to P2P

IRC: AN ALTERNATIVE TO P2P ]



INTRODUCTION

Anyone who has been using The Internet must be aware of the term p2p. Well, for the uninitiated ones, p2p means peer2peer

Kazza, e-donkey, mldonkey, etc are the famous ones. But, have you tried to download software from them..? Yeah sure you'll get your stuff, but, sometimes with an added bonus, which could be some spyware or even a virus. Anyway the point I am making is: p2p sucks!!!

Anyways, you want some better stuff, eh? OK... There are two better things to go with: FTP servers or bots on mIRC servers. I'll be detailing on the mIRC aspect of the deal.



BACKGROUND INFO


So, what is IRC anyway? [basic question; taken from IRChelp.org]

Quote:

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) provides a way of communicating in real time with people from all over the world. It consists of various separate networks (or "nets") of IRC servers, machines that allow users to connect to IRC. The largest nets are EFnet (the original IRC net, often having more than 32,000 people at once), Undernet, IRCnet, DALnet, and NewNet. Generally, the user (such as you) runs a program (called a "client") to connect to a server on one of the IRC nets. The server relays information to and from other servers on the same net. Recommended clients: *NIX/shell: xchat, ircII Windows: mIRC Macintosh clients Once connected to an IRC server on an IRC network, you will usually join one or more "channels" and converse with others there. OnEFnet, there often are more than 12,000 channels, each devoted to a different topic. Conversations may be public (where everyone in a channel can see what you type) or private (messages between only two people, who may or may not be on the same channel).

Now you do have a little background on what IRC is..


I'll be using a proggie called mIRC for windows platform as our client.

mIRC is a little program developed by Khaled Mardam-Bey, its a shareware (but, is not "crippled" in anyway) and the latest version is 6.14

The purpose of mIRC is to connect you to IRC servers (IRC = Internet Relay Chat). It was basically designed for chatting and occasional file send.

Basically one person can send a file directly to the other..this is called DCC (Direct Client Connection)