For a larger picture of the screencaps click on them, it will open in a new window.

One of the fundamental requirements of playing quidditch is to have an IRC program installed. Most house team prefers you to have mIRC (Computers with Windows installed) installed. HOWEVER, mac users use a different program, such as snak or ircle. Sadly, since I'm not a mac user, I have no idea how to go about the installation for those. If you can figure it out on your own that's fine. I believe you can only ref with ircle though.

In this lesson will be a step by step on how to install mIRC, connect to the blitzed server and join some channels. We will also cover the basic knowledge to help you operate things on IRC such as changing nicks and joining some channels.

Let's first learn how to install mIRC.

1. Obviously to have mIRC, you will need to download the latest version available from the mIRC website, here:
http://www.mirc.com/get.html

2. Now since mIRC current version is 6.33, click on the green button that says "Download mIRC" and it will take you to a page that says "Download Now". A prompt will come up saying "Opening mirc633.exe please select "Save File".

3. The file should appear wherever your downloads go to on your computer. Double click the mirc633.exr file to open it. To start installing mIRC, click next

4. Next, click on I Agree to accept the their agreements (If you do choose to click No, you will not be able to get mIRC installed *g*)

5. It will then ask you for a specific directory of where you want to install mIRC and some other options, unless you want to set it up to your liking, leave it as the default and click on Next.

6. It will ask what type of installation you would like. Choose full.

7. It will ask you where you would like it installed and if you want shortcuts. If you don't have mIRC it will usually install it in your program files.

8. This is the next screen, click next.

9. Click on install. It will start installing. It shouldn't take long to install (Roughly 30 seconds on my computer).

10. Then once it finished installing, if you want to continue this tutorial then check Launch mIRC and click on Finish.

Congratulations! You have mIRC installed! Now it time to connect to the blitzed Server on IRC

(Note: If you've chosen to Launch mIRC after the installation, then you can skip the next step (step 11). )

11. Now to load mIRC, go to the Start Menu, then point to Program, then point to mIRC and then click on the mIRC program.

12. Now once mIRC has been opened, lets set some things up to identify you on the HOL channels.

First you will get this screen,

For your Full Name (Use your HOL Name, DO NOT USE YOUR REAL NAME!!).
You don't have to put your email address in either, though I chose to do so.
For your nick name, you can use (preferably) your first HOL name or your First HOL name and your first letter of your last HOL name. For example: Missa or MissaM.
For your alternative, put another alternative nick incase your nick name is taken. Please note, you will be asked to register your mIRC. You do not have to do this. The only thing that will happen is it will keep reminding you. Trust me, I've never paid a cent in over 7 years.

Now we need to ensure we are on the blitzed server, expand Connect, and then go to Servers.

On the side bar in the newly opened box, scroll up until you see a folder labelled blitzed. Select that folder and below the words Random Server, will appear. Once that happens, select that by clicking on it (which should highlight it) and click on select. This will close the window. You may need to correct your port settings which is under port settings. Use one of these three ports: 6667, 6668 or 7000.

And now you should be connected.

However, if this shows up

Then for some reason the irc did not load the correct server. It loaded on the webchat server.You'll notice that down in the area where you can type I typed: /server irc.blitzed.org - if you type this and press ENTER, then you should be able to get in to the correct server.

First of all, you’d probably want to know how to join a few channels, specifically the class channel, and maybe some HOL channel. It is a very simple command for you to remember.

The command is /join #[Channel Name]. Easy isn’t it!? For example to join the class channel, it is:

/join #holquidditch

You can do that for the other HOL channels, such as:

/join #hol (A room where HOLers can come and visit everyone!)
/join #hufflepuff (Hufflepuff Common Room)
/join #gryffindor (Gryffindor Common Room)
/join #slytherin (Slytherin Common Room)
/join #ravenclaw (Ravenclaw Common Room)

Now since you all know how to join the HOL channels and our class channel, let's learn how to change our nicks (Nick name). There maybe time for example on one of our assignment will require you to bot using your HOL ID, and also when you maybe away or busy for example.

Here's an example, where I am changing my nick to my HOL ID.

You do /nick [new nick]. To change my nick to my HOL ID, you do /nick pr_mis.

To do simple away messages, you can do /nick Missa|Busy, or even /nick Missa|Away.

When you are back, you can simply go back to /nick [Your original nick name] for myself it would be /nick Missa. (DO NOT ATTEMPT USING MY NICK ON IRC SINCE IT WOULD COUNT AS IMPERSONATING OTHER PEOPLE).

The last thing you will need to do is to be able to register your nick on IRC so you can use it when ever you like to. It also prevents other people taking advantage of your nick which could lead to impersonation.

To register your nick, you use the following command:

/ns REGISTER password E-mail

To register, you use the command above to have your nick registered. Make sure you are using the nick you want registered!

Now to register, you have a password and email to register. For example, I want to register Jane.

So I am currently using the nick Jane, and then I put in the command:

/ns REGISTER happy janedoe@mail.com

So happy is the password and janedoe@mail.com will be the email where they send you the authentication code.

After you register the nick, you should get an email from the blitzed server that will allow you to authenticate the nick. It will look something like this:

/ns REGISTER AUTH jkgfkjfgeiebxziopwruwqlp - you will need to paste that into your IRC window and the program will authenticate it.

That will then have your nick registered and yours to own. A reminder though that if you don't use your nick in 30 days, it will become unregistered and available for other people to use.

Once your nick is registered, you will need to identify yourself on IRC to confirm that you are the rightful owner of that nick, the command to do that is:

/ns identify [password]

So for example if I was in Jane's nick, I type in:

/ns identify happy

This will verify that I am the rightful owner of this nick.

Now this next step is optional and that is setting enforce onto your nick, to prevent other users to use your nick unless they have the correct password. Failure to put a password within 30 seconds in will automatically the person's nick to Guest[random numbers].

To do that the command is:

/ns SET ENFORCE on