Halo Wars Central

Hey there!

Welcome to the wonderful world of IRC! This tutorial will guide you through the steps needed to get your very own IRC client set up and connected to the #halowars channel on irc.bungie.org, where you will be able to chat in real time with your fellow Halo Wars fans about anything you like, day or night.

If you're looking to get connected quickly, without fuss but with limitations to your IRC experience, you're probably better off using the Java Client to connect. This limited IRC interface only requires you to enter an alias to connect with, and does the rest of the work for you. However, if you're looking for an always on connection, registration and a shot at gaining special privileges, a proper IRC client is what you need and this is the tutorial for you.

Before we begin

The #halowars channel is located on the irc.bungie.org server, which over the years has developed into the pillar of the Halo IRC community. Other sites that keep official channels on the server include halo.bungie.org, highimpacthalo.org and halogrid.com. As well as specific channel rules, there are some global server rules that you'll need to read up on here, there's a good deal of wit thrown in there to ease the read, so get to it!

Once you've read all that, it's time to get connected.

Step 1 - Downloading & Installing your IRC client

The IRC client is a piece of software that runs on your desktop, allowing you to connect and chat on IRC as you would with any instant messaging application. Once you've completed this tutorial, simply running your IRC client will connect you right to the #halowars channel ready to talk.

There are many IRC clients available for both Windows and Macintosh, in this tutorial we will be using the "X-Chat 2" client for Windows, available for free at the X-Chat 2 homepage. Download this now. If you are using a Macintosh, you might consider X-Chat Aqua. The setup processes are almost identical for both versions, so you should have no issues in getting connected.

Once saved to your computer, you need to install the X-Chat 2 client. To do this, simply double click on the downloaded file (shown above) and follow the instructions through the installation.

Note: When you are presented with the screen asking you what feature's you'd like to install, simply click next, the default install options are all that are needed here.

Step 2 - Running the client and setting up the #halowars channel

Once installed, run the X-Chat client from your programs menu.

Note: Some users may get the following error when starting X-Chat.

In our experience, this has not caused any issues with the running of the client itself and can simply be ignored. However, if it bothers you, you can download the MSVCR71.dll file here. Simply drop it in your C:\WINDOWS\system\ directory and the error will go away.

You will now see a window like this:

First, replace the fields filled in with "Administrator" with your own name or online Alias. Using "Administrator" could get you in trouble if it were deemed impersonation. It's best to use something people will recognize, your forum name perhaps.

Next, click the add button to add a new network to the network list. Name this IBO, IRC.BUNGIE.ORG or something else you'll recognize easily.

Finally, tick the "Skip network list on startup" box (highlighted below). Your Network List window should now look something like this:

Next, with the network you just created selected, click the "Edit" button. You will now be presented with the network editing window, to make the next few steps easy for you, here's a picture of how the edit window needs to look.

Check your network settings match exactly the ones pictured above, then click close.

Step 3 - Connecting

You should now be looking at the Network List once again. Check that "Skip network list on startup" is checked once again, and that your irc.bungie.org network is selected, then click connect. If all goes well, you should now be connected to the #halowars IRC channel on irc.bungie.org. You're done!

Notes

1. If you were unable to connect, please go back and check your settings against this tutorial. If all else fails, you can still use the in-browser Java Client to connect, perhaps even figure out your problem!

2. Have suggestions on how to improve this tutorial? Email us at halowarscentral@gmail.com.

3. Halo Wars Central, irc.bungie.org or the #halowars channel are not owned or run by Ensemble. We are part of the community, just like you, and as such we cannot deal with your issues on the Halo Wars Forums.