ULYSSIS public IRC

ULYSSIS hosts its own IRC network. IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, IRC on wikipedia. It is a chat protocol that mainly focuses on group chat, but also allows for private chat.

For any support questions, you are free to contact us via email on ulyssis@ulyssis.org, but if your questions are of a less sensitive nature and could benefit from a back-and-forth, it could be useful to contact us on IRC. Do keep in mind that you may have to wait until someone notices your question, which may take a while. If you don't have a question and just want to hang out in our chat, feel free to join!

Keep in mind that our IRC network has been a social space for several generations, so you will find alumni and students from different walks of life there, not just ULYSSIS members and users.

Web IRC client

If you won't regularly use our IRC or if you just want to check it out, you can use our web IRC client. You can find it at webirc.ulyssis.org. Remember to leave your web IRC browser tap open while you wait for a response.

IRC network details

Below are specific instructions for some clients, but if you are already familiar with IRC, here are the details you need to connect to our server. We highly recommend using SSL.

Server: irc.ulyssis.org
Port: 6668 (SSL)
Channel: #ulyssis

If irc.ulyssis.org is down, you can also try the other server in the same network, hosted at irc2.ulyssis.org. Both are connected to each other and you can use them interchangeably. It is advised to add it as a fallback in your IRC client.

IRC clients

To use IRC, you'll need an IRC client. We advise the terminal based irssi or weechat for Linux and hexchat or mIRC for Windows, but there are a lot of other free options.

You can only receive messages over IRC while you're connected. Therefore, we advise you to run irssi or weechat in either a screen or a tmux session. With a ULYSSIS account, you can run screen or tmux on our shellservers, as they keep running 24/7 you can use them to keep track of your conversations. Screen and tmux are similar programs. Screen has been around for longer and is more tested, while tmux is more modern with new features and being easier to use for beginners.

Using irssi on our shell servers

Connect to the shellserver

Use the ssh command in your Linux or OS X terminal, or use PuTTY to connect on windows. Extensive information on how to do so can be found on Accessing shell servers over SSH.

Start irssi in a screen

• When on the shellserver, enter screen -U to start a screen session, or tmux to start a tmux session.
• Enter irssi to start irssi
• Connect to the IRC server: /server -ssl irc.ulyssis.org 6668
• Connect to the public channel: /join #ulyssis

Screen usage

• To exit the screen: press Ctrl-A and press D ('detach') to return to the shellserver.
• To reconnect: enter screen -r or screen -DR (the latter will create a new screen if it wasn't already made).

Tmux usage

• To exit the tmux session: press Ctrl-B and press D ('detach') to return to the shellserver.
• To reconnect: enter tmux attach

Help, I can't reconnect to my session!

• Check if you are on the right shell server and didn't make a typing error.
• If everything is correct, your screen may have been stopped by a crash or a reboot of our shellserver. You can check the status section of our website for more information about possible downtimes.
• Make sure you use the right program (screen if you started a screen session and tmux if you started a tmux session)

Using ZNC

Alternatively, if you don't like using terminal-based clients, or just want to run your client locally, you can connect with our ZNC server. However, to use it, you'll need a ULYSSIS account. ZNC connects to our IRC server in your place (fill in the details at the beginning of this article). You can then connect to ZNC with a client of your choice, and it will send you the history you've missed while you were offline.

Log in to our ZNC server. In your settings, create a new network. Fill in the basic details (server name, nickname, set BindHost to 0.0.0.0). In the server field, fill in irc.ulyssis.org +6668. Add #ulyssis as a channel. You may want to increase the buffer count. Then save at the bottom of the page.

In your IRC client, connect to the server znc.ulyssis.org on port 6666 (with SSL) and set username/network:password as password to the server. Replace username with your ULYSSIS username, network with the name of the network in your znc settings, and password with your ULYSSIS password.

Using Bitlbee

With Bitlbee, you can connect to other services as if they were an IRC server. It is available at bitlbee.ulyssis.org on ports 7000 and 7001 (SSL). For documentation on how to use Bitlbee, we refer to the manual on its website. This service is only reachable from within the ULYSSIS and KU Leuven networks.