Irc

[Redemption]

Yes I know they are not allowed, I can undestand why they would not want IRC connected to a major network. However why are you guys against a standalone server to be used strictly for one site?

I love the support here, seccond to none. But recently, I been considering having an IRC channel for my site and I hate to shop for a nother provider. I should not have to pay for a irc account elsewhere when I am paying for a VPS fully capable of running the program. So why exactly is a standalone IRC server not permited?

[Vin DSL]

So why exactly is a standalone IRC server not permitted?

Hrm...

I was working on a PHP IRC-clone, a while back -- used snippets from the IRC code, such as 'ircsend'. I figured there had to be a way around this almost universal ban (on shared hosting) -- a better IRC, if you will.

The (ahem) net result was, while it was quite easy to make the bandwidth usage extremely efficient, there was no way of getting around the fact that the proggie was running constantly in the background, watching n' waiting to reload n' refresh the page.

Every time I thought I had it, and tested it here, I would watch in amazement as the server load climbed and climbed and climbed. Finally, I gave up on the IRC-clone idea...

That's probably the reason they don't allow IRC servers -- server load -- not bandwidth, e.g. network issues.

As an aside, I finally solved this 'chat situation' using Ajax. You don't even know it's sitting there, server load or bandwidth-wise! IMHO, this is the way to go...

BTW, I haven't released my version into the wild yet -- haven't figured out a way to keep the bots out (yet) -- probably have to come up with some sort of auth routine -- but, here's the core code that I used:

http://www.smiletag.com/

If you're not hung up on having an IRC channel on your site, and simple want 'chat' that works in a shared environment, this is the route I suggest going.

Also, the author is Korean, but he isn't a jerk, like most of them. If you feel like hacking up his code, he doesn't mind. So, you could always make your own Ajax IRC-clone, based on Smiletag, I suppose.

It's free and comes with complete source code...