Network Working Group C. Kalt Request for Comments: 2810 April 2000 Updates: 1459 Category: Informational Internet Relay Chat: Architecture Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved. Abstract The IRC (Internet Relay Chat) protocol is for use with text based conferencing. It has been developed since 1989 when it was originally implemented as a mean for users on a BBS to chat amongst themselves. First formally documented in May 1993 by RFC 1459 [IRC], the protocol has kept evolving. This document is an update describing the architecture of the current IRC protocol and the role of its different components. Other documents describe in detail the protocol used between the various components defined here. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................... 2 2. Components ................................................. 2 2.1 Servers ................................................ 2 2.2 Clients ................................................ 3 2.2.1 User Clients ...................................... 3 2.2.2 Service Clients ................................... 3 3. Architecture ............................................... 3 4. IRC Protocol Services ...................................... 4 4.1 Client Locator ......................................... 4 4.2 Message Relaying ....................................... 4 4.3 Channel Hosting And Management ......................... 4 5. IRC Concepts ............................................... 4 5.1 One-To-One Communication ............................... 5 5.2 One-To-Many ............................................ 5 5.2.1 To A Channel ...................................... 5 5.2.2 To A Host/Server Mask ............................. 6 Kalt Informational