XChat is one of several IRC clients (other options include irssi , mibbit , Pidgin, and ChatZilla to name just a few).

If you need additional assistance on IRC , see:

• Ubuntu Forums – Irc?
• An IRC Tutorial

The motivation for this post is that after helping a number of (new) users with IRC and would like to share some tips on Xchat (mostly put them in one place).

First, most people using Xchat seem to prefer xchat (as opposed to xchat-gnome), although this is certainly not universal.

The most common tips fall into either Network configuration or Preferences.

Network options (Automatically join favourite channels, change to port 8001, and automatically identify your registered nick):

Go to: Xchat -> Network List …

Select your network (Ubuntu Servers , FreeNode, etc)

Hit edit box :

1. Consider changing the port to 8001. Select your network (at the top), hit “edit” and change (for example) “Freenode/6667″ to “Freenode/8001″ (The last 4 digits are the port).
   • Changing the port is a (IMO minor) security issue, see Ubuntu Wiki Fix DCC Exploit for additional information.
2. If you want to auto identify , enter your password in the “Nickserv password” box.
3. Add channels you wish to auto-join in the “Favourite channels” box.
   • Syntax is comma delineated, no spaces
   • Ex #channel_1,#channel_2

Preferences

Go to Settings -> Preferences

1. Enable time stamps (shows time of messages) and add color to nicks.
   • On the Left: Interface -> Select the “Text box” tab.
     • Select “Colored nick names” (Always a nice option).
     • Select “Enable time stamps”.
2. Consider disabling the “Automatic nick” feature (it is disabled by default).
   • On the Left: Interface -> Select the “Input box” tab.
     • Make sure “Automatic Nick Completion (Without TAB key)” is UNSELECTED.
     • This feature is annoying if you accidentally ping people, especially in large channels.
3. Configure the appearance of channels. The default “tree” view is, IMO, less then ideal.
   • On the Left: Select the “Channel switcher” tab.
     • At the top, select “Tabs” (most people prefer tabs to the “Tree” view).
     • Optional : Select (click) the “Smaller text” box. Personally I prefer this.
     • “Show channel switcher at” , if necessary select “Upper Left” form the pull down box.
4. Setting your away message.
   • On the Left: Chatting -> Select the “General” tab.
     • You can now set away and leaving messages.
     • Consider disabling “Leave Channel” messages (unselect the “Show away once” box) as these messages can be annoying in large channels.
5. Optional – log channels.
   • On the Left: Chatting -> Select the “Logging” tab.
     • As you can see, logging channels is easy, thus always *assume* your conversations are logged.

You will then need to re-start Xchat for your changes to take effect.