MIRC

Last updated
mIRC
Original author(s) Khaled Mardam-Bey
Developer(s) mIRC Co. Ltd.
Initial release28 February 1995 (1995-02-28)
Stable release 7.77 (11 June 2024;2 months ago (2024-06-11) [1] ) [±]
Written in C/C++ [2]
Operating system Windows XP and later
Platform IA-32
Type IRC client
License Proprietary/Trialware
Website www.mirc.com

mIRC is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client for Windows. It is a fully functional chat utility and its integrated scripting language makes it extensible and versatile. [3] The software was first released in 1995 and has since been described as "one of the most popular IRC clients available for Windows." [3] mIRC is shareware and requires payment for registration after the 30-day evaluation period. [4]

Contents

History

mIRC was created by Khaled Mardam-Bey, [5] a British programmer born in Jordan to a Syrian father and a Palestinian mother. [6] [7] He began developing the software in late 1994, and released its first version on 28 February 1995. [8]

Mardam-Bey states that he decided to create mIRC because he felt the first IRC clients for Windows lacked some basic IRC features. He then continued developing it due to the challenge and the fact that people appreciated his work. The author states that its subsequent popularity allowed him to make a living out of mIRC. [9] He also jokingly states that the "m" in mIRC stands for "moo" or "MU" (meaning 'nothing' in Japanese and Korean). [10]

mIRC 5.91 is the final version to support 16-bit Windows; [11] 6.35 is the last to support Windows 95, NT 4.0, 98, and ME. The current version supports Windows XP and later. [12]

The application makes an appearance in the 2006 music video for "Boten Anna" by Basshunter. [13]

Main features

mIRC has a number of distinguishing features. One is its scripting language which is further developed with each version. The scripting language can be used to make minor changes to the program like custom commands (aliases), [3] but can also used to completely alter the behavior and appearance of mIRC. Another claimed feature is mIRC's file sharing abilities, via the DCC protocol, featuring a built-in file server. [14]

Starting with mIRC 7.1, released on 30 July 2010, [15] Unicode and IPv6 are supported.

mIRC scripting

mIRC's abilities and behaviors can be altered and extended using the embedded mIRC scripting language. mIRC includes its own GUI scripting editor, [3] with help that has been described as "extremely detailed". [3]

Due to the level of access the language has to a user's computer — for example, being able to rename and delete files — a number of abusive scripts have been made. One example of abuse was that executed with the $decode identifier which decodes a given encoded string. [16] [17] The issue was reported in August 2001; even five months later, users were still being reported as having fallen prey, tricked into executing commands on their systems which result in "handing control of [their] mIRC over to somebody else". [18] This led to changes being made in mIRC version 6.17: according to the author, $decode is now disabled by default, and various other features which can be considered dangerous are now lockable. [15]

Reception

mIRC has been downloaded over 40 million times from CNET's Download.com service. [19] In 2003, Nielsen/NetRatings ranked mIRC among the top ten most popular Internet applications. [20]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BitchX</span> Free IRC client

BitchX is a free IRC client that has been regarded as the most popular ircII-based IRC client. The initial implementation, written by "Trench" and "HappyCrappy", was a script for the IrcII chat client. It was converted to a program in its own right by panasync. BitchX 1.1 final was released in 2004. It is written in C and is a TUI application utilizing ncurses. GTK+ toolkit support has been dropped. It works on all Unix-like operating systems, and is distributed under a BSD license. It was originally based on ircII-EPIC, and eventually it was merged into the EPIC IRC client. It supports IPv6, multiple servers and SSL, and a subset of UTF-8 with an unofficial patch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irssi</span> Text-mode IRC client

Irssi is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client program for Linux, FreeBSD, macOS and Microsoft Windows. It was originally written by Timo Sirainen, and released under the terms of the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later in January 1999.

ICQ New was a cross-platform instant messaging (IM) and VoIP client. The name ICQ derives from the English phrase "I Seek You". Originally developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis in 1996, the client was bought by AOL in 1998, and then by Mail.Ru Group in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shareaza</span> Peer-to-peer file sharing application

Shareaza is a peer-to-peer file sharing client running under Microsoft Windows which supports the Gnutella, Gnutella2 (G2), eDonkey, BitTorrent, FTP, HTTP and HTTPS network protocols and handles magnet links, ed2k links, and the now deprecated gnutella and Piolet links. It is available in 30 languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ChatZilla</span> IRC client

ChatZilla is an IRC client that is part of SeaMonkey. It was previously an extension for Mozilla-based browsers such as Firefox, introduced in 2000. It is cross-platform open source software which has been noted for its consistent appearance across platforms, CSS appearance customization and scripting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">XDCC</span> File sharing service

XDCC is a computer file sharing method which uses the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network as a host service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bersirc</span> Former Internet Relay Chat client

Bersirc is a discontinued open-source Internet Relay Chat client for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Linux and Mac OS X versions were "in development". Bersirc uses the Claro toolkit, which aims to provide an interface to native windowing systems and widgets on all operating systems. Microsoft .NET and Qt toolkit ports were also planned. The final version of Bersirc was 2.2.14.

mIRC scripting language Scripting language embedded in mIRC

The mIRC scripting language is the scripting language embedded in mIRC and Adiirc, IRC clients for Windows but work with WiNE for Linux.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PIRCH (IRC client)</span> Shareware IRC client

PIRCH or pIRCh is a shareware Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client published by Northwest Computer Services. Its name is an acronym – PolarGeek's IRCHack.

Snak was a shareware Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client written by Kent Sorensen for the Macintosh platform. Snak was distributed as shareware and could be freely used and evaluated for 30 days at no charge. After the 30-day evaluation period has ended, the program would quit after 15 minutes of use, and a registration key had to be purchased. Versions up to 4.12 run on both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X while version 5 and newer only support Mac OS X. The program is Intel Only as of version 5.3.4. The program is not fully compatible with current macOS versions and is no longer supported, with the developer stating that he is unable to create new versions due to the deprecation of the Carbon libraries. On October 10, 2018, Snak was made freeware with a license key published on the project's web site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colloquy (software)</span> IRC client

Colloquy is an open-source IRC, SILC, ICB and XMPP client for Mac OS X. Colloquy uses its own core, known as Chat Core, although in the past it used Irssi as its IRC protocol engine. One of the primary goals behind Colloquy was to create an IRC, SILC and ICB client with Mac OS X visuals. Colloquy contains a user interface that follows Apple's Human interface guidelines in addition to containing support for traditional IRC command-line controls such as /nick and /join.

The following tables compare general and technical information between a number of notable IRC client programs which have been discussed in independent, reliable prior published sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CGI:IRC</span> CGI program

CGI:IRC is a CGI program written in Perl that allows access to IRC via a web browser. It is designed to be flexible and has many uses such as an IRC gateway for an IRC network, a chat-room for a website or to access IRC when stuck behind a restrictive firewall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WeeChat</span> IRC client

WeeChat is a free and open-source Internet Relay Chat client that is designed to be light and fast. It is released under the terms of the GNU GPL-3.0-or-later and has been developed since 2003.

Ircle was an IRC client developed by Onno Tijdgat for the Macintosh computer platform. Ircle was shareware, with free upgrades. The client was scriptable with AppleScript, supported multiple channels and servers, and up to ten simultaneous connections. It was discontinued in 2009. Since 2012, Ircle was not compatible with most recent versions of OS X, and no updates were available. In December 2017 the Ircle home page displayed a poll, to end Q2 2018, to determine whether a new version should be released on OS X and iOS. The results of the poll were 311 votes in favor of a new Mac OS version, 43 votes for an iOS version, and 117 votes for both a Mac OS and iOS version, out of 528 votes cast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KVIrc</span> IRC Client

KVIrc is a graphical IRC client for Linux, Unix, Mac OS and Windows. The name is an acronym of K Visual IRC in which the K stands for a dependency to KDE, which became optional from version 2.0.0. The software is based on the Qt framework and its code is released under a modified GNU General Public License.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">XiRCON</span> Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client

XiRCON is a discontinued freeware IRC client for Microsoft Windows. After TCP/IP was added to Windows, XiRCON was one of the most popular IRC clients on the platform. The XiRCON client was used for a number of fields, such as library helpdesk, genealogy, and US Naval command. Author Mark Hanson ceased development in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Instantbird</span> Cross-platform instant messaging client

Instantbird is a discontinued cross-platform instant messaging client based on Mozilla's XULRunner and the open-source library libpurple used in Pidgin. Instantbird is free software available under the GNU General Public License. Over 250 add-ons allow user customization of, and addition of, features. On October 18, 2017, Florian Quèze announced that "... we are stopping development of Instantbird as a standalone product."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LeafChat</span> IRC client

LeafChat is a free IRC client for Microsoft Windows and Unix-like operating systems, licensed under the GNU GPL-3.0-or-later. A donation is requested.

References

  1. ↑ "mIRC: Latest News". mirc.com. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  2. ↑ "mIRC: Personal FAQ - Language". mirc.com. Archived from the original on 19 July 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Smith, Chris (2004). "Hack #20 Automate IRC with Scripting". In Paul Mutton\ (ed.). IRC Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools. O'Reilly Media, Inc. pp. 71–74. ISBN   9780596006877.
  4. ↑ "Registration". mirc.com.
  5. ↑ Mattson, Bill (1998). "Chatting With Other Sailors". thebeachcats.com. Retrieved 2024-06-01.
  6. ↑ "mIRC: Personal FAQ". www.mirc.com. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
  7. ↑ "mIRC: Personal FAQ". www.mirc.com. Retrieved 2023-12-27.
  8. ↑ "mIRC: Khaled Mardam-Bey". www.mirc.com.
  9. ↑ "mIRC: Personal FAQ". mirc.com. Archived from the original on 19 July 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  10. ↑ "mIRC: Personal FAQ - Meaning". mirc.com. Archived from the original on 19 July 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  11. ↑ "mIRC 6.0 drops 16bit support". mirc.com.
  12. ↑ "mIRC download for 6.35 and latest version". mirc.com. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  13. ↑ Ernie Smith (13 February 2018). "Why Did Slack Win Out Over IRC, Anyway?". Vice . Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  14. ↑ "mIRC FAQ: Section 6". mirc.com. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  15. 1 2 "mIRC: Latest News". mirc.com. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  16. ↑ "mIRC Backdoors - An Advanced Overview". originally by ReDeeMeR. Securiteam.com Windows NT Focus. 24 February 2002.
  17. ↑ Ahmadi Bidakhwidi, Mohammad (2005) "mIRC Worm" Archived 2012-11-03 at the Wayback Machine . The Ethical Hacker.
  18. ↑ Lo, Joseph, ed. (January 4, 2002). "IRC News Jan 04 02 Happy 2002 - //$decode trojan keeps going and going... " Archived 2012-08-01 at the Wayback Machine . and
    "Aug 30 01 mIRC $decode() exploit." IRChelp.org.
  19. ↑ "mIRC". Download.CNet.com. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  20. ↑ "InternetNews Traffic Patterns 2003". InternetNews.com. 22 October 2003. Retrieved 2008-08-13.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.