The help page linked from the I2P router console informs that tunnels for connecting to irc are automatically started by the router and just need to be used. So, let’s use it …

I used irssi as a irc client before, so I went and installed that with apt-get install irssi. After the first start it generates a config in the users home-directory, which I went to edit:

user@host$ vim .irssi/config
servers = (
  {
    address = "127.0.0.1";
    chatnet = "irc2p";
    port = "6668";
  }
);

chatnets = {
  irc2p = {
    type = "IRC";
    max_kicks = "4";
    max_msgs = "20";
    max_whois = "30";
  };
};
settings = {
  core = {
    real_name = "Little Big T";
    user_name = "littlebigt";
    nick = "lbt";
  };
  "fe-text" = { actlist_sort = "refnum"; };
};

That should be it. There are many things one can do with irssi. Up to running bots over complex scripts and stuff. But I just wanted to use some communication channel over irc, so let’s fire it up ….

user@host$ irssi
12:06 -!-  ___           _
12:06 -!- |_ _|_ _ _____(_)
12:06 -!-  | || '_(_-<_-< |
12:06 -!- |___|_| /__/__/_|
12:06 -!- Irssi v0.8.17 - http://www.irssi.org
12:06 -!- Irssi: Looking up 127.0.0.1
12:06 -!- Irssi: Connecting to 127.0.0.1 [127.0.0.1] port 6668
12:06 -!- Irssi: Connection to 127.0.0.1 established
[...]
[(status)] /connect irc2p

Yeah, here we go. Noteworthy within the welcome message is the part:

[...]
12:06 -!- - The Irc2P network offers services to register/manage nicknames and channels.
12:06 -!- -
12:06 -!- - /msg nickserv help commands : to get help about nickname management
12:06 -!- - /msg chanserv help commands : to get help about channel management
[...]

Switching the “windows” in irssi is done with ALT + cursor left/right. I next registered my nick as this:

/msg NickServ REGISTER password lbt@mail.i2p
12:22 -!- Mode change [+r] for user lbt

Nice. So let’s see about channels … One can get a list with list. Ususally (on ClearNet) it’s a bad idea to request the whole list, as those tend to be very long. On the irc2p servers the list isn’t that long, yet. Some channels I found interesting so far:

  • irc2p - channel about irc on i2p - sounds important if using it …
  • i2p - general channel about i2p - same
  • i2p-chat - for just chatting off-topic

Joining channels is done with a /join #channel and will open it in a new virtual window. Looking into the channels after some hours I remembered there is one more important thing about irc: filtering. The chat windows become full with messages about users joining, leaving and changing rights or names. To view only messages instead, one can tell irssi to not show those other messages like this:

/ignore -channels #i2p * JOINS PARTS QUITS NICKS

This will make irssi ignore messages about anyone (*) joining, leaving, or changing his nickname in channel #i2p (due to -channels #i2p).