See InstallationIssues

See ListOfSmilies (if you are looking for msn smileys: MsnSmileys )

See SupportedSoftware

This requires support (either built in or via a patch) of the IRC server (IRCD) that CGI:IRC is connecting to, so generally you need to be running your own IRCD. See HostSpoofingPatches for information about various IRCDs. I don't see some symbols or see lots of '?' where I expect to see non-English characters?

As of CGI:IRC 0.5.4 (but please use 0.5.6), CGI:IRC uses UTF-8 by default, this means it sends characters to IRC in UTF-8 and expects UTF-8 back from IRC. To use another character set you will need to enable conversion, this can be set in the configuration file with the irc charset option or on the advanced login form. This requires a version of perl that can cope with UTF-8 (ideally 5.8, 5.6 with the Encode module installed should also work). As of 0.5.6 there is a /charset command so you can change/test character sets while you are connected (it displays the current character set with no arguments and changes it to the character set specified if an argument is provided).

If you're not sure what character set to use then this list may help:

iso-8859-1 The standard character set in most of Western Europe/North America. koi8-r or cp1251 Russian character set

See CustomLoginForm

CGI:IRC is just an IRC client, it connects to any IRC server you specify, if you find a network with services such as Chanserv and Nickserv, then you can use the services to register the channel for you. For example (blatant plug) ¤blitzed.org.

Starting with CGI:IRC 0.5 the default configuration only allows access to the servers and channels set in the configuration file, if you want to allow all servers and/or channels, use the full configuration file by renaming cgiirc.config.full to cgiirc.config.

It hasn't been designed to work on windows natively (eg: Activeperl with IIS or Apache) due to use of unix domain sockets. Running apache and perl under the environment provided by cygwin is reported to work. This is only required of the server - nearly any web browser on nearly operating system should work as a client.

By using the included identd (docs/identd.pl).

Assuming your operating system supports IPv6 and you have IPv6 connectivity, install the Socket6 Perl module (from CPAN or libsocket6-perl on debian) and it should work.

Web Washer can in some cases break the JavaScript that is used by CGI:IRC - turn Web Washer off.

Something like this:

This implies the web server that CGI:IRC is running on is unable to access the IRC server you are trying to connect to. The most likely cause is a firewall. It is possible that using a different port may work, however if your provider is firewalling IRC it is likely they have a reason so it would be wise to ask them first.

This means that the `ipaccess' file has been configured to restrict the IP addresses that are allowed to connect to CGI:IRC. If you are using the Debian or Ubuntu packages of CGI:IRC, this is the default behavior, comment out the line ip_access_file = ipaccess In the configuration file and you should be able to connect.

Upgrade and/or fix your configuration: CGI:IRC used the Blitzed Open Proxy DNSBL (opm.blitzed.org), which unfortunately is closed. Either comment the 'dnsbl' line or change it to another dnsbl (such as dnsbl.dronebl.org).