As IRC data is transmitted in plain text, what is send from your PC to the IRC server can be captured or recorded by your ISP. For example,
[!})B
EHo@#Q).Th=PWPRIVMSG hocchan :xdcc send #101
can be captured by the ISP. What the above says is that the user is sending an IRC message to hocchan to request for xdcc pack #101. If SSL is used to connect to the IRC server, then any information that is exchanged between your PC and the IRC server will be encrypted.
- You will need mIRC version 6.14 or later.
- OpenSSL libraries version 0.9.7d or later. All that is required are two files and the next point tells of where they can be obtained.
- Place libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll into your mIRC directory(folder). These two files are available here. Compliments of Rizon.
- Startup mIRC, go to mIRC Options -> Connect > Options and you should see the new SSL option.
- Click on ‘OK’
- To connect using SSL, use the plus(+) sign before the port number. e.g. /server -e irc.rizon.net +9999
- A “Security Alert” dialog will pop up, click on ‘Accept’.
- After you are connected, run the irc whois command on yourself and you should see “nickname is using a secure connection”.
- To double confirm, in mIRC, type “//echo $sslready” and mIRC should reply with ‘$true’.
Congratulations, you are now connected to the IRC server via SSL. Valid SSL port numbers for Rizon IRC network are 6697 and 9999.
