The goals of freenode differ from those of most general chat IRC networks. For that reason, the design of our servers differs, and will differ more as time goes on.

We will attempt to maintain general compatibility with clients conforming to RFC1459 and others, but any given feature may or may not work precisely as described in the RFC. For documentation on the differences, see Using the Network.

The network runs hyperion 1.0, a modified version of hybrid ircd, and theia, a modified hybserv2.

Some capabilities were added and others removed as part of our original conversion to a hybrid-based source tree, and in subsequent updates. It is no longer possible for the end user to get as much information about server and user status. These changes were necessitated by the use of user and server information for denial of service attacks. Since we are committed to providing robust service to the free software community, but not to maintaining an unmodified IRC environment, the changes make sense from our perspective.

Generally, we will continue to make necessary changes to improve the robustness and reliability of the service. IRC is extremely vulnerable to attack, but we'll do our best to maintain a reliable environment with your support and understanding.

Copyright © 2002-2006 by Peer-Directed Projects Center.
Network date and time: Tuesday, 26-Sep-2006 12:33:49 GMT.
Comments to email address: web at freenode dot net.