IRC Channel

The OpenSSO community uses #opensso at freenode.net (use irc://irc.freenode.net/opensso).

To chat you first need an IRC client. Then, the first time you will need to register using

/msg NickServ REGISTER ''yourPassword''

Note that yourPassword is not secured. In later visits you will be using that password to identify yourself with the command

/msg NickServ IDENTIFY ''yourPassword''

Note - some clients, such as Colloquy and Pidgin, automate the registration and identification process - check your IRC client documentation.

To join the OpenSSO channel, then

/join #opensso

Installing Clients

There are many clients available free and xchat seems be the most popular. Check out free Win32 XChat clients.

Colloquy works well on Mac OS X.

There is also a very extensive list of clients (with reviews) at http://www.ircreviews.org/clients/.

Or if you already use the popular Pidgin instant messaging client, you can configure it to connect to IRC. Some instructions are available at http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Protocol%20Specific%20Questions#IRCProtocol.

If you are behind a firewall, you will need to configure your client to work with an HTTP or SOCKS proxy.