For those of you who already know how to use IRC, the VISCANS IRC channel can be found at #viscans@irc.irchighway.net. If you do not know how to use an IRC client, please read on.
There are several popular standalone IRC clients. This guide will cover several IRC clients for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.
Windows
mIRC
mIRC is a popular IRC client for Microsoft Windows operating systems. I use it.
The first step to setting up mIRC is to download the client (http://www.mirc.com/get.html). Use the executable installer to install the client to any location on your computer that pleases you. To open the client, run mirc.exe.
Since this is the first time you've run mIRC, a small window titled mIRC Options should appear. Fields boxed in red need to be filled in.
The initial mIRC Options window. Make sure you have "Connect" selected on the tree menu on the left.
All fields (Full Name, Email Address, Nickname, Alternative) should be filled with something. However, do not put your real full name or real email address---just put whatever you want in those two fields. The email address does not need to be valid.
As for Nickname and Alternative, this refers to the IRC nickname (and alternative nickname if someone is using your set nickname) that you will appear as when you connect to IRC servers. Try to use an unoffensive but unique nickname, and enter an alternative as well. If you do not understand the nickname concept, think of it as your IRC screenname.
Next, select Servers on the tree menu on the left, and locate the IRCHighway folder icon, and select IRCHighway: Random server.
The Servers dialog. As this is a guide to connecting to the #VISCANS channel, the server shown here is for connecting to IRCHighway.
After you've selected IRCHighway: Random server in the Servers dialog, select Options from the tree menu on the left. The options here can be enabled or disabled at your discretion.
The Options dialog. The selections outlined in red here are actually optional settings.
Checking Connect on startup means mIRC will automagically connect to IRCHighway (irc.irchighway.net) the next time you run mIRC. In the Perform window, you can set mIRC to automatically perform a command. In the image above, setting /j #channel means that mIRC will automatically join #channel when connecting to the IRCHighway network. If you want, you can add /j #viscans to your IRCHighway perform.
After you've finished configuring mIRC's connection settings, the next thing to do is to actually connect to the IRC server. Press OK to close the mIRC Options window. Then, press the lightning-bolt icon on the mIRC toolbar.
The lightning-bolt icon on the mIRC toolbar. This is the "connect" button.
Assuming the IRCHighway IRC servers are not down, you should be connecting to or connected to the IRCHighway IRC network. If you followed the optional instructions regarding the "Options" dialog, you should automatically have joined the #VISCANS channel. If not, type /join #viscans (or /j #viscans) in the IRCHighway server window to manually join the channel.
The following steps can be found by going to the Downloading from IRC section.
Linux
If you are using Linux, I will be assuming that you are at least fairly comfortable with setting up and using new software. In fact, you probably already know how to use Irssi or any other number of IRC clients for Linux. Why are you reading this?
Irssi is an IRC client that was intended to be used for Unix-like operating systems.
The first step to using Irssi is to download either the source code (if you are a masochist and wish to compile yourself) or the binaries (why would you not download the binaries). Specific instructions for different Linux distros can be found at the two previous links.
The next step, of course, is to figure out how to use Irssi yourself by glancing through the Irssi documentation (explaining usage of Irssi is beyond the scope of this guide, and the Irssi website has detailed documentation). Once you are comfortable with using Irssi, proceed to the next step.
Now, you can either folllow this particular section of the Irssi documentation, or issue the following commands with Irssi in its default state:
/connect irc.irchighway.net
/join #viscans
Irssi has two similar-looking commands:
/server and
/connect. The difference between these two is that
/server irc.foo.net will connect to irc.foo.net in the current open network connection (and thus disconnect you from the network that you were connected to). On the other hand,
/connect irc.foo.net will create a new network connection and will not disconnect you from any other IRC networks you are connected to.
The following steps can be found by going to the Downloading from IRC section.
Great, you're connected to the VISCANS IRC channel. You probably want to download VISCANS scanlations now, but do not know how.
If you are looking for VISCANS' new releases, there will be a number of triggers in the #VISCANS channel topic. If you somehow missed the channel topic when you first joined the channel, you can display the channel topic again by typing:
/topic #viscans
Triggers are prefixed by an exclamation point, and should be typed into the #VISCANS channel. Doing so will trigger a response from one of the VISCANS bots.
For example, you may be looking to download chapter 14 of Sekitou Elergy, and notice that in the topic is a string of text: Sekitou Elergy 14 - !se14. The !se14 is of interest as it is a channel trigger for one of the bots in #VISCANS. Typing !se14 into the channel window will trigger a response from a bot. In this case, !se14 is the command to tell the XDCC bot named Wrath in the channel to push a DCC transfer to your IRC client. Depending on how your IRC client is configured, you will most likely be asked whether to accept the send or not.
However, if you are looking for older releases for which their triggers are not listed in the topic, you will need to request a pack listing from one of the XDCC bots in the channel.
In general, the way to request a pack-listing from an XDCC bot is to by messaging said bot with the following syntax:
/msg fooBot xdcc list
VISCANS' two main XDCC bots are named Wrath and Torako. So the commands you would use to request these two bots' pack lists would be:
/msg Wrath xdcc list
/msg Torako xdcc list
It is advised that you issue commands such as /msg from the IRCHighway server window, and not the #VISCANS channel window as it a common error is to accidentally issue the command as a channel message instead of as a command to your IRC client.
However, Wrath and Torako do not issue pack listings via IRC notices like many other XDCC bots. Instead, they ask you either to view their pack lists at a website, or to "Wait for public list in the channel". Their pack lists can be found at the following locations (also accessible via hyperlinks on the right menu under Links:):
Pack lists are a listing of the XDCC bot's packs (or files). So how do you get the file that you want?
The first thing to do is to locate the file you want. For example's sake, I want to download GO!_Tenba_Cheerleaders_ch01_[VISCANS].rar from Wrath. The entry looks something like this:
#589 583x 15M GO!_Tenba_Cheerleaders_ch01_[VISCANS].rar
The information in the above that is important to you is the first number which is prepended by a number sign (#). This first number is the pack number for the file. To tell the bot (in this case, Wrath) to send you the file, you would use the following command:
/msg Wrath xdcc send #589
This will tell Wrath to push pack number 589 to your IRC client (a fancy way of saying "to send pack number 589 to you").
For future reference, the general syntax for XDCC gets is as follows:
/msg fooBot xdcc send #<packnumber>
Assuming you've configured your IRC client properly, the XDCC bot you requested a pack from should be sending you the requested pack. However, if you should so-happen to encounter any problems, feel free to ask for help in the #VISCANS channel.
Actually, many of our projects were being held up because there weren’t enough proofreaders… help is very much appreciated. Kwh, Addicted to Curry, City of Light, Chinatsu no Uta, Let’s Lagoon, Pumpkin Scissors, and Green Hill all urgently need proofreaders.
.