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You do not need to download anything to use IMIRC. You can simply use IMIRC with any IRC client on a public server that has it installed. The download is only necessary if you wish to run IMIRC on your own IRC server. Try a search like this one to find servers you can use IMIRC from.

What is IMIRC?

IMIRC is a gateway between AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and IRC (Internet Relay Chat). It acts as an IRC server. However, clients cannot connect to it. It must be connected to another IRC server. Any client on the IRC server can issue the signon command to the IRC AIMServ user to sign onto AOL Instant Messenger. AIM users appear as IRC users (the AIM user MattSachs might appear as the IRC user AIM-MattSachs.) IMIRC fully supports both chats and the buddylist, amongst other things. The buddylist can be manipulated by issuing commands to AIMServ.

Why use IMIRC?

  • Access AIM from devices that support IRC but can’t run any other AIM client - Sega DreamCast, WebTV, etc.
  • Only one client is needed for both IRC and AIM
  • IRC clients are typically more powerful than AIM clients
  • A broader variety of IRC clients are available for special needs, such as text-mode clients

So what do I need to use this?

You need an IRC client. If you want to run IMIRC on your IRC server, you’ll also need Perl 5.004 or later (although 5.6 or higher is very strongly recommended) and a couple of modules (see README for details) which are available from CPAN. However, if you don’t want to go to the trouble of setting up an IRC server or you want to try out IMIRC before installing it, you can use it from a public server that has it installed. Once you’re connected to the IRC server, /msg IMServ help once you’re on. Note that if you’re using someone else’s server, they can read your AIM password and all of your AIM traffic.

You will need to be able to configure your IRC server for inter-server links (C/N lines.) It should also work with RFC-standard IRC servers, Dancer, Bahamut, Dalnet-style servers such as Cyclone, Dragonfire, TS servers such as Hybrid, Undernet, Unreal, and irc.org IRCd 2.9 and 2.10 as well. See README for details.

Help! It doesn’t work!

Did you read the README? Did you try the IRC command /msg IMServ help (or the equivalent in your IRC client to send the message help to the user IMServ) ? Did you look at any error messages it’s giving you?

If you still need help, you can ask the imirc-users mailing list.

Get IMIRC