My IRC story

My cousin Kevin (Sully) convinced me to join an IRC server to chat with him. This of course caused me to need a nick. I used my initials at first, as I didn't know if I would bother to do more than talk to him on IRC, for about 6 months but grew ever tired of nick collides because someone else wanted the nick, why they thought BA was such a good nick I will never know. So I needed a new nick, it took about 10 seconds to come up with it and I have been going by "GrandiZer" ever since. That was 9 years ago now, seems like yesterday....................

Sully was the admin/oper for an IRC server hosted by ANET and he spent a lot of time there. He is a fellow computer geek and he and I could spend an entire night talking "shop". He told me he could be found on IRC almost any time of the day. I decided to see what this IRC stuff was. I downloaded mIRC, installed it and off i went.

My first obstacle was my nick and wanting to be sure he knew it was me I used my initials (BA). He told me what channel to find him in and sure enough there he was. I spent several hours a day in the channel #irchelp talking to him and the others in the channel. I learned some basics of IRC and some scripting thanks to MHz. One day the network split permanently. Where I was now was called IRCNet, we had separated from EFNet and there was no intention to return. More on the "Big Split" can be found at www.ircnet.org. Somewhere during all this I found some fool wanted my nick and would nick collide me at every chance. I grew tired of this and decided to chose a different nick. GrandiZer was born. I met quite a few people and started to venture away from #irchelp. MrAndi had created #mirchelp and had a number of people in it, I joined there and met a group of people that eventually led to friendships that span the globe.

I met Queux, aRJAy and a number of others that also were part of #windows95. Queux asked me to join them and gave me OPs. I met a large group of people that were just as knowledgeable with PCs as I was. We helped people fix their computers via chat (not as easy as you may think). Maxtifyer left the channel for some reason and gave ownership of it to Queux. Eventually Queux grew tired of the BS and left as well, soon after Tech[1] also left. Ultimately this left aRJAy and I as the senior OPs, so we took charge and attempted to do what we could. At that time we had #windows95, #windows98, #mirchelp, #windows 2000 and several other channels. aRJAy and I decided to merge all the channels into #windows as we seemed to not be able to pay attention to all the channels at once. I learned the ins and outs of eggdrop bots and even helped run the botnet, running a few wineggs of my own. This was a great experience, but required a lot of work and time. aRJAy and I ran the channels for a while, but I grew tired of the BS as Maxtifyer, Queux and Tech[1] had. I had made friends with the others and followed them to #CDRW, so when i left #windows I still had a place to call home.

Eventually the channel wars and just outright childishness of IRCNet made us leave and go to a new network, where we still are to this day, although we are currently making a move to a more private network run by Upuaut (Upu) and some others using SSL connections. Upu asked me to run a US server for his net and I am thinking of doing it, it could be fun and would definately cause me to learn a bit more. Tech[1] and I run a botnet for the channel, we both have 2 bots running. One of mine is the hub as it is on a fast pipe at work on a very reliable system.

On a parallel timeline to me leaving #windows and eventually leaving IRCNet I met Spyder and Jenna, which lead me to jade, riv, mspaula, m1kee and many others. I became an instant OP in #Family-Chat because it seemed I had made a name for myself in the other channels. There was this one guy Mark|and, who I made friends with that would eventually be a good and bad thing. He had a ddosnet that he used against anyone that had a difference of opinion with him. The good thing about being friends with him you ask? If I was in a channel that he was going to packet, he warned me so I could get myself out of the line of fire so to speak. The bad part you ask? I never liked being told where I could and couldn't be, so Mark|and helped me kill a cable modem or two. The packet storms were fast and furious and would knock you off the internet within a minute of the start of the attack. The trouble was I had a 24/7 connection and would reboot only to find the storm still raging away. It would take 20 minutes or more for the storm to go away completely. Well, Spydr and Jenna left IRC and jade took over in FC. Her and I had become friendly and she trusted me (scary thought). m1kee ran most of the bots in there and a few other channels, so he and I started to make friends.

m1kee was a good guy and more stubborn than i was about being told when and where he could be. I eventually found out he ran his own little IRC network and joined there to again meet many new people, which I still talk to today. Eventually I came to run a linux box of my own (thx to Tech[1] and Queux) and now run an ircd on m1kee's network. I went fron knowing nothing about linux to running a linux web server of my own, a linux web server for my work and two IRCd's. Thanks to Texh[1], Queux and m1kee I have learned a lot about linux, but have a long way to go before I master it, even after 4 years of playing with it I consider myself a "wannabe_newbie".

In June of 2002 my wife and I traveled to London to meet Tech[1], Maxtifyer Upuaut and chumley. Upuaut brought his girlfriend, chumley brought his soon to be wife (they are married now) and Maxtifyer brought his wife. Tech[1], Upuaut and chumley are from the UK and Maxtifyer is from Sweden. aRJAy was suppose to be there with us but schedules got screwed up and he didn't make it. aRJAy is from Austrailia (OZ) and woudl have had the longest trip to make it to London. We had a great time and called aRJAY at 5 am to give him hell for not being there. "COCKFOSTERS" I would love to get to OZ and visit aRJAy sometime soon, he and I go way back and meeting him irl woudl be interesting to say the least.

I still have mIRC connected to three networks and although I don't have as much time these days I try to keep in touch with the people I have made friends with over the last 9+ years. IRC is an addiction that for some consumes their life, for me it has broadened my way of thinking, my computer experience and just generally opened my eyes to the wonders of the world.

The friends I have made on IRC I hope to keep forever