November 01, 2007 by sharky
Introduction to IRC
One thing we can tell you is this: This is where it all begins. Every movie, every program and every game - it all originated from IRC first - and then trickled down to the torrent sites, to P2P, and to the newsgroups. A pioneer of file sharing, IRC is still at the heart of ‘the scene’. And still the best place to get the newest pirated releases.
IRC, which stands for Internet Relay Chat, is a protocol to connect people for real-time discussions and file sharing from all over the world. It is perhaps the most sophisticated method of file transfer available, and it is also one of the oldest. Mastery of IRC takes a great deal of skill and knowledge. But to grossly oversimplify it, users connect to a network through client software (mIRC) and then join ‘channels’ in that network. Some networks consist of thousands of channels, covering every known topic and subject. Some channels are dedicated to cars, some to pokemon, and some are dedicated to the illegal distribution of copyrighted materials. Can you guess which one has the most users?
We don’t go into great details (or any) about IRC and its functions, features and commands - there are hundreds of sites out there that can explain IRC and how to use it. I’ll leave that to knowledge specialists of IRC, like www.irchelp.org.
But if you want things first, IRC is the place to be. It is one notch closer to the top of the illegal distribution pyramid - this is the place where the release groups pump out their stuff. But you probably won’t find that tidbit of information listed as an IRC ‘feature’ on any software vendor’s website.
Finding illegal content on IRC.
There are generally only two major techniques that allow users to get hold of illegal files in IRC.
First, there is “Fserve” where a user sets up a File Server in a channel that allows others to browse the shared files and download them. This method is defined as a ‘user-to-user’ connection, and only a limited number of people are allowed in the Fserve at any given time. Download speeds are moderately slow in Fserves (especially ones with current material), with multiple people downloading from it simultaneously - thus they are losing popularity.
Second, there is “XDCC” (server-to-user) servers, which are much superior to FServes. These are usually run by people who are into FXP boards or in the ’scene’. They employ people to hack into computers with fast internet connections and install XDCC servers (or bots) which are used to distribute pirated goods (but not all XDCCs are hacked computers). XDCCs, too, have a limited amount of people allowed to download at the same time, so when a release is popular you are placed into a waiting line. That way good download speeds will be guaranteed and they’re often very fast.
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