Getting Started With Creating Your Own Chat Server/Website

Basic instructions (For detailed instructions select next at the bottom right or use the menu on the left to skip to the parts you need help)

• Purchase a domain (ex. domain.com)

• Purchase a VPS (Virtual Private Server) 

• Download tools (Filezilla - FTP),  (puTTY - ssh)

• Check your email for temporary username and password for ssh,FTP

• Open puTTY enter Host:IPv4 IP | Password: TEMP PASSWORD IN EMAIL | Port:22 | Connection Type: SSH (Telnet) | Click open

• Change password using the following command once logged in (passwd NEWPASSWORD)

• Make sure your new server is fully upto date with the following command: sudo apt update && upgrade -y (this will check for updates then any major OS upgrades and -y is defaulting all "Are you sure" messages to yes to save on having to confirm each yourself.

• Create a new account specifically for UnrealIRCd: adduser unrealircd follow prompts for password and account info to add to root group use the following command after: usermod -aG sudo unrealircd (this is generally not recommended due to security reasons however this will save allot of hassle trying to get around permission based commands while setting this up.

• Log into the new account "unrealircd" and install UnrealIRCd or InspIRCd  or whatever distro of IRC you wish to use (again for this example UnrealIRCd)

• Install necessary packages such as compiler and the OpenSSL library:  sudo apt-get install build-essential pkg-config gdb libssl-dev libpcre2-dev libargon2-dev libsodium-dev libc-ares-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev

• Grab the latest version of UnrealIRCd: wget --trust-server-names https://www.unrealircd.org/downloads/unrealircd-latest.tar.gz

• Extract the Files and navigate with CD to the folder : tar xzvf unrealircd-6.1.X.tar.gz | cd unrealircd-6.1.X (replace .X with the version number it pulled if your not sure type ls this will list the files you installed showing you the version (ex. unrealircd-6.0.6.tar.gz)

• Compile the server: ./config (follow prompts to configure your server) then compile UnrealIRCd with: make and then run make install

• You will need to make a configuration file to modify your server, there is a default one so you don't have to do it from scratch use the following command to copy the example one to the correct location for you to modify cp conf/examples/example.conf conf/unrealircd.conf

• You can edit this file directly in puTTY with: sudo nano conf/unrealircd.conf However we highly recommend using Filezilla to place this file on your machine to get a better view and easier way to edit.

• Open Filezilla login with Host:IPv4 IP | Password: unrealircd password | Port:22 | on the left is your PC files, on the right is your server

• On the right navigate to > /home/unrealircd/unrealircd/conf/unrealircd.conf, on the left navigate to where you want the file, we normally use desktop for quick edits, click and drag unrealircd.conf to your pc location

• Right click and open with your favorite text editor 

What to modify in the config:

• The me block  - modify the name, info

• The Admin block - add your server admins info (ex. "TheMainMan - IRC Operator";)

• The oper Block - ex.  oper TheMainMan{ Class opers; mask *@*; password "password123"; operclass netadmin-with-override; vhost staff.myserver.com; 

• The Listen Block listen { ip *; port 6667; and listen { ip *; port 7000;

• The "Network Configuration" network-name "servername"; default-server "irc.myserver.com"; 

• For more blocks please refer to unrealircd's website here

Starting your server:

• Navigate to unrealircd with cd unrealircd

• Use start command ./unrealircd start 

• It will either say started successfully, give you an error, or say its already running for errors look here

Connecting to your server:

• Install A IRC client such as mIRC 

• In mIRC type /server irc.myserver.com 6667 this tells it to connect to server with port 6667, 7000, 6697

• Once you connect you can join a new room with /join #lobby if you set up an Admin Block you can now login as an Admin/operator

• Login as Admin /oper TheMainMan password123 if you set it up right it should say you are now an IRC Operator 

• For Admin commands click here

• If you have services set up operserv,nickserv,chanserv etc. you can use /operserv help