Comm

From CSLabsWiki

Comm is the COSI communications server hosting an IRC server.

Usage

• Connect to comm.cslabs.clarkson.edu port 6666 or 7000 using your favorite IRC client.
  • For SSL: Connect to comm.cslabs.clarkson.edu port 6697 using your favorite IRC client and tell it to accept invalid certificates.
• Once connected, register with NickServ by typing: /ns register password email
  • Be sure to replace password with a password of your choice (md5 encrypted) and email with one of your email addresses.
  • This command will register the nickname that you're currently connected with. The benefit is if someone is connected with a nickname that you have registered, you can force them to stop using it by identifying yourself with the nickname's associated password.
• To identify yourself as the owner of a registered nickname, type: /ns identify password

UnrealIRCd Configuration

Comm is running the UnrealIRC daemon.

The setup process up to editing unrealircd.conf, is explained in the programs's README file.

To edit unrealircd.conf, we had to use its documentation.

The trickiest part of that file was getting the link block written correctly. This is what works for us:

link services.localhost.net
{
        username        *;
        hostname        127.0.0.1;
        bind-ip         127.0.0.1;
        port            6666;
        hub             *;
        password-connect "*insert anope pass*";
        password-receive "*insert anope pass";
        class           servers;
};

This block is what allows the Anope services to connect, so if this isn't configured correctly, they won't be getting in.

Once this is all set, the daemon can be manipulated with unreal start|stop|rehash|restart|mkpasswd|version from the install directory. If something goes wrong, the script will tell you.

Anope IRC Services Configuration

Comm is also running Anope IRC Services. This provides services such as NickServ, ChanServ, and OperServ.

The setup process up to editing services.conf, is explained in the programs's README file.

The services.conf is better documented than the above, so just searching through the file for all the instances of [REQUIRED] will get you to fill out the essential blocks.

To get this to work with IRC, which is already binding to the hostname, set: ServerName "services.localhost.net". This will just use a localhost subdomain (no other configuration required (not even apache)) so the services have someplace to bind to that isn't already used. Subsequently, in unrealircd.conf, all places referencing services should be set to services.localhost.net.

Anope also uses MySQL, so an anope table was created. In the anope install directory, there is a script called mydbgen that will populate the table and generate a few lines that you'll need to add to services.conf.

After this is all done, make sure the IRC daemon is running and then execute services from the anope install directory. If the services don't join the server within one minute, something has probably gone wrong. To debug, execute ./services -debug -nofork and start reading.

History

Comm was originally created by Jacob Torrey and was resurrected in the Spring of 2009.

External links

• Comm website