Frequently Asked Questions
aka Everything you've always wanted to know about HydraIRC, but were afraid to ask!
- Q: When will it be finished?
A: Probably never, as software is never really finished because it can always be improved!
- Q: Ok then, when is it going to be available?
A: Stable beta versions are available now, see the download page.
- Q: What about a 1.0 release?
A: My feature list is quite extensive, so I think it'll be a while.
- Q: Can you add this feature?
A: Probably, let me know what it is you want.
- Q: I need to talk to you about it!
A: Due to the amount of spam I've received in the past I no-longer publish my e-mail address on-line. If you need to contact me please pop into #HydraIRC on EFnet and ask any questions in the channel.
- Q: I think an answer to one of my questions should be here and it's not, why?
A: Because you've not told me or asked me! ;) - Feel free to edit this page and add your question and answer below.
- Q: Why does the client beep on and highlight messages from specific people?
A: This is an example of Buddy Groups notifications, configure them in Options, Prefs to fit your needs.
- Q: How do I make HydraIRC automatically connect to a server on startup?
A: Check the help menu under Documentation. In short, create a command profile with the name of On Startup and insert the appropriate commands.
- Q: How do I make HydraIRC automatically perform some action after connecting to a server?
A: Check the help menu under Documentation. Create a command profile with the network's name as a prefix, followed by an underscore and On Logged In.
- Q: How do I make HydraIRC automatically perform some action after joining a channel?
A: Check the help menu under Documentation. Create a command profile with the network's name as a prefix followed by an underscore, the channel's name, another underscore and On Join.
- Q: Why does HydraIRC use non-configurable quit messages?
A: HydraIRC is currently beta software and it needs to gain recognition so the quit messages are used to raise awareness of this great new app. A lot of people find out about irc scripts and clients through their CTCP Version and Quit messages.
- Q: But I don't like this behavior, can't I turn it off?
A: Not yet, but you can always disconnect from a server using "/QUIT <my message>" for now. e.g. "/QUIT Cya!". Or you can just close all your channel windows before you exit the application. When HydraIRC reaches v1.0 configurable quit messages will be allowed. If you find any channels that have picky ops please let me (Hydra) know and I'll give them a good ear-bashing for you.
- Q: How can I create aliases in HydraIRC?
A: This will be possible when scripting is implemented. For now, try making most out of the Command Profiles. Alias support is in the 
ToDo list.
- Q: How can I get the source for HydraIRC?
A: You need to create a username and login on the main HydraIRC web page, then go to http://www.hydrairc.com/index.php?page=developers and request developer status.
- Q: What license is HydraIRC released under?
A: Hydra has a custom license. For those zealots out there, this is not an OSI approved license, but rather Hydra's open-source License. See http://www.hydrairc.com/index.php?page=developers for more details.
- Q: How do I set a bookmark to a channel so that I can just press ctrl+(number) to access it?
A: You can either go to the Options menu, select Prefs, select Misc then scroll down to Channel Bookmark <x>, or you can "/set channel bookmark <number>=<channel>".
- Q: Theme? Colorscheme? What's the difference?
A: A theme controls how the messages are displayed. For example, the default theme will display "* * * <user> quit (<reason>)", while the "alternate" theme would display "QUIT <user> quit (<reason>)" Colorschemes, on the other hand, control what color messages are displayed in, the background colors, etc.
- Q: How do I create Themes?
A: In short, open the HydraIRC/Themes folder and make a new XML file containing the layout you desire.
- Q: How do I change Themes?
A: You can change themes by either typing "/set theme=<name>" or by going into Options->Prefs->Misc->Default Theme and setting it there.
- Q: How do I create Colorschemes?
A: In short, open the HydraIRC/Colorschemes folder and make a new XML file containing the layout you desire. More at Color Schemes.
- Q: How do I change Colorschemes?
A: Type "/set colorscheme=<name>" More at Color Schemes.
- Q: How do I add networks to HydraIRC?
A: For now, Open the connect dialog and click "Add network" and enter the relevant details, note, the network won't show up in the tree until you add servers to it.
- Q: How do I add servers to HydraIRC?
A: For now, Open the connect dialog and click "Add Server" and fill in the relevant details.
- Q: Why do I sometimes have "[1]" in front of my nick?
A: Because you were disconnected from the server and when HydraIRC reconnected it tried all the nicks in your nick list and none were available. Edit your User Identity (see prefs) and add more alternate nicks.
- Q: How do I remove a server or network from the server list?
A: If it's a server you added, then "Delete" will be available if you right click the server in the connect dialog box. If Delete isn't available then the server was provided in the list that came with HydraIRC. You can edit the server and set it's priority to "Disabled". In the future HydraIRC will switch to a different server if it determines the one you were using is dead, servers marked as disabled will not be used in this case.
- Q: If I get a crash, but can't repeat it, what should I do?
A: Enable socket logging and console logging in prefs, this will create the file HydraIRC_log.txt with lots of information in it which can be used by developers to track down the problem. If you get another crash and have this file then you'll be asked to zip it up and send it to a developer. To stop the file from eating all your disk space delete the file daily or just issue the follow command under Windows XP which will do this for you:
at 00:00 /every:monday,tuesday,wednesday,thursday,friday,saturday,sunday "cmd /c del c:\program files\HydraIRC\HydraIRC_log.txt"
(Include the quotes as specified)
- Q: Why does active channel change it's color on new messages?
A: HydraIRC changes colors of all items in the server list not only on new text/event, but also when this "new" text/event becomes not so new anymore. The first color corresponds to Recent status and has a timeout, the second - to Dirty status and expires only by making that item active. More at Recent and Dirty.
- Q: Some weirdo IRC networks use uncommon nickname prefixes like ~ for the channel's founder and & for administrators. Is there any support of stating the users marked so as what they are, or at least as ops, instead of normal users?
A: Thanks to Gliptic, a contributing developer of HydraIRC, all and any user modes are now supported. Please stop by at the official channel to obtain the latest build.
- Q: When I try to initiate DCC send or DCC chat, I am disconnected from all the IRC servers I'm connected to, whats happening?
A: Some older Netgear routers will drop and connection to IRC if the you've used port 6667 to connect to the IRC server and then try to initiate DCC send or DCC chat with other users. A work around for this is to connect to the IRC servers using a different port. Almost every IRC server will have other ports open, (check with their Message Of The Day when connecting for additional open ports), such as 6669.
- Q: I can't send files to people, why?
A: Check out the "External Address" ("Router Address" in Hydra IRC? 0.3.160 and below) setting, make sure it's set to your network's external IP and make sure the router for your network is correctly forwarding packets from that address to your machine on the ports configured in the "DCC Send First Port" and "DCC Send Last Port" settings.
Please consider asking questions (especially those suggesting a long conversation-like discussion) on the Forums rather than here.
More to come ...
