DALnet: the network that gave IRC NickServ and ChanServ

If you've ever registered a nickname on IRC — protected it with a password so nobody else can use it — you have DALnet to thank. Founded in 1994, DALnet pioneered the NickServ and ChanServ services that gave users the ability to own their identity and their channels, an idea so fundamental that almost every network adopted some version of it. Much of what feels like "just how IRC works" started here.

Connecting #

• Server: irc.dal.net, port 6697 with TLS.
• Webchat and a server list live on dal.net.
• Help: #help.

The services it invented #

DALnet was built around the radical-for-1994 idea that the network should help you keep what's yours:

• NickServ — register your nick, protect it with a password, and reclaim it if someone's using it. /msg NickServ HELP.
• ChanServ — register a channel, set an access list, and keep your ops and settings permanently.
• MemoServ — leave messages for offline users.

Before this, identity on IRC was purely first-come-first-served every session — the model EFnet and IRCnet still run on. DALnet's innovation was to add a database of ownership on top of the protocol, and it changed IRC permanently. The services article traces how the idea spread.

The friendly network #

DALnet's enduring reputation is as the most welcoming of the major networks — a community-first culture, family-friendly channels, and a long history of social rather than technical chat. It grew through the late 90s into a major network and runs around 6,400 users today, mid-sized and stable.

Should you join? #

For open-source project support, Libera is the answer. Come to DALnet for its communities and its friendliness — and for the small pleasure of using NickServ on the network that invented it. Register your nick (with the original NickServ!) if you plan to stick around.