To admins/site staff... CGI:IRC

[Shaun]

If this is in the wrong forum, please move it. I would like to ask if you could somehow look into having CGI:IRC on EoFF's chat webpage instead of jIRC. Or even both. I cannot connect via jIRC as I can't upgrade Java at college, and I cannot use ANY IRC application. I usually have to look for hours on Google to find a page with CGI:IRC that would let me connect to #eoff.

So, what's so good about this CGI:IRC? It lets you connect to any IRC server through a firewall, that's what's so good about it. And I am sure I'm not the only one in need of this, as there's plenty of other students here who'd like to go onto #eoff in that spare time in-between lessons.

Please, consider it, thanks.

[Loony BoB]

Sounds dangerous... I mean, that would mean I'd be able to be online at work, too... >_>;

Sounds interesting enough, I'll let clout look into this one. Someone might want to tell Aexoden that this thread exists, too. *dunno*

[Shaun]

If you want to take a peek at what CGI:IRC looks like, and how it is in action, then go to: http://cgiirc.blitzed.org/

I'm not sure whether it must be purchased, but I'm sure it's fairly cheap if you have to do that. Well, heck if I know.

[Madonna]

Considering the url, http://cgiirc.sourceforge.net/, I do not believe it would cost anything. But that's been my experience.

[crono_logical]

Well the test one seems to work at my work in places where the java one fails :p I'll look into how it manages to do this first before sticking it on EoFF though, since if it's getting past the firewalls and stuff, it must be doing something funny :p

[Old Manus]

But I don't like the design

[Shaun]

I know it's kind of fugly, but it does the job. I think it's because it's writen in Perl (right?) and it somehow manages to shuffle past port 6667 which most firewalls block.

But hey, what do I know? ;)

[crono_logical]

Something must connect to 6667 though, since that's where the end server is :p That's what I want to know, since if it's proxying through the web server (the script's running there, not on the browser), we can't have dozens of connections coming from our one web server due that's where the cgi application is running from :p

[Shaun]

It probably bounces it through the server of the website that CGI:IRC is being hosted on. There might be an FAQ on the site though, who knows?

[Samuraid]

I would guess Perl opens a socket to the IRC server and acts as a proxy. And it doesn't look ugly because of the Perl, how good a script looks simply depends on how well the developers designed their HTML. :p

My only concern would be how much CPU such a script would require, as Perl tends to use much more CPU than other web scripting languages we use.

EDIT:
The script definitely uses a unix socket to connect to the IRC server which is disallowed by the AUP of our host.

We do not allow IRC, egg drop bots, or anything of the sort on our network. IRC servers are extremely prone to DoS activity. If you are caught running an IRC server inside our network your account will be terminated immediately. This is a pretty common practice in the hosting industry today. The rule is, you can run anything on the server as long as no one can access it via a standard IRC client.
Also one of the admins clarifies:
http://forums.serverbeach.com/showpost.php?p=6107&postcount=13
They have standard IRC ports blocked and this server would be acting as a termination point of an IRC connection.

[crono_logical]

We need either SSL-enabled CGI:IRC then (encrypted traffic, technically it's no longer IRC :p - our IRC server is already SSL enabled on 6697), and/or Aex opens non-standard ports for chat e.g 7000 and I set the java irc to point there instead - at least it would allow some more users to connect if not all, if it's basic firewalls blocking them :p Or BoB lets me do it *hinthint* :D

I've tried but failed myself to compile the SSL stuff into our current jIRC and get it connecting correctly at the same time, but I don't mind if someone else has a go, Samuraid :D

[crono_logical]

Ok, I've updated the chat pages with new info and stuff :p The java IRC client will now try ports 6667, 6669, and 7000 - most institute firewalls will only block the first two, since they're the common registered IRC ports :p

Also, the error:null doesn't necessarily mean it's an old java version issue - you can also get that if there's a firewall killing the connection on your PC or wherever - I just never got round to updating the text until now :D

[Shaun]

The updated chat page will not work. And if the AUP does not allow CGI:IRC's method of connecting, then that's too bad. I guess I'll have to try and rely on other pages for CGI:IRC (although there aren't many that let me connect to ANY IRC server/channel).

[crono_logical]

You should keep a bookmark list of those that you find that will let you :D

[Shaun]

You should keep a bookmark list of those that you find that will let you :D

I have them saved in a text file. But it's not remembering them that's the issue, it's the fact that they sometimes don't work properly, or at all. Thankfully, there's one working at the moment though.