about us

By austnet

For information on our recent changes to server and services software, please click here.

Many people around the world connect to Internet Relay Chat (or IRC). First created in 1988, IRC has been developed further and rapidly grown since then to become what it is today — a medium in which thousands of people can all choose where to chat, and what to chat about. Chatting to friends, family or just meeting new people across the world is made easy with IRC.

AustNet was developed originally as an alternative to the existing Australian IRC network oz.org, which split of from Undernet; We were running Australian DALnet servers, however we found the latency and lag too high to keep up with when the network was at it’s peak, and because ‘geographically’ and ‘topologically’ we were just ‘too far away’. So with this in mind, we started AustNet for Australian users of Undernet, EFnet and DALnet and the rest as they say is history.

Founded in Australia in 1996, AustNet rapidly expanded through Canada, Singapore, Europe and the United States, providing international coverage with high quality servers. AustNet experienced minimal lag and netsplits and provides exceptional public services. Sadly, as time progressed and the advent of the Internet became more popular, IRC declined in traffic somewhat. This was mainly to do with the complexity of the application, as compared to instant messaging. Also, most IRC networks became victims of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, which seriously degrade performance of IRC servers and saturates bandwidth of those companies hosting our IRC servers.

There are some great sites you can read for more information about this topic:

So, why Austnet?

AustNet is an international network that aims to be rid of server splits, political fatigue and nuking that ruins other IRC networks - finally a network that allows users to enjoy IRC. In doing so, we offer technical innovations individual to our network. These include:

ChanOp (Channel Registration)

The channel operator service allows users to register their channels and maintain a secure method of issuing operator status. ChanOp is a server which allows it to operate from inside or outside the channel. This service allows the channel owner(s) the ability to keep their channel open 24 hours.

NickOp (Nickname Registration)

The nickname registra controls who has authorisation to use certain nicknames. Upon connecting to any AustNet server, the nickname is verified with NickOp and if it is not in use by the owner, they are given the option to authenticate or use another nickname. AustNet was the first known IRC network to implement a function for services to force a nick change, unlike other networks which have typically disconnected users for failure to authenticate. NickOp has speedy registration facilities.

Minimal netsplits and lag

AustNet servers are positioned strategically and are not normally subject to the lag and splits that plague other networks. The network does not have an “open” server link policy, and new servers are voted in based on their performance — If our network is under attack by DoS lamers, then hey, that’s a completely different kettle of fish.

Server innovations

AustNet servers are based and located in the most suitable positions for our users. Features include long nicknames (15 characters), full topic and mode synchronisation, the ability to display or hide channels without users, faster data bursting, anti-spam measures, in-channel services commands, long topics, and our hostname masking to disperse nuking on IRC.