Ade Malsasa Akbar contact
Senior author, Open Source enthusiast.
Thursday, May 21, 2015 at 00:30

Do you need an IRC client inside your Firefox? Dislike to install any IRC client such as Quassel? Instead, you can use Chatzilla add-on in Firefox. You can also use Webchat service from freenode.net. I show you how to install and use Chatzilla. In the end, I show you how to use Freenode Webchat to chat in freenode. I use channel #ubuntu-indonesia @ freenode as example.

Chatzilla on Firefox in Ubuntu 15.04


1. Chatzilla



Installing
  1. Open Firefox. 
  2. Enter Add-ons Configuration from menu Tools > Add-ons (Ctrl+Alt+A).
  3. Search for chatzilla
  4. Click Install button.
  5. Restart Firefox.
Using
  1. Open Chatzilla from menu Tools > Chatzilla. This will open a new window.
  2. Firstly, change you username. Click bottom-left button > click change nickname > type your nickname. 
  3. Secondly, join a server and channel. Still in Chatzilla window. Open menu IRC > Join Channel (Ctrl+J). Select freenode from server options and type #ubuntu-indonesia in channel text box. Then press Join button.
    Where Is The Join Channel Menu
    Joining Server and Channel
  4. Thirdly, wait until you see the channel. If you see left panel with user list and large right panel with chat text, then it means you are logged in. 

Note: most Linux distributions and open source projects have channels in freenode. You can say #ubuntu, #kde, #gnu, #bash, #qt, #inkscape, and so on. Just join any channel you want. #ubuntu-indonesia is a most popular IRC channel for Linux in Indonesia.

2. Webchat



Webchat is actually a simple "website". It is just like "Facebook". Once you log in, you can enter all IRC channels available. Many IRC servers provide webchat service. I give you example how to use Freenode Webchat to enter #ubuntu-indonesia here. So you can enter any other IRC channel inside Freenode server.


  1. Open http://webchat.freenode.net.
  2. Enter your nickname.
  3. Enter the channel name. In my example, #ubuntu-indonesia. 
  4. Enter the captcha text.
  5. Click Connect button.


Note: Freenode is not the only one server that has webchat facility. Quakenet has webchat too in https://webchat.quakenet.org, DALnet in https://www.dal.net, Undernet in http://www.undernet.org/webchat.php (although it is technically different), and so on.