Good, clean, simple IRC client for Windows?

Tute · 23 Jan 2008 at 20:56

What do you recommend? Oh, and it has to be free as well.

Been using mIRC but the trial is about to expire.

Thanks.

Supercow · 23 Jan 2008 at 21:03

Chatzilla firefox plugin

mattyrigby00 · 23 Jan 2008 at 21:20

after the "trial" runs out it still works, just takes afew seconds to allow you to click the "continue" button

Caged · 23 Jan 2008 at 21:23

I quite like the Windows build of Xchat. It's not free though.

There are other builds though:

http://b0at.tx0.org/xchat/

NathanE · 23 Jan 2008 at 21:46

Using mIRC here. The version I have is about 8 years old - seriously. Works just fine on Vista though

Tute · 23 Jan 2008 at 21:49

sup3rc0w said:
Chatzilla firefox plugin

Yeah... but that comes with... *ugh* Firefox!

mattyrigby00 said:
after the "trial" runs out it still works, just takes afew seconds to allow you to click the "continue" button

Didn't know that!

Caged said:
I quite like the Windows build of Xchat. It's not free though.

There are other builds though:

http://b0at.tx0.org/xchat/

Will give it a look.

NathanE said:
Using mIRC here. The version I have is about 8 years old - seriously. Works just fine on Vista though

Well I wanted something that's really simple as well. I just want to be able to connect to a server, select the channel, and chat. I know mIRC does that but it also seems to do a lot more, which I don't really need.

Or is mIRC as simple as it gets?

mr.sly · 23 Jan 2008 at 22:30

Opera

Everything you need in one.

thecaptain · 23 Jan 2008 at 23:12

imho for good, clean, simple programs you literally cant get better than:

http://www.portablefreeware.com/

dont use irc myself, but there is some irc software on there.

i try to only use portable programs when i can. why use anything else?

Boah · 23 Jan 2008 at 23:25

I use Miranda IM for any chatting, including IRC (although these days it's not often I use IRC). Miranda is in some ways a lot like Firefox - it can take a lot of fiddling to get it "right" for you, but once you do it's very good. If you are happy with it right out of the box it's pretty simple, though.

I used to use Trillian (and still occasionally do) - the Basic version is free.

Both of those are instant messaging clients that also supports IRC, and not purebred IRC clients.

Kainz · 24 Jan 2008 at 05:41

Stick to miRC. It's the cleanest, no hassle client around. I've had it running constantly since the very first version. I've tried other clients but always end up returning to miRC.