Internet Relay Chat

What Does Internet Relay Chat Mean?

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is an open protocol that allows users with an IRC client to exchange text messages in real time over the Internet. Created by Jarkko Oikarinen in 1988, IRC was one of the first chat systems to allow more than two participants to join in a discussion.

Techopedia Explains Internet Relay Chat

Like email, IRC was another application that added to the popularity of the Internet before the existence of the World Wide Web. Using an IRC client, users could connect to IRC servers and message in real time with people all over the world and join larger groups (channels). Although this is now commonplace, IRC was an early indication of the Internet’s power to create communities where time and distance would have once made it impossible. Like many aspects of the Internet, the request for comments (RFC) system was central to creating and improving IRC.

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Margaret Rouse

Technology Expert

Margaret é uma premiada redatora e professora conhecida por sua habilidade de explicar assuntos técnicos complexos para um público empresarial não técnico. Nos últimos vinte anos, suas definições de TI foram publicadas pela Que em uma enciclopédia de termos tecnológicos e citadas em artigos do New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine e Discovery Magazine. Ela ingressou na Techopedia em 2011. A ideia de Margaret de um dia divertido é ajudar os profissionais de TI e de negócios a aprenderem a falar os idiomas altamente especializados uns dos outros.

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