irc.netslum.io
A small IRCv3 network running rIRCd — a server written in Rust that keeps accounts, history and channel state itself, with no services bots bolted on the side. Its companion client is Switchboard.
Connect
Two ways in. Both are encrypted.
● Clearnet
- Host
- irc.netslum.io
- Port
- 6697 TLS
- Cert
- Let’s Encrypt
/server add netslum irc.netslum.io/6697 -tls /connect netslum
No certificate exception to click through — the certificate is a real
Let’s Encrypt one, not the CloudFlare origin certificate the rest of
netslum.io runs on, because an IRC client would reject that.
6697 is the only IRC port reachable over the internet; plaintext IRC is bound to loopback and reachable only through the onion.
● Tor
- Onion
- 76b7leex4qotis7oulflyfevizlayvzvlejrsyau2nvd6gwmvqnizqad.onion
- Port
- 6667
/server add netslum-tor 76b7leex4qotis7oulflyfevizlayvzvlejrsyau2nvd6gwmvqnizqad.onion/6667 /connect netslum-tor
Point your client at Tor’s SOCKS proxy (usually 127.0.0.1:9050) and
use 6667, not TLS. The onion protocol already
encrypts end to end and the address is the server’s public key —
there is no exit node, no DNS lookup, and nothing a certificate would add.
6697 is forwarded too, but it presents the certificate for
irc.netslum.io and so fails hostname verification against a .onion.
The same onion serves this page over HTTP on port 80.
Accounts
No NickServ. The server does it.
Registration is part of the protocol here, not a bot you message. Any client with
draft/account-registration can do it from a menu; everyone else can type it:
/REGISTER * * <password>
That claims your current nickname and reserves it for the account. Afterwards you
log in with SASL — PLAIN, EXTERNAL (client certificate)
or SCRAM-SHA-256. No email address is required on this network, and
nothing is mailed to you.
The server — rIRCd
An IRC server that remembers.
Most IRC servers forget everything the moment you disconnect, and delegate anything that has to persist — accounts, channel ownership, ban lists — to a separate pile of services bots. rIRCd keeps all of it in the server, backed by MariaDB, and speaks the IRCv3 extensions that let a client ask for it.
- SERVER-SIDE HISTORYChannels and direct messages are stored and replayed with
CHATHISTORY. Close the client, come back, read what you missed. - CHANNEL STATE SURVIVES RESTARTSTopics, modes, keys, limits, ban and exception lists, ops and voice — all persisted, all restored on boot.
- ACCOUNTS BUILT INIn-band registration, SASL PLAIN / EXTERNAL / SCRAM-SHA-256, and nickname protection tied to the account.
- MULTICLIENTOne account, several connections. A desktop and a phone share a nickname and a seat in every channel, and both see everything.
- READ MARKERS
draft/read-markeris persisted per account, so reading something at your desk clears the badge on your phone. - MODERN MESSAGINGReplies, reactions, typing notifications, message editing and redaction, multiline, metadata, MONITOR, WHOX.
- CLOAKED HOSTSConnecting addresses are replaced with an HMAC-derived virtual host, so your IP is not in every JOIN.
- WRITTEN IN RUSTTokio and rustls, no OpenSSL, one static binary. TLS certificates can be swapped on REHASH without dropping anyone.
The client — Switchboard
IRC that looks like this decade.
Switchboard is the client built alongside this server: a familiar, Discord-shaped interface over plain IRC, with the IRCv3 support to make it behave like one. Desktop and Android, and the point of having both is that you can put one down and pick the other up.
- MULTI-SERVERAs many networks as you like, all connected at once, in one window.
- RICH MESSAGINGReplies, reactions, typing indicators, editing, deletion, inline images and OpenGraph link previews.
- HISTORY THAT FOLLOWS YOUStored locally in SQLite and fetched from the server with
draft/chathistory, so a fresh install is not a blank slate. - SEARCHFull-text across everything you have, plus a
Ctrl+Kquick switcher. - FRIENDS AND PROFILESPresence over IRCv3
MONITOR; nickname, realname and avatar overdraft/metadata-2. - PAIRED DEVICESDesktop and phone hold one encrypted vault between them — networks, credentials, profile, mutes. The passphrase never crosses the wire.
- FILE UPLOADSVia
draft/filehost, on networks that offer it. Images and video render inline. - EVERYWHEREmacOS, Linux and Windows builds, plus an Android app. BSD-3-Clause.
Beta. Builds for macOS (.dmg), Linux (.AppImage, .deb, .rpm) and Windows (.exe).