Anonymous IRC?

[SS_Link]

What's the best to use IRC without a real ip address being shown? I've tried using a VPN but it seems to be blocked from connecting no matter what . I've also tried looking for free solutions before but the best one I found didn't support EFNET. Any help would be appreciated.

[Moe]

Use a service specific to IRC. AKA an IRC shell, or bouncer, or BNC.

There are numerous other advantages beyond hiding your ISP assigned address.

Though a VPN will work too.

[SS_Link]

I would prefer use a VPN but mine seems to be blocked from connecting. Would this be an issue with the VPN provider being banned or the EFNET servers not allowing VPNs to connect? I found this free one with some searching but I'm wondering if the advice I've seen here about VPNs (free ones usually aren't that great) also applies to BNCs as well.

[Spud17]

You can use a VPN on EFnet no problem, and there's nothing wrong with using a free bouncer. Personally, I'd never use a free VPN, but I used bnc4free for my first ever IRC bouncer for ages and it served me well, and it's the one I recommend to anyone who's fairly newish to IRC who wants to hide their IP.

They have their own IRC chan if you want any help setting it up:

/join #bnc4free

[SS_Link]

Oddly enough it seems that the VPN is connecting ok now (using Private Internet Access with the Silicon Valley server). I don't know if it was the EFNET server I connected to before that banned VPNs or if they were having abuse and disabled VPN connections temporally but whatever the reason it works now and I'm happy.

As far as the BNC advice goes I'll keep that in mind in case I'm unable to renew my VPN subscription for whatever reason, so thanks for providing it.

[System Folder]

I think PIA had a minor hiccup today, because I noticed that I was spontaneously disconnected earlier today. I'm glad that it wasn't just me.