                   Welcome to the DOSIRCD beta [build 80108]
          The first and only IRCd designed to run under DOS. I think.
                     
             DOSIRCd is written and maintained by Mike Chambers.
                     Website: http://www.rubbermallet.org
                     Contact: miker00lz@gmail.com
                                    -or-
                        the forum on rubbermallet.org
                                    -or-
                    My IRC server at retrobox.scieron.com

           This release was compiled at (CST) 8:40 PM on 8/01/2008
  ***************************************************************************

 - NOTICE: This document contains very important information that needs to
           be read completly before using this program!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
           If you still have questions or issues, get in touch with me
           at miker00lz@gmail.com or in the forum on rubbermallet.org

 -OVERVIEW-
As you may have gathered from the title, DOSIRCD is an Internet Relay Chat
Server application designed for use under a DOS-compatible x86 operating
system. It is fairly lightweight, and does not require much horsepower to
run well. In fact, I run it on an 80286-based PC with a mere 640 KB of RAM.
It's a 12 MHz beast of a relic, not even suitable for a job as lowly as
playing an MP3 file - but it can run a small IRC server with the best of
'em! :)

Now, as far as this being a "beta build" - I label it as such for good
reason! It is not complete. It mostly "gets the job done" as-is, I believe. It
even includes a built-in NickServ bot. As of now, NickServ appears to work
well and without any issues that I've seen. Your users can secure nicknames
and boot nickname thieves. :)

A user's hostname in this release can be one of three different values; it can
be the user's real IP address, or if they are assigned the +x user mode
it will be a "masked" version of their IP address. It could also be a user's
customized vhost. A vhost means "virtual host" - it can only be applied to
a user who has registered their nickname with the NickServ bot. A server
administrator can change the vhost to basically any string they want. When
the user signs into the IRC server with their NickServ registered nickname,
NickServ will notice them. It will let them know they have 60 seconds to
either identify with their password, or change their nick to something that
is not registered. If they do not comply, NickServ will assign them a
"no_nick" nickname until they change that.

It's not quite a full-featured as your average NickServ, it contains only
the following capabilities for the moment: REGISTER, DROP, GHOST, NEWPASS.

/msg Nickserv help
 ^ When you get the server up and running, type that from your IRC client
   for details on the bot.

I hope the next release will not be labelled a test, and it should have all
the rest of the standard services in working order. As sort of a temporary
OperServ replacement, the best way to go about moderating power is to have
a look at the CONF\USERLEVS.INI file. It shows you all of the possible user
modes and what they do. That file also lets you configure custom user access
levels, between 0 and 99. There are pre-existing definitions in there for
levels 0, 1, 2, and 99. You may modify/change/delete/whatever them at your
own whim.

Now for a TCP/IP interface, it has been designed to work with the TCPDRV or
NTCPDRV family of protocol stack TSRs that were released by Trumpet
International Software in the early to mid 90's. I only use NTCPDRV with it,
and this program is included with this release. The older TCPDRV v2.01 is
notoriously memory-hungry, and NTCPDRV was later released as an update.

I have not tested it with TCPDRV, and I see no reason to try. RAM is limited
enough in DOS as it is. Unfortunately, due to this limiation NTCPDRV allows
a maximum of 28 concurrent sockets in my testing experience. Thus, so is
DOSIRCD. It is not meant to be an IRC server for a huge network. It is purely
designed to be a personal home-use IRC server that allows for more than
enough connections than I need to have a handful of friends log on and chat
in a channel.

At this time, DOSIRCD will let you have up to 20 clients connect and chatting
at any given time. The unused sockets from 21 to 28 are reserved for the HTTP
server interface. Future versions will allow you to specify how many you wish
to allocate for the web interface system. This version allows only ONE
connection to the web service at any given time.

The TCP/IP stack sits on top of the standard ol' DOS packet driver for what
ever NIC you may have in there. I can't help you with this, but you can more
than likely find the proper driver for your card at http://www.crynwr.com

 - SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS-
A) x86 compatible CPU (any of them, an 8088 will even do the trick)
B) 640 KB of RAM (less may be fine, but I HAVE NOT tested this theory)
C) Standard packet drive for your network interface (www.crynwr.com)
D) NTCPDRV/TCPDRV configured and working with the packet driver

If the machine you wish to run DOSIRCD on is a very slow machine such as a
286, or (God forbid) an 8088-based unit... PLEASE configure DOSIRCD to allow
the smallest number of maximum connections you expect to need. You don't
have to listen to me, but if you start trying to get your XT to handle more
than around 5 connections... it can get SLOW! (Enabling the HTTP status
and administration service will make it even slower yet)

On my 286 @ 12 MHz, I keep the max connection value right at 20 and I
experience no issues whatsoever. Lag is basically impercievable. On my
tests of DOSIRCD on a 4.77 MHz 8088-based machine, 20 had a major lag
whether they were all in use or not. I dropped it down to 10, and my
lag time was a couple seconds for connections from the internet as well
as a few machines on my LAN. So the short answer is YES, even your old
dusty XT with a 5-1/4" floppy drive should be adequete for a small
chatting service.



 -LICENSING-

OVERVIEW:
 DOSIRCD, this installer, and the installer package file format are all
 designed and copyrighted by Mike Chambers. It is distributed as "free
 software," under the GNU GPL v3 agreement. Visit http://www.gnu.org for
 more information on the license.



If you want to get in touch with me, Mike Chambers, you may e-mail me at
miker00lz@gmail.com

If I am unreachable there for any reason, you can always go to my website
http://www.rubbermallet.org/ and get in touch with me via the forum.

-Mike
