How to Register a User Name on Freenode

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

The Freenode network is home to many participants in free software and free content projects (such as wikis). The registration process is simple and only takes a few minutes. Here are the steps.

Steps

1. Join the Freenode network. Open your favorite IRC client and type:
   /server irc.freenode.net
2. Choose a user name or nick. This user name should consist only of the letters from A-Z, the numbers from 0-8 and certain symbols such as "_" and "-". It may have a maximum of 16 characters.
3. Change your user name to the user name you have chosen. Suppose you chose the nick "rocketship". Type the following in the window titled Freenode:
   /nick rocketship
4. Register your nick or user name. Type the following command and replace "your_password" with a password that will be easy to remember, and replace "your_email_address" with your email address.
   /msg nickserv register your_password your_email_address
5. Verify your registration. After you register, you will not be able to identify to NickServ until you have verified your registration. To to this, check your email an account verification code.
6. Group an alternate nickname with your main one. If you would like to register an alternate nickname, first switch to the alternate nickname that you want while you are identified as the main one, then group your nicks together with this command:
   /msg nickserv group
7. Identify with Nickserv. Each time you connect, you should sign in, or "identify" yourself, using the following command:
   /msg nickserv identify your_password

Tips

• You can send private messages anytime after step 4. The advantage of the other steps is to make your registration much more secure. To send a private message, you simply do the following, replacing Nick with the nick or user name of the person you wish to contact privately and message with the message you want to start with:
  /msg Nick message
• Take care to follow this process in the Freenode window, not directly in a channel. If you type all the commands correctly, nothing should be visible to others, but it's very easy to type something else by mistake, and in so doing, you could expose your password.
• Choose a nick between 5 and 8 characters long. This will make it easier to identify and avoid confusion. Choose your nick wisely. Remember that users will identify this name with your person.
• User names will automatically expire after 60 days of disuse. This is counted from the last time it was identified with Nickserv. If the nickname you want is not in use and you want it, you can contact somebody with Freenode staff to unassign it for you.
• The Freenode staff have an option enabled to receive private messages from unregistered users so if you wish to request that a nick be freed, you do not have to register another.
• To contact a member of the staff, use the command /stats p or /quote stats p if the first doesn't work. Send them a private message using /query nick.
• In case there is no available staff member in /stats p, use /who freenode/staff/* or join the channel #freenode using /join #freenode.
• Avoid using user names that are brand names or famous people, to avoid conflicts.
• If you don't want your IP to be seen to the public, contact FreeNode staff and they can give you a generic "unaffiliated" user cloak, if you are not a member of a project.
• If you want to hide your email address, use /msg nickserv set hidemail on.
• If you need to change your password, type /ns set password new_password. You will need to be logged in.

Warnings

• You must have a valid email address in order to register. If you register and you don't verify your registration using the instructions that are emailed to that address, you won't be able to identify and your nick will be automatically dropped after 24 hours.
• Don't use any important passwords as your Freenode password. Keep this one separate.
• These steps may not work with the wikiHow IRC web client. You may need to download and install a different program. Fortunately, this is generally a free and quick process.

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