IRC
Mozilla's Chat Server
You can access Mozilla's chat server at irc://irc.mozilla.org
Secure Connections Available
If your IRC client supports SSL, you can connect to irc.mozilla.org on port 6697 with SSL enabled. Some channels require that.
Getting IRC software
You can use IRC via the web:
Or you can install an IRC program. This is recommended if you want to use IRC seriously to get work done. These programs let you log on automatically, record chat logs, remember passwords, and other odds and ends that web-based IRC generally doesn't do. Popular IRC clients include:
- ChatZilla (Firefox add-on)
- (ChatZilla is also included in every release of SeaMonkey)
- XChat (Free on OS X/Linux, $20 on Windows after 30 days)
- Irssi (Command line based, more difficult for newer users.)
- WeeChat
- On Windows, mIRC (shareware)
- On Mac, Colloquy and Adium
- On iOS, Colloquy Mobile
- On Android, yaaic
IRC is seriously old-school and... different. It's got its own culture, etiquette, jargon, and conversational style that don't exist anywhere else. You will probably find these programs unintuitive and full of jargon at first. That's because they are exposing you to IRC as it is. You'll get the hang of it!
Need General Help with IRC?
Visit irchelp.org to learn about how IRC works, or find a client you can use to connect to the chat server.
Password-protecting your nickname
On the Mozilla IRC server (and on some others) you can protect your nickname with a password. Type /query NickServ to open a conversation with the bot in charge of that service, then help to ask it how you can use it.
Connection Notice
When you connect to our IRC server, you will get portscanned from 63.245.208.159, 63.245.212.23, or 63.245.216.214. This is an unfortunate but necessary step in order to cut down on the number of viruses and other malicious users attempting to communicate via our IRC servers. The portscan is checking for common ports used by known viruses and open proxy servers to ensure that your machine is not infected before allowing you to remain connected. By connecting to our IRC servers, you agree to have your computer portscanned by our server. If you don't like this, don't connect.
How to ask questions on IRC
- Join a question-friendly channel like #introduction or #coding.
- Ask away! You don't have to ask permission to ask first. It is better to just blurt out your question, even though you don't know if anyone is paying attention.
- Leave your IRC client open if nobody answers right away. Most of the folks on IRC do not spend all day watching their IRC client. They just leave it open while they're doing other things. It might be an hour before the right person notices your question.
- Be prepared to ask in several places. Very often the first response to a question is, "I don't know, but you should ask that question in #extdev" or #developers or #devtools or #jsapi or any of a hundred other special-purpose channels. Over time, you'll get a better sense of which questions to ask where, but to start with, it's always OK to ask in #introduction.
- Remember to be courteous. Don't repeat your question every time someone new enters the room. Don't individually ask everybody in the room if they know the answer. Don't type
helllooooooooo. And if someone is rude to you, please do the rest of us a favor and respond politely anyway.
Commonly Used Mozilla IRC Channels
There are many different irc channels for various topics. If you have ChatZilla, you can just click the provided links below to join that particular channel. For other clients, connect to server irc.mozilla.org and type /join channelname, replacing channelname with the name of the channel (including the leading "#"). All channels use English unless otherwise specified.
Development and Planning
These channels are frequently used for discussions regarding development and planning of Firefox and Thunderbird.
Project Channels
- #firefox - Firefox project discussion and end-user help
- #thunderbird - Thunderbird project discussion and end-user help
- #seamonkey - Community project to revive the bundled application suite
- #calendar - Lightning and Sunbird calendar clients
- #bugzilla - Bugzilla project discussion
- #webtools - Bonsai, LXR, Tinderbox, and Mozbot project discussion
- #camino - Camino browser for Mac OS X
- #qa - Mozilla QA Community of users and testers dedicated to improving the quality of Firefox and other Mozilla applications
- #chatzilla - Discussion about ChatZilla, the IRC client extension
- #mozwebqa - Home of Mozilla's web-testing efforts
- #amo-editors - Support for add-on reviews and the addons.mozilla.org website
- #addons - End user support for add-ons, extensions, and themes
- #extdev - Discussion about extension development
- #themedev - Discussion about theme development
- #xul - Discussion about the XUL programming language
- #js - Discussion about JavaScript programming
- #l10n - Discussion about localization (l10n) of Mozilla applications
- #accessibility - Discussion about accessibility in Mozilla applications - developers and end users welcome
- #mozillazine - Community for Users, Web Authors, and Testers; go here if you need help
- #mozdev - Discussion of and support for free project hosting at mozdev.org
- #songbird - Songbird project discussion
- #remo - Mozilla Representatives main channel
- #remo-dev - Discussion about webdev and planning of next Mozilla Reps web properties
General Discussion
- #planning - discussion of upcoming Firefox and Gecko branch and trunk releases
- #developers - general Firefox and Gecko development discussion
Specific Areas
- #fx-team - Firefox front-end development discussion and team channel
- #gfx - development discussion for graphics, widget and OS-specific code
- #content - development discussion for DOM and layout code as well as Electrolysis
- #jsapi - development discussion for the JavaScript engine & TraceMonkey
- #macdev - OSX developers
- #mobile - Fennec development discussion
- #maildev - Thunderbird development channel
- #seamonkey - SeaMonkey development channel
- #ux - discussion of visual and interactive user experience design for all Mozilla projects
- #labs - discussion of development of Mozilla Labs projects
- #webdev - the web development group's channel
Channels in Other Languages
Brazilian Portuguese
Chinese
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Hebrew
Japanese
Norwegian
Polish
Russian
Swedish
Ukrainian
Events
BugDay! - Every Tuesday in #bugday
- East Asia/Australia session: 8pm-10pm in Tokyo, Japan (GMT+9)
- Europe/Africa session: 8pm-10pm in Paris, France (GMT+2)
- Americas session: 9pm-11pm in New York, New York (GMT-4) / 6pm-8pm in San Francisco, California (GMT-7)
Quotes Database
Sometimes people say silly or memorable things on our server. We memorialize them forever on the quotes database managed by Tim De Pauw.