You can use this IRC server for testing: 162.246.156.17 port 12399 IRC client I'm using (web-based): https://kiwiirc.com/ Some useful links re. IRC protocol: http://chi.cs.uchicago.edu/chirc/irc_examples.html http://archive.oreilly.com/pub/h/1963 http://blog.initprogram.com/2010/10/14/a-quick-basic-primer-on-the-irc-protocol/