Installing the Client:

Click the following link in a browser to download the HexChat client: http://hexchat.github.io/downloads.html

You will probably also need the Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable shown just under Hexchat.

Agree to the license and choose the install options that suit your needs.

Jump to Setup instructions.

GNU/Linux Debian (Mint, Ubuntu, SUSE)

The lastest Hexchat version is present in current repositories.

Install the hexchat package:

sudo apt-get install hexchat

You can't make it any more simple.

GNU/Linux Redhat/Fedora

The latest version of Hexchat is in the EPEL repos. This is the easiest method.

Install the EPEL repo from the Fedora project. Then:

yum install hexchat

GNU/Linux Gentoo

Update your portage tree:

sudo emerge --sync

And install it using

sudo emerge -av hexchat

Once installed, run Hexxchat from Applications-> Internet or type "hexchat" from the command prompt.

Start HexChat and a menu will open with several options.

Enter your desired nickname, username (ident), and real name (gecos).

(*)User name is your "ident" and can be the same as your nick or something else but you must know this when asked. The "real name" in the default setup is "realname." You can change this in Settings>Preferences>Advanced>Miscellaneous. This can be anything you want OTHER than your real name.

Click Add and enter a name for the IRC network (such as AnonOpsIRC) and press Enter.

You should then see this:

Click Edit.. and a new window opens:

At the top you will see newserver/6667 Replace that with irc.anonops.com/6697 and press Enter (or tab). (If you fail to press enter the server name will not be saved.)

Mark the following checkboxes:

• Connect to the selected server only.
• Use SSL for all the servers on this network.
• Accept invalid SSL certificates.
• Check use global user information if you will only use one nick/username/real name across all networks, including ours. If you would like to use unqiue information per network, don't check this, and instead fill out the nick/username/real name information below.

Your setup screen should now look like this, if you decided to use the global nick/username/real name information:

Click Close and then click Connect.

At this point, the client should try to (and successfully) connect to the network.

If you encounter an error, make sure that you spelled the server irc.anonops.com correctly.

You must be approved by our network staff to use Tor on our network. If you are unclear on the requirements please refer back to https://newblood.anonops.com/tor.html#anonops.

After you have obtained access to the Tor server you will need to make some changes to the setup of Hexchat. Using the directions above, make a New Network like AnonopsTor (or whatever you choose) that will be used with Tor since the server address and port are different. The server will be anonops4att3rwh3tsh2fhb3suwq6g575r6k36fsrc2ijkj75vcxhhyd.onion and the port is 443. Make sure the User Name under your nickname is the username(ident) you have registered for Tor.

Then open Hexchat preferences and select Network Setup. Where it says Proxy Server enter:

• localhost
• 9150
• SOCKS5
• All Connections

in that order. Change nothing else on that page. Click OK. You should now be able to connect using Tor.

You must have Tor running before trying to connect to IRC or it will fail.

Important: To go back to a non-Tor network you will have to come back to this preference and choose (disabled) for the proxy type. You can leave the other fields as they are.

Hexchat is compliant with all Xchat standard commands and can be used to connect to both Tor and non-Tor servers at the same time (Tor must be running!) by using the command line in a new Server tab. This is useful for testing your Tor setup while requesting Tor access with our network. For an example of this please see https://anonops.com/xchat.html.