If you’ve been on an IRC network any length of time, you’ve seen something like this scrolling up your screen:

Quits: ted (ScaleEngine.GeekShed.net Neptune.GeekShed.net )
Quits: Max (ScaleEngine.GeekShed.net Neptune.GeekShed.net )
Quits: otter (ScaleEngine.GeekShed.net Neptune.GeekShed.net )
Quits: Meg (ScaleEngine.GeekShed.net Neptune.GeekShed.net )
Quits: Twitter (ScaleEngine.GeekShed.net Neptune.GeekShed.net )
Quits: PB (ScaleEngine.GeekShed.net Neptune.GeekShed.net )
Quits: Roman (ScaleEngine.GeekShed.net Neptune.GeekShed.net )

I’ve edited that list to remove personal information, and I’ve only listed about a few of the Quit messages that appeared. Typically after all the Quit messages appear, someone asks, “What’s going on?!”

What you’re seeing there is a netsplit. It’s essentially a sudden disconnection for the entire network. Just as the name suggests, the NETwork SPLIT as one of the IRC servers lost contact with the rest of the network. In the case of the Quit messages above, the server Neptune.GeekShed.net lost its connection to the server ScaleEngine.GeekShed.net (and the rest of the network). There’s a very complete explanation of what happens during a netsplit on Wikipedia.

What Should You Do When a Netsplit Happens?

When there’s a netsplit, network staff will work to reconnect the servers. Staff will see the server split. You don’t need to alert anyone.

Depending upon the server you were connected to when the netsplit happened, you may either find yourself on the split off server (where you’ll notice that the channels are much emptier than they were) or on the rest of the network. The best thing to do is just be patient and give staff time to fix the situation.

If the netsplit seems to last more than a few minutes, you may want to try connecting to a different server. Be warned, however, that when the split server reconnects, the network will see that your nick is on the network twice (once on the previously split server and once on the unsplit server). In this case, you may be disconnected again with the message “Nick Collision” or your nick may be set to Unidentified. Just log back in again, use the Ghost command, or change your nick and identify if this happens.

NOTE: It’s not helpful to ask staff to explain the situation while they’re also trying to fix it. If staff are explaining things to you, they can’t work on fixing the server.

—posted by Tengrrl/Bunny