GeekShed IRC Network
New Connection Record – Apr 4, 2020
Jul 21st
We average users between 5,000 – 10,000 depending on the time of day and yearly season.
GeekShed broke a new concurrent user connection record on April 4th, 2020 with a total of 35,034 users. This growth was primarily driven by a fast growing gaming channel and continues to bring in thousands of users each day. During this record breaking event we were on the top ten IRC networks according to netsplit.de. We continue to show up in the top ten in 2021.
Our response to this sudden spike in users lead us to add three new servers to the round-robin to load balance the connections. We also increased the maximum user limit per server as modern hardware allows them to handle more. At no point did we experience downtime or degradation of service during this event. When connections stabilized we returned to our smaller number of servers without incident.
GeekShed is proud to offer scalability no matter the size of your community. If you’re thinking about choosing IRC services and have a large number of users don’t hesitate to contact us. We’d love to get to know your needs and figure out the best solution.
You can reach us by clicking “Chat” on the top and using the Kiwi Chat Client. Change the Channel to #help to connect to our network support channel.
Thank you and we look forward to seeing you on GeekShed!
Graph: generated by netsplit.de
—posted by Amyashi
TFlash is just a memory, a Flash in the pan
Jul 20th
We have setup a Kiwi Client Chat link for your convenience now on the site
and instructions for you Webmasters to add it to your sites for your chatrooms, just visit the CHAT link above for more information, it replaces the old TFlash chat we’ve had for so long.
Have a great day on GeekShed ;-)
Tom Coyote Wilson and the GeekShed Staff welcome you!
GeekShed BNC’s no longer offered
Jul 20th
GeekShed no longer offers it’s BNC Service, it has come to an end.
What are other methods?
- Quassel IRC is a modern, cross-platform, distributed IRC client, meaning that one (or multiple) client(s) can attach to and detach from a central core — much like the popular combination of screen and a text-based IRC client such as WeeChat, but graphical.
- WeeChat Full-featured IRC plugin: multi-servers, proxy support, IPv6, SASL authentication, nicklist, DCC, and many other features
Have a great day on GeekShed ;-)
Tom Coyote Wilson and the GeekShed Staff welcome you!
Round Robin Improvements
Feb 17th
Bye, bye birdie! GeekShed is moving to an auto-geo-ip system that determines the best server to connect users too.
You no longer have to find the best round robin for your location. The new system should detect your location and route you to the best server for your location and situation.
The system includes some load balancing as well, so if the closest server is full, you will be routed to another, faster server.
To set up your client, simply use the irc.geekshed.net address no matter where you are. Note that we do not support ipv6 at this time.
Special Connection Round Robins
We also have round robins based on pools of servers with special capabilities. If you need these features, use one of these options:
- lightirc.geekshed.net if you’re configuring your copy of the LightIRC client
- bnc.geekshed.net if you’re using GeekShed’s free BNC service
If you have any difficulties with any of the servers, just join #help and someone will assist you.
Photo: Robin by John Haslam, on Flickr
—posted by Tengrrl/Bunny
The GeekShed Forums Are Back!
Sep 27th
GeekShed’s Forums are back up and running, thanks to some investigation and work from Subwolf.
So go get online, post some news, add some comments and suggestions, give someone some script help, hang out in a channel forum, or ask for some network help. The Forums are ready for your messages!
Everything in the Forums should be restored and working as it did before our several-week hiatus. If you notice anything amiss, you can report what you see in #help. Thanks for your patience while we got things updated and back online.
—posted by Tengrrl/Bunny
Twitter Bot Upgraded
Jun 15th
Twitter bot, the network bot that posts your Twitter updates in your channel, works with the new Twitter API now, thanks to some code wrangling by the admin, the tech, and the teacher, Allan Jude (also network staff). Hooray!
The bad news is that in the process of updating things recently, we discovered some corrupt information in the database the bot uses to determine which channels to join. Unfortunately some records were lost. If the Twitter bot hasn’t joined your channel again, you will need to register again. We apologize for the inconvenience.
If you weren’t using the Twitter bot, register now to have your status updates shared in your channel. It’s a simple process. Let us know in #help if you have any questions.
—posted by Tengrrl/Bunny
Featured Channel: #GingerGeek
Feb 11th
#GingerGeek is the official channel of (obviously) GingerGeek, a UK GCSE student who is currently developing a content management system. The channel was founded by GingerGeek on August 20, 2012.
What happens in the channel?
Conversations take place on just about everything—from bannas to culture to Star Trek. Feel free to talk to anyone in the channel. They are hopefully all friendly!
What are the channel policies?
If you’re not annoying, you will get voice pretty quickly. If you’re really nice, you will probably get hop. Ops are hard to get, and admin is just from my bots.
Want to have your channel profiled on the GeekShed website? Check out the requirements and use the online form to apply.
—posted by Tengrrl/Bunny
Featured Channel: #mIRC
Nov 24th
#mIRC focuses on helping people use the IRC client mIRC, a Windows client with support for scripting. The channel was founded by Zetacon on August 14, 2011.
What happens in the channel?
We are a small community that helps people with mIRC coding issues, same as #Bots and #ReaperCon. Occasionally Peer helps out with TCL issues in the channel as well. You are welcome to bring in your bots for testing and development. Just ask your question—don’t ask to ask!
What are the channel policies?
To get voice in the channel, you have to polite and help when others haven’t. Halfops and Ops will be selected in turn by Zetacon and Peer/GrimReaper via a discussion in a secret channel.
Use pastebin for long lines of text (like snippets of code).
Anything else you want folks to know?
If there is a specific type of mIRC coding that you would like, the mIRC team in #mIRC will try their best to accomplish it.
Want to have your channel profiled on the GeekShed website? Check out the requirements and use the online form to apply.
—posted by Tengrrl/Bunny
Featured Channel: #247Fixes
Nov 10th
#247fixes is the online chatroom for 247Fixes, a site dedicated to combating spyware. Their goal is plain and simple: to help you stop spyware from infecting your PC. The channel was founded by therock247uk on October 24, 2009. The channel was previously known as #killspyware, before the network migrated to GeekShed. 247Fixes has been helping people beat malware and spyware since 2004.
What happens in the channel?
#247fixes welcomes discussions on anything tech-wise. We also help with PC problems and have many staff on hand to help you—including members and graduates of the 247 Academy, an Anti-malware school run by therock247uk.
What are the channel policies?
Please no discussion of politics. If you were banned from #247fixes and think it was in error, feel free to contact therock247uk on the 247Fixes Forums.
We don’t provide malware help in the channel itself. 247Fixes staff need diagnostics from your machine and some standard information about the problem you’re seeing, so malware removal help is only offered through the forums. Asking your questions on the forums also ensures that you’re talking to a member of 247Fixes staff (and not just someone hanging out in the channel). Just follow the Posting Guide if you need help with malware or spyware please!
Anything else you want folks to know?
Pop in our channel and see. Anyone is welcome to join in!
Want to have your channel profiled on the GeekShed website? Check out the requirements and use the online form to apply.
—posted by Tengrrl/Bunny
Planned Maintenance for Tyrol, Sunday, November 11
Nov 9th
The data center for Tyrol, one of GeekShed’s servers, will be completing planned maintenance from 6 PM PDT (2 AM UTC) on Sunday, November 11 to 12 AM PDT (8 AM UTC). There will be sporadic interruptions in service of approximately an hour during the maintenance window.
We’ve removed Tyrol from the network’s round robins to allow connections to the server to naturally decrease over the next few days.
If you connect directly to Tyrol, please choose another server or use one of the round robins (e.g., us.geekshed.net) until the maintenance is completed.
We’ll have things back up and running as soon as possible after the maintenance is completed. If you have any questions on Sunday, you can check in #help.
—posted by Tengrrl/Bunny