How can I configure a private (friends only) IRC Server?

Solution 1:

I had some IRC servers way back when. If I remember correctly, you set the connection password in the third field of the I: lines in ircd.conf.

The clients connect with something like /server yourserver.com:port password, and I believe most clients will ask for the password if you fail to provide one in the connect string.

There are a number of other options if you want to further restrict the connections.

I:address mask:password:domain mask::connection class

The connection class is defined with an Y: line. There's probably one in the default configuration that you can reference. Looking through the example ircd.conf is probably a good idea, most configuration options are explained there.

Solution 2:

Have you considered running an IRC bot such as Eggdrop on a +i channel on a public network? This has the following benefits:

• Bot can be scripted to hand out invites to preconfigured people with preconfigured passwords.
• There is a myriad of Eggdrop TCL scripts out there, including logging.
• Running a single Eggdrop instance is a lot cheaper (in terms of computing resources) than a whole IRCd.

Obviously, there are disadvantages:

• Eggdrop scripts are written in TCL. This can be viewed as a benefit, depending on how good your TCL-fu is and what your opinion is of the language in general.
• You depend on the larger public network's infrastructure. While this is beneficial because all the good stuff has been done for you, events such as net splits or server revolts/expulsions can affect your private channel. This doesn't happen as often on larger, stable, and established networks such as Undernet or Freenode.

One more point to consider is that IRC is not a secure protocol. Some server software supports SSL connections, though I've never encountered such servers in practice. YMMV.

SILC is another alternative, although the PK cryptography minutia can be too much for some users.