Frequently Asked Questions: And an answer or two.
Q: I've been banned from a chatroom - How do I get unbanned?
A: You will need to contact the individual who banned you or the owner of the room in which the ban was placed, and ask to be unbanned; talking to an admin will do you no good. We do not police other peoples' chat rooms unless we are specifically asked to help by the room owners (and even then we discourage it when at all possible). We are not responsible for the reasons an owner or moderator bans from their room, nor will complaining to us make any difference; we won't remove the bans. If you are banned from a server owned room room by one of the server administrators (i.e. Lobby, Trivia, Support), then it is because you were in violation of the room's or server's rules, and the ban will not be lifted until the admin who has banned you decides to unban you.
Q: I have been banned from a room that I've never even joined! What's going on?
A: Some users get so out of hand that room moderators ban their entire domains to keep the abusive person out. You may well be affected by one of these bans. In this situation, I suggest contacting the owner of the room and asking them to either remove the ban or invite you into the room and voice you so you may speak. We will, once again, remove no bans from an independant room.
Q: I'm getting a message that says I've been banned from the server and I can't connect at all. What do I do?
A: The ultimate sanction that can be taken against a user is a server ban, or K-Line (sometimes known as autokill or AKILL). If you have been K-Lined it is because you have repeatedly violated our terms of use and an administrator has deemed you as an unnecessary risk/nusiance to the server and/or its users. The most common reasons for a K-Line to be issued are repeatedly harassing a user or room beyond what the user or room moderators can control, consistantly flooding (pasting long or repetative sections of text to) a room or user, violent, obscene, racially condemning, or threatning behavior to a user or group of users, or advertizing your chat room in other chat rooms where it is not wanted. You may also be K-lined if you are suspected of being under 14 years of age, and administrators may issue K-lines for other offenses as well. If you are guilty of one of these behaviors and have been K-Lined, I suggest you use this time to either re-read our terms of use, or search for somewhere else to chat. AKILLs are often issued for serious offenses such as advertizing or spamming websites/other chat servers, posting links to viruses or malware, using denial of service attacks, attempting to intentionally evade a room or server ban, or attempting to "steal", "hijack", or "takeover" a room or registered nickname. Open proxies picked up by our scanners will also be autokilled, as will repeat offenders who don't correct their behavior after their first ban, or users administrators deem "trolls" (users that come to the chat with the sole intention of causing trouble). A K-Line or AKILL is usually issued for a given period of time; regular K-Lines usually last about one to two days, and AKILLs last anywhere from a week to permanent. Note: If one of your friends or members is intentionally K-Lined or autokilled, please do not come into Support and ask us to remove it. The administrator who set it has good reason for the ban, and will remove it when or if they decide sufficient time has passed. It is not your responsibility; it is the offending user's and/or their ISP's.
Domain/ISP-based AKILLs
If you find yourself banned from the server, but have not violated any rules, it may be because someone from the same internet service provider as you has abused their privilages as a chatter, and your ISP has been autokilled. AKILLs such as these are only issued for the most serious offenders. If you find yourself a victim of one of these autokills and would like information regarding it, please email us ( staff@everywherechat.com) with your nickname, your ISP/hostname details, and the AKILL message.
For a list of all currently banned countries, ISP domains, and IP ranges, click here.
Contacting your ISP with a complaint about the abuse may be necessary; you may do this by requesting details on the user that caused the autokill to be placed and then sending an email to your ISP's abuse department. Remember, if an ISP's customers start to complain, they'll have more insentive to contact us.
EveryWhereChat has, however, instituted a means of exempting members from some ISP bans on a nickname by nickname or website by website basis. If you see an ID number in a ban message (for example, (ID: 45) Spam), and are not the offender for which the ISP ban was originally placed, you may email staff@everywherechat.com an exemption request with your nickname and the URL you used to connect to chat. Please note that your nickname must be registered, and that you are by no means guaranteed an exemption. If your nickname is not registered and you would like exemption, please first register a nickname here.
Q: What does 'Open Proxy', 'Open SOCKS Proxy', 'Open WinGate Proxy', or 'IP blacklisted as open proxy' mean, and why am I being banned for it?
A: If you are getting the message "Autokilled - Open Proxy", "Autokilled - IP blacklisted as open proxy" or other variations, it is either because you have attempted to sign on with a badly configured (open) WinGate, SOCKS, or HTTP proxy (which allows anyone to connect and is therefore terrible security), or because you are running one of these services on your machine.
What a proxy does is allow you to 'bounce' a connection against another IP address. This is often used on IRC to get around channel and server bans, or to load "floodbots"; we actively scan for them for these reasons. If you are getting the message that you've been banned for an open proxy, check your client to make sure that you are not signing on to the chat server through any proxy connections, and make sure that you're not running any of these services yourself (scanning your computer for trojan horses is a good idea if you have no idea what a proxy is and are getting this message). If you must sign on through a proxy due to network firewall constraints, make sure it is a closed, secure proxy which requires authentication in order to be used. Our scanners will not pick these up. If you are using the java client and are getting this message, chances are you either are running the service yourself (either a legitimate service or a trojan horse), or your ISP is routing connections to certain ports through proxies. If you are running the service yourself, turn it off, or reconfigure it (or scan your machine for trojans). If it's your ISP, you will have to contact your network administrator for help.
We also run connecting IPs against several domain black hole lists, or "blacklists". This is the same technology email filters use to block spammers who try to send unsolicited messages. If you get the message "IP blacklisted as open proxy" and aren't using a proxy to connect chances are you've contracted a trojan horse that has installed one of these services on your machine and malicious users have used it to send spam messages or connect to chat networks (such as EveryWhereChat) who actively scan for proxies and report them to the blacklists. If you have become blacklisted by one of these providers, our best suggestions are to:
• Thoroughly scan your computer for any viruses, trojans, or malware using a professional anti-virus program (such as McAfee or TrendMicro)
• Download and install firewall software (such as Zone Lab's ZoneAlarm)
• Remove your IP address from these blacklists. Chances are your machine has been flagged in many of these databases and you'll need to remove yourself from each one to ensure that you don't get akilled when you try to connect to chat.
• If you have a dynamic IP address (most dialup and DSL connections are dynamic), redial your connection or reboot your DSL/Cable router to attempt to get a new IP
The blacklists that EveryWhereChat.com uses are as follows:
-
• Ahbl.org's IRC abuse block list
• NJABL's Open Proxy Monitor
• SORBS blacklist (will take 24-48 hours or more for removal if you are listed;
email staff@everywherechat.com to request exemption)
• Distributed Sender Blackhole List (will take 24-48 hours or more for removal if you are
listed; email staff@everywherechat.com to request exemption)
-
To remove yourself from each list, click the links above and enter your IP address. To obtain your current IP address, click here.
If your IP appears on any one of these blacklists you will be banned from EveryWhereChat.com immediately on connection. If you are directed to this page from a blacklist ban message please follow the steps above to ensure your computer's safety, then email us with a request to remove the ban. Please include your nickname and current IP address. Note that these blacklists take approximately 30 minutes to an hour to propegate IP removals, so please wait at least one hour after removing yourself from a blacklist before sending an email to staff.
Note that if you skip scanning your computer or downloading a firewall and continue to act as an open proxy/spamgate to malicious users, these blacklists can PERMANENTLY flag you. Not only will this cause a permanent ban from EveryWhereChat, but it may cause any mail you send that is checked by these blockers to be rejected, and hinder other internet activity such as the ability to chat on other sites as well.
Q: How do I contact the owner of a chat room?
A: Each chat room that you visit has it's own individual owner; that is, the person who created the chat room and assigned all moderators. The person who owns a room is the sole authority in how that room is ran (provided that it is ran within the boundries of our terms of use), and he/she has the privilige to create his or her own "room rules" in regards to conduct, eligibility to chat (i.e. age requirement, language requirement, etcetera), and any other action that may take place within their chat room. A room may have one owner, or several owners. The person who created the chat room is regarded as the "true" owner until they give up ownership or their nickname expires.
If you feel the need to contact a room owner (for example, to request a ban removal, to report abuse/behavior by a member of the room, to find out what the room is about), you will first have to find out who they are. The easiest way is to use the java client to join the room, click the room options button, and then click the Moderators tab. The owner(s) of the room will be shown at the top with (Owner) next to their nickname (if you are using EveryWhereChat mIRC, you'd click the Room Registration button instead). If you are unable to join the room for some reason (i.e. if you are banned), or if you are using a different client such as plain mIRC, then you'd type the following into any chat input box:
/services info #name_of_room
For example, if the name of the room is Lobby, then you'd type:
/services info #Lobby
Using our java client, a screen like this will come up:
Room owners are shown in red; they will be denotated by the prefix SOP. If you are using a different client, you should see a message similar to this from services.
Now that you know who the room owners are, you can contact them. Type:
/profile nickname
For example, if you were trying to contact brodle, you'd type:
/profile brodle
Using java, a screen like this will come up:
Since brodle has chosen to keep his email information private, in this instance, the best way to contact him would be to send a memo by clicking the memo button as shown. Note that you must have a registered nickname to do this, so if your nickname is not registered, register one as described here.
If you chose a different room owner, however, and their email was publicly available:
You could then send them an email by clicking the email button as shown.
If you are not using the ChatSpace java client, profile information will be displayed in whatever method your client uses to receive server information. To send a memo to a user on one of these clients, issue /services MEMO nickname SEND "message" where "message" is your message.
We can make no guarantees that a room owner will receive your message, respond to you, or meet you with a desired response. Please respect a room owner's wishes if they ask that you do not contact them, as well as for any member of our chat. Remember that room owners are not EveryWhereChat staff, and may not follow the same guidelines in dealing with end users.
Q: Why does a screen pop up asking me if I want to install something?
A: EveryWhereChat uses a product called ChatSpace to provide our chat rooms. The chat client is a java applet that is signed with a digital security certificate. When you click "YES", the applet simply is cached in your machine and set to run locally. In order to access features like font size, file transfer and copy and paste you have to click "YES". The digital certiicate also ensures you that the applet is being served from a registered company with Verisign/Thawte certificates.
This does not put any adware or spyware on your computer.
Q: How do I register my name?
A: There are two ways to register your nickname. You can either join the chat using the name you like and double click on your name in the right hand members list, or you can click the register link here.
Q: How do I register a nickname or chat room?
A: To register your nickname, double click your name on the members list located at the right of the screen. You will be prompted to enter a password for your nickname. After registered, you will need to input your password each time you sign on with your nickname. If you forget your password, please contact an administrator. To create and register a room, first make sure your nickname is registered, then click the rooms tab; at the bottom will be an edit box with a button next to it that says "Create" - enter the name of the room you wish to create here, and click "Create" to create it. (Please note: if you are not the moderator in a room you have created, then it is already registered; try another room name.) Once you have created a room, click the room options button at the top of the screen. A dialog box will come up asking you if you wish to register the room. Click it to register.
Q: Why are words and/or sentences sometimes replaced with other words or blocked entirely?
A: Our server has a forbidden word filter that is enabled in all p2p conversations and all rooms by default. To turn this function off in your room, if you are using java or EWC's mIRC script, click the room options button and check "Skip word filter"; if you are using mIRC, type /mode #roomname +w. You cannot turn the filter off in p2p conversations.
Q: How do I put colors in my room topic?
A: Type /topic #roomname text; to color your text, hold control and press the letter K, then type a number before you type your text (i.e. "[ctrl+k]4Hello" will type the word Hello in red text). If you wish to add a background color, type a , after the number, then type another number for the background color. The color index is:
Q: What if another chatter bothers me?
A: The chat room supports the ability to ignore users. You do this either by right clicking on someone's name and chosing 'Ignore', or by clicking on their name and clicking the ignore button. If the person is persistant and/or gets around your ignore(s) please join the support chat room and we will assist. We do our best to keep the chat server safe and clean as possible.
Q: I have WebTV, how do I connect?
A: To connect to Everywherechat.com using WebTV check out these instructions http://www.everywherechat.com/webtv.html
Q: My nickname has expired or I've accidentally deleted myself from owner status in my room! Help!
A: If your nickname has expired or you have accidentally deleted yourself from ownership status, do not fear; you can get your priviliges back easily. Sign into the Support chat room using the name you used to create the room. If your nick expired, register it again by double clicking it on the member list.
Once you're ready, type "owner yourchatroomname" in the main chat window without the quotes (for example, if your chat room name was things_and_stuff, you'd type owner things_and_stuff).
If you are using the nick that was used to create the channel, you will be automatically granted ownership status by our automated operator assistance program. (Note: This program is typically always online however there are some random occasions where it might not be; if you do not see "OperServ" on the members list contact a server administrator and ask them to add you back to your room).
Q: How do I become a Room Moderator?
A: To become a Room Moderator, click the Rooms Tab on the top-left hand cornor of the java applet. Where there is a place to type at the bottom, type your room name and click the "Create" on the far right hand side. If you haven't already registered your nick, double click your nickname on the members list. Type a secure, but memorable password, and click 'Register' (clicking register does not mean you must pay a fee, EWC is a FREE, non-profit community). To register your newly-created room and establish its permanency on the server, right-click your name and click Room Options. When the dialog comes up, click Register. You now have your own room (of which you will have full control) and you can change settings or add new Moderators.
If you're referring to being a Moderator in a server-owned room (#Lobby, #support, or #trivia), members only get that power after being a regular in that room. These are members who show friendliness and community leadership. If an owner of these rooms recognizes this, then that member may become a Room Moderator. Members who ask to become a Moderator in a server-owned room are always turned down, as most of the admins and owners despise that.
Q: What is a group?
A: Groups are no longer available.
Q: How do I make the font bigger?
A: To increase the font size while you are in the chat, right click in the chat room area (this is the area where you see the text appearing). Choose increase or decrease fontsize.
Room owners can set the variable 'fontsize' (e.g., &fontsize=15) to increase the font on load of the chat room.
Q: What are 'bots'? Do you offer bots for my chat room?
A: Bots are programs that can connect to EveryWhereChat.com and perform various functions like games, room moderator assistance, and more. Most of these bots use a modified version of mIRC. Unfortunatly we do not offer any bots for public use at this time, and we really can't help with a bot other then by giving you the connection information (server: irc.everywherechat.com, port: 6667)
Q: How do I kick or ban someone from my room?
A: The easiest way to moderate your room is to right click on the person's name and use the menu to kick, ban, quiet or ignore someone. If a user is evading the bans set on his or her nicknames, you may ban their domain to keep them out (right click, select 'Ban Member's Domain').
Note: This may present a problem if the user is on a large service such as AOL (as it would ban all members who used AOL) so if you do not wish to ban a large domain and a member is persistantly disrupting your chat room, go to the Support chat room and an administrator will assist you in banning the member by their hostname or IP address.
Q: Can I change the applet color?
A: We are activly working on new skins to offer for the chat applet. As of now, we can offer you white, brown and blue. The default is blue; if you want a different color, let us know by emailing webmaster@everywherechat.com. If you are good with Adobe, and want to help us offer more skins, email.
Q: How do I add a chat room to my website?
A: We offer a code generator that will spit out some javascript so you can embed a chat room right into your website. Click add chat on our website to generate your chat room code.
Q: I dont have a website but I'd like to create a chatroom, can I?
A: You can certainly create a chat room even though you do not have a website. The easiest way to do this is to join our chats by clicking on Chat Now in the top navigation. You will see a rooms tab while in the chat room; click that and type the name of the room you want to create in the 'create' editbox along the bottom of the rooms list window, then click the create button.
You can then give you friends a direct link to your chatroom by replacing 'nameofroom' in this link with the name of your room:
chatnow.php?room=nameofroom
Q: Is there a way I can directly link to a chat room other than adding code to a website?
A: Yes. To link to your chat room, enter chatnow.php?room=name_of_room into your browser (or add it to your favorites). Example: chatnow.php?defaultRoom=Support will take you to the Support chat room.
Q: Where did my group go?
A: The groups interface is no longer available.
Q: I placed a password or set my room invite only and can no longer enter! What do I do?
A: Since you are owner of your room you can type /services reset #roomnamehere
This command will clear the bans and room modes so you can join it.
You do need to include the # sign before your room name, and remember room names do not contain spaces. Chat Room is not the same as Chat_Room.
Q: What is mIRC?
A: mIRC is a popular chatting program that connects to IRC chat server. EveryWhereChat is an IRC chat server, however many more people connect to it using our web interface than use outside clients such as mIRC.
Q: How do I connect using mIRC?
A: To connect using mIRC or another IRC client, simply use your client's options to connect to irc.everywherechat.com on port 6667 or 7000.
Q: Do you support the use of IRC clients?
A: EveryWhereChat does support IRC clients. We have tested the following clients.
mIRC
ircZ
pIRCh
Miranda IM (http://www.miranda-im.org)
Trillian
ircle
Server: irc.everywherechat.com
Port: 6667
Q: Where do I get java?
A: Java is provided for free from Sun Microsystems. You can visit http://java.sun.com/getjava. Here you can download and install java on your computer for free.
Q: How do I make my chat room not appear in the rooms list?
A: You can set your chatroom to be secret on the chat server. This will prevent other people chatting in other room to see your chatroom in the room listings. Only the members who know about the room will be able to enter.
Q: What is DroneServ? Why am I being disconnected for not being in a room?
A: DroneServ is a sophisticated filter service used for removing zombie bots or 'drones' from our network. Recently, we've had an upsurge of these drones and they've caused some lag issues. DroneServ is also effective at removing spam bots and creating an overall better experience for you, the chatter.
If you are using an IRC client, you may receive a warning from DroneServ a few minutes after you connect. This happens when DroneServ has scanned you as a potential drone. You will need to join a room within a given period of time or you will be disconnected and your host/IP will be blacklisted. To avoid being scanned by DroneServ, avoid 'randomizing' your user ID, using a user ID with excessive numbers, or having a matching user ID and nickname. Another way to avoid being scanned is to register your nickname. Registered names are placed on a special list once they are authenticated as non-drones, and they won't be scanned again until the following Sunday. However, depending on 'defense conditions', DroneServ may be scanning anyone who connects with an IRC client, or may be scanning all users entirely. The guaranteed way to avoid being disconnected or blacklisted is to join a room as soon as you connect, and stay there.
If you are using an IRC client, and receive a kill from DroneServ that contains the message "Suspected drone - Host blacklisted", it is because you were scanned as a potential drone at the time you connected, and failed to heed the warning notice by joining a room within the given time (note that the time alloted may vary depending on defense conditions). If you have been killed for this reason, your current IP address or hostname will become listed on a blacklist. The next time you connect, you will be notified that you are blacklisted and that have a certain period of time to join a room before a K-line will be issued for your host/IP.
If you receive a notice that you have become blacklisted, the first step is to immediately join a room (i.e. /join #Lobby) to avoid being K-lined. The next step is to remove your host/IP address from the blacklist. Obtain your current hostname (as listed by the server) by typing /whois yourcurrentnickname (i.e. if your nickname is Batman, type /whois Batman). You'll receive a short bit of information about yourself, including your hostname, listed either in your main window or a different window depending on your IRC client (mIRC users should check their status windows if /whois replies do not appear in main). The first line returned will probably look something like this:
Lionheart is RMIRC2@toronto-HSE-ppp95626.sympatico.ca * RMIRC2
The hostname is listed in bold, however you may see four numbers seperated by .'s rather than a name. This is your IP address, and will show up when the server fails to resolve your IP when you connect to the chat (please note that only you can see your full hostname/IP in a /whois; only server administrators and IRC operators have the ability to see the full hosts of other users). Memorize the host section, or copy it to your clipboard. Now you can remove it from the blacklist by typing:
/msg DroneServ REMOVE host-or-IP
-Example-
/msg DroneServ REMOVE toronto-HSE-ppp95626.sympatico.ca
If your host/IP is blacklisted, you'll receive a message confirming removal. Otherwise, you will be told that the host/IP is not currently blacklisted.
Remember, if you fail to remove yourself from the blacklist, or join a room within the given time, you will be K-lined from EveryWhereChat.
To avoid being disconnected by DroneServ, please make sure you're in a room at all times when you connect to EWC. Once per hour, DroneServ will disconnect all clients that are currently not in chat rooms. If you receive a kill from DroneServ that contains the message "You have been disconnected for not being in a room", you were not present in a room during an hourly scan. Note that your host/IP does not become blacklisted if you are disconnected this way. If you are disconnected, wait 60 seconds before attempting to reconnect, or you may become "throttled".