Relay Chat

Relay Chat is a type of real-time chat which is conducted as a part of the umpteen Internet services. Relay chat is better known as Internet Relay Chat and it is a certain form of “synchronous conferencing”. The special purpose that relay chat serves is to provide many-to-many communication for various groups in channels or discussion forums. But it is not limited to just this, as one-to-one conversation is also allowed through private messages.

Origin of Relay Chat

The relay chat system was created from the idea found in a chat system called Bitnet Relay. The relay chat became immensely prominent in 1991 on the occasion of the Soviet coup when there was a complete blackout of media. There is certain kind of software for Internet relay chat client, that exists in most computer operating systems today.

Features of Relay Chat

Modern and the latest softwares for relay chat have surely brought about a revolution in the world of the Internet. Some of the exciting features are:

• Services: Bots or automated clients help to register channels and nicknames, and send messages to users who go offline.
• Proxy detection: There are servers that can discover the attempts of users to connect by means of a misfigured proxy server.
• Ident: It helps to identify the relay chat server.
• Extra modes: Early relay chat systems made use of a group of regular channel and user modes, whereas the newer versions have more user-friendly features such as taking away color codes from texts etc.
• Encryption: This aids communication between many clients.