IRC - allowed or not or how much?

[alexr]

https://www.rapidvps.com/?page=tos

Notes:
* We do NOT allow IRC activity of any kind on our network. This is to protect the rest of our network and clients. Torrent or "Bit Torrent" activity of any type or kind is strictly prohibited.

* These Terms of Service have been updated as of: October 1, 2004
* We reserve the right to modify these terms at any time, for any reason without prior notice with immediate effect.


One of my Cpanel Clients has installed "CGI-IRC" where the user connects to that, and its completely web based - their pc only interacts with the webpage, and somehow the server connects to IRC.

Now above in the quote from the terms of service page it says NO IRC activity of any kind is allowed. Does this mean I should be obliged to remove that CGI-IRC as soon as possible and ask them to replace it with a java one where the user's PC connects directly to the server?

[glowworm]

it says NO IRC activity of any kind is allowed.

IRC is the domain of skiddies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Script_kiddie) and they not only use a connected IP as a signal to start looking for exploits they can launch massive DoS attacks against IP's that have offended them.

RapidVPS and it's many other customers may have other better reasons they will elaborate on, but I'd personally hate my server and all Rapids switches and routers being brought to a halt (affecting all customers) by a distributed DoS attack launched in retaliation.

In each case, CGI and Java the IP of your server will be freely visable to everyone in a channel. Even if you use Chanserv and +x you are still attackable to anyone who knows how.

[alexr]

Hint taken: Remove CGI IRC script.

By the way, you're wrong about java though.
It loads a java chat program onto the user's PC and the chat program goes directly to the irc server, just like any other irc client. The difference is:

The CGI one which would connect through the server and make an interface between the user and server, and for all intensive purposes making it a proxy.

On MY website I use a java chat and have never thought about CGI IRC. Although I have thought about converting the chat on my website to WEB-ONLY/Non-IRC due to these "skiddies" and other undesirable things that happen on IRC. However, I will tell my client that he's not to run the CGI script. Thanks for your input!

[Rick]

Hi Guys, IRC activity thru your VPS is prohibited. If the irc traffic goes between the end user and the IRC server thru a java applet, thats fine. Basically there should be no port 6667/6666 inbound/outbound connections open in your vps. If that is true, no problems. Yes, the reason is due to frequent dos attacks on irc servers and clients. It is simply not worth it to battle these so we prohobit irc activity from the start.

[alexr]

It is a good policy. I have decided to move away from IRC all together and just use one of those phpchat scripts.

[NightShade]

It is a good policy. I have decided to move away from IRC all together and just use one of those phpchat scripts.
I had reasonable luck with this chat script...

http://www.tufat.com/script2.htm

[alexr]

It costs money :o

There are so many scripts out there that can do the job for free. Personally, my favourite resource is HotScripts - I find nearly everything I want there, so thats where I'll look.

[brandon]

I had reasonable luck with this chat script...

http://www.tufat.com/script2.htm

nice script for it

[xv2.net]

It costs money :o
LOL! You're right about that, but $5 doesn't buy alot of time to hunt around :P
I just bought this script for a client's site. It's pretty cool.