is it like kazza or something?

Internet Relay Chat. Kinda like MSN Messegner only more geeky ;)

You connect to Channels and talk to like-minded people. They sometimes offer FTP sites ;) ;)

[Edited by DJ Dunk - 6/17/2003 4:23:15 PM]

What is IRC?
IRC stands for "Internet Relay Chat". It was originally written by Jarkko Oikarinen (jto@tolsun.oulu.fi) in 1988. Since starting in Finland, it has been used in over 60 countries around the world. It was designed as a replacement for the "talk" program but has become much much more than that. IRC is a multi-user chat system, where people convene on "channels" (a virtual place, usually with a topic of conversation) to talk in groups, or privately. IRC is constantly evolving, so the way things to work one week may not be the way they work the next. Read the MOTD (message of the day) every time you use IRC to keep up on any new happenings or server updates.
IRC gained international fame during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, where updates from around the world came accross the wire, and most irc users who were online at the time gathered on a single channel to hear these reports. IRC had similar uses during the coup against Boris Yeltsin in September 1993, where IRC users from Moscow were giving live reports about the unstable situation there.

How is IRC set up?
The user runs a "client" program (usually called 'irc') which connects to the irc network via another program called a "server". Servers exist to pass messages from user to user over the irc network.
How do I use a client?
First, check to see if irc is installed on your system. Type "irc" from your prompt. If this doesn't work, ask your local systems people if irc is already installed. This will save you the work of installing it yourself. If an IRC client isn't already on your system, you either compile the source yourself, have someone else on your machine compile the source for you.

It doesn't change weekly though :) New ircds come out perhaps once or twice a year, but the underlying protocol doesn't change much. I was an admin for one IRCnet server for four years, gave it up because of all the idiots constantly trying to bring servers down, and a lack of pro-active opering :(