IRCd

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An IRCd, short for Internet Relay Chat daemon, is server software that implements the IRC protocol, enabling people to talk to each other via the Internet (exchanging textual messages in real time).^[1][2] It is distinct from an IRC bot that connects outbound to an IRC channel.

The server listens to connections from IRC clients^[3] on a set of TCP ports.^[4] When the server is part of an IRC network, it also keeps one or more established connections to other servers/daemons.^[5]

The term ircd originally referred to only one single piece of software,^[6] but it eventually became a generic reference to any implementation of an IRC daemon.^[7][8] However, the original version is still distributed under the same name,^[9] and this article discusses both uses.