freeware IRC chat programs

[PlutonianEmpire]

Does anyone know of any absolutely free IRC chat programs? I did have trillian, but the dang thing crashed on me, and I refuse to ever use it again.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

mIRC
The classic IRC utility for windows. I use this, it's not very colorful, but it's easy to use and has a good amount of features.

xChat
A regular IRC program, with some different graphical changes than others.

Just do a google search for 'irc' or 'irc program'. Those are my top 2, though.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

And by free, I mean free: no stupid "x number of days free trial prior to using money" crap.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Sorry. Just a bit agitated today

 

[nonconformist]

I use XiRCON-similar to mIRC, but freeware.

 

[Padma]

I use KVirc - in Linux, but it has a WIndows port as well.

 

[B-52]

Does anyone ever actually pay for mIRC?

irssi has a windows binary, but it's purely text-based, so that's probably not very desirable.

HydraIRC looks pretty spiff.

MirandaIM seems to do much the same thing as Trillian.

Also : Visual IRC and XiRCON (oh. someone already metioned that. oh well.)

 

[Turner]

Trillian for Windows. Multi-IM/chat platform. With one program I can log into AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, MSN and IRC.

It's free, and there's a pay version out too. The free version doesn't bug you to upgrade.

 

[anarchywrksbest]

X-chat is absolutely free and I've been using it for years. Very good.

 

[Plexus]

I'd still say Trillian if you use more than one chat service.

 

[Thrawn]

He did say he'd already used trillian and refused to use it ever again people.

And by free, I mean free: no stupid "x number of days free trial prior to using money" crap.

You can continue to use mirc after the 30 days are up without problems. I did so for a couple of years. Then insanity overcame me and I registered.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

X-chat is absolutely free and I've been using it for years. Very good.

Yes, it's free...for 30 days, according to their website; is it like mIRC where you can keep using it even if you don't register (which does cost money)? I was looking at it and sort of liked it and wanted to try it out.

 

[Rout]

Chatzilla is free (must install Mozilla firefox).
Ive had a go with it but I know nowt about irc so i cant really comment on its effectiveness

 

[Chieftess]

mIRC
The classic IRC utility for windows. I use this, it's not very colorful, but it's easy to use and has a good amount of features.

Plus it's highly customizable. You can even add other scripts to it, like nnscript, etc..