Hide your Hostname

It is possible for authenticated users on AbleNET to hide their real hostname and IP address from other users, although staff members can still view this information. IRCu and SRVX support a feature called "host-hiding". When activated, the user's hostname is changed to accountname.Users.AbleNET.org. Commands that display the hostname, such as /WHOIS, will show this value to other users rather than the true hostname; any commands that would display a user's IP address will instead show 127.0.0.1.

In order to take advantage of this feature, all an authenticated user must do is add mode +x to him/herself, with for example the command

/MODE +x

This can be done at any time once you are authenticated, or even before you AUTH; order does not matter.

The recommended method to implement host-hiding is to configure your IRC client to add mode +x and authenticate to AuthServ when connecting to AbleNET, and only then join any channels. This will help reduce the opportunities for other users to view your true hostname or IP address.

When you have successfully enabled host-hiding, the server will send a message indicating that the feature is active:

accountname.Users.AbleNET.org is now your hidden host

You can see the change yourself in the output of /WHOIS [yournick].