Ident

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ident (identd)

What is ident

In general, and in the context of IRC, ident is a method that can be used to prove connections are valid. Mibbit is not in a position to tell an individual network to use (or not use) ident responses, but we do make it available for those that want to use it.

ident is enabled on Mibbit servers

Each Mibbit connect server has an ident (identd) process, so that when a user connects through the Mibbit Client or Mibbit Widget Client, and on to an IRC server, any ident requests from the IRC server is processed and responded to.

All of this occurs in the background without user intervention.

There are no features, functions or methods for a Mibbit Client or Mibbit Widget Client user to disable this functionality.

ident is not enabled on Mibbit Clients

Realize that the Mibbit Client or Mibbit Widget Client connects between the user's computer (desktop, console, smartphone...) and the Mibbit servers.

  • ident is not a function or method for this connection.

Then the Mibbit servers make a connection to the desired IRC network. ident is functional over this connection.

How can a user use this information

As there are many ways to configure an IRC server, and a few ways to lie about this detail in a user to user context, do not rely on this section absolutely without asking the Administrators/Operators of the server in question.

In the most basic default example, some IRCd's display the ~ symbol to indicate that there was no response from an ident request.

Such as, for example, could indicate that ident was received 

YourNick Mibbit@mib-11DE075.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net http://www.mibbit.com
YourNick Mibbit@287AB38E.50E33866.F91BE320.IP http://www.mibbit.com
YourNick 427ca096@webchat.mibbit.com adsl-66-124-160-150.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net
YourNick 427ca096@webchat.mibbit.com 66.124.160.150

Yet this, for example, could indicate that ident was not received 

YourNick ~Mibbit@mib-11DE075.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net http://www.mibbit.com
YourNick ~Mibbit@287AB38E.50E33866.F91BE320.IP http://www.mibbit.com
YourNick ~427ca096@mib-11DE075.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net  adsl-66-124-160-150.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net
YourNick ~427ca096@287AB38E.50E33866.F91BE320.IP 66.124.160.150

Technical discussion on ident

The following is simply some technical discussion, way more than any user needs to know, but may be of use for a user to understand how the process works, or assist an IRC server Administrator/Operator in troubleshooting.

The ident process follows the specifications of RFC 1413.

The basic functionality is, that your IRCd makes note of the Source and Destination ports that are being used by the connection between the Mibbit servers and your IRCd, (not between the Client and the Mibbit servers, which is HTTP or HTTPS). The Mibbit server then responds with details on that connection.

There are four possible responses:

  • The ident is "Mibbit".
    • There is a connection between the Mibbit servers and your IRCd server.
    • Further, there was a sucessfull WebIRC password exchange.
  • The ident is HexIP.
    • There is a connection between the Mibbit servers and your IRCD server.
    • Further, there was no WebIRC password exchange.
  • The Null response.
    • The connection closes.
    • There is no connection between the Mibbit servers and your IRCD server.
  • The connection can not be made.
    • oops, it seems our idented process is down.

Testing the ident functionality from your IRCd

Make a Mibbit Client or Mibbit Widget Client, or identify an existing Mibbit connection to your IRCd.

IP rDNS
207.192.75.252 ircip1.mibbit.com
No longer used ircip2.mibbit.com
78.129.202.38 ircip3.mibbit.com
109.169.29.95 ircip4.mibbit.com

From your shell command line on the IRCd server, issue the following command or equivalent, for example 

netstat | grep -i mibbit

or 

netstat -n | grep 207.192.75.252

This will tell you all of the existing mibbit connections, what port they are going to on your IRCd server (for example, 6667) and what port they are coming from on the Mibbit server, for example 

tcp 0 0 irc.exampleserver.net:ircd  ircip1.mibbit.com:46666 ESTABLISHED

or 

tcp 0 0 192.168.0.5:6667            207.192.75.252:46666    ESTABLISHED

Make note of the source IP and port, in this example, the mibbit dns or IP, and 46666.

  • ircip1.mibbit.com:46666
  • 207.192.75.252:46666

Make note of the destination port, in this example, 6667.

  • 6667

From your shell command line on the IRCd server, issue the following command or equivalent, for example 

Telnet ircip1.mibbit.com 113

This will open a connection to the Mibbit ident process.

  • Note that you will have to move quickly, as this connection will be automatically closed in about ten (10) seconds.

You will see the following example 

$ telnet 207.192.75.252 113
Trying 207.192.75.252...
Connected to 207.192.75.252.
Escape character is '^]'.

Then enter the Source port comma Destination port, as in this example 

46666,6667 (press enter)

Then read the results.

There are 3 possible responses

The ident is "Mibbit". 

46666,9999 : USERID : UNIX : Mibbit
  • There is a connection between the Mibbit servers and your IRCd server on this pair of ports.
  • Further, there was a sucessfull WebIRC password exchange.

The ident is HexIP. 

46666,9999 : USERID : UNIX : 427ca096 (example HexIP)
  • There is a connection between the Mibbit servers and your IRCd server on this pair of ports.
  • Further, there was no WebIRC password exchange.

The Null response. The connection closes.

  • There is no connection between the Mibbit servers and your IRCd server on this pair of ports.
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