On Mon, 10 May 2004 09:31:46 +0200 <St.Waidele at LinuxBasics.org> wrote:

Hi list,

when on IRC, the server sais that my preferred nick 'stw' is registered
and I should authenticate myself.

Well, bad thing is I am not the one who registered it :(

Q: How do I 'register' a nick so it is mine?

Stefan
PS: No, I did not do ANY research on this at all. So a link to the
IRC-HowTo? would be greatly apprecated :)

• Pick a name you can live with

"use /nick <newname>"
if it is not registered.

• /msg nickserv help register gets you this:

-NickServ- Syntax: REGISTER <password>
-NickServ-
-NickServ- This enables you to register your nickname with a
-NickServ- password so only you can use it.  Please try to
-NickServ- use obscure passwords that cannot be easily guessed.
-NickServ- Passwords *ARE* case sensitive.  Once you have
-NickServ- registered a nickname, you can use the SET and
-NickServ- ACCESS commands to configure it.
-NickServ-
-NickServ- Please IDENTIFY yourself to nickserv when you
-NickServ- connect to the network. Many clients will allow you
-NickServ- to automate this function.  If you don't IDENTIFY
-NickServ- to NickServ for a period of 60 days or more, your
-NickServ- nickname will be considered to be expired and it
-NickServ- may be dropped.

• so as <newname> you would do

 
/msg nickserv register <password>

• then everytime you log on irc you will do

/msg nickserv identify <password>

Of course this means editing your irc client to use the nick you have chosen instead of your name as your user stw ……

– original contribution by Sam Morgan http://mail.linuxbasics.org/pipermail/qna/2004-May/000002.html