First of all, Welcome to the channel and thank you for making it this far.

You no doubt need some information on what to do next - you're here and so are several others, some are chatting, but you don't want to appear foolish by asking dumb questions, or making embarrassing mistakes.  This is only natural so don't worry, people in this channel will help you if they can.  Also, as the channel is International, some users may experience difficulties purely because English is not their first language.  To all those people, please be assured that we will try our best to get the points across.  However, the following information should get over the initial difficulties and fears you face.

Where You Are

=============

It is worth describing where you are, which is the #SWA channel on DALnet.  SWA stands for "Scanners With Attitude".  #SWA was founded by both RipTorn and Phantom and is currently Co-owned by Big_Oaf and ghost.  RipTorn and Phantom were the most accomplished net scanners active on the web in their time and all their works may be obtained from operators and guests within the channel.  You are bound to find other work from other net scanners, e.g. ScanMaster, SkunkMaster, Rhabdo, PixelMaster, Johno, ScanByte, K-Scan, etc.

Let's get familiar with the mIRC environment.  Within the mIRC program window you should see two (2) windows. The first is the STATUS window, which should have details of your logon to the DALnet server.

Go to the File | Options | Local Info section and make sure the "On Connect always get:  Local Host" check box is checked.  Make a note of the IP address given in this dialog box on a piece of paper. Now, go to the STATUS window of mIRC and type:

                /dns *your nick*

For example, I would type /dns burnin and it will return with the following:

*** Looking up 98CCF1CE.ipt.aol.com

*** Resolved 98CCF1CE.ipt.aol.com to 152.204.241.206

Your ISPs or IAPs DNS server will return your current IP.  IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT THIS NUMBER, AND THE NUMBER PRESENT IN THE LOCAL INFO DIALOG, ARE THE SAME.  File transfer may not work if they are not.

If they are different, then assuming you did check the "On Connection Always Get" check box, Please leave the channel (by typing "/p" in the #SWA window) and disconnect from your DALnet server (by typing "/quit" in the STATUS window).  Reconnect to the server, and join the channel as before.  Go through the checks again, and if the IP addresses match, then all is well.

Now, let's talk about configuring your DCC for sends and gets. mIRC is has been configured so that any gets that you receive are automatically placed in the <u>download</u> folder inside of the mIRC directory.  So, if you want you can configure yours like the screen shot shows.  By checking the "minimize" box, it will minimize the send or get windows for you.  By checking the "Resume"box, this will allow you to resume a file that may have been interrupted earlier instead of restarting the file transfer from the beginning again.  You can choose which option best suits you for the chat requests.

To get the sends and get windows to automatically close you need to configure mIRC.  The screen shot found below is not configured for chats but you may check the boxes if you choose.  The Max remotely requested DCC Sends is the maximum number of sends you with to send at any one time.

If you don't want your gets placed in the download folder inside of the mIRC directory, the screen shot below will enable you to configure the extensions (i.e., .jpg, .zip, .csv, etc.) to be downloaded directly to the place you indicate.  To change the folders, scroll down to the appropriate extension to bring it into the window and then press edit.  To add or delete an extension, click the appropriate button.

If you still have problems contact one of the channel operators (those nicks with an '@' in front of their name), or any channel voices (those nicks with '+' in front of their name), do not dcc chat or query the operator or voice first, please ask for help in the main channel and they will respond with a query or chat.  If after you've requested in the channel for help and you don't get a response, you can try to get their attention by sending them a message.  Do this by typing, in the #SWA window:

                 /msg *their nick* *your message*

Direct DCC transfer

DCC transfer via fserve

FTP transfer

Triggers

Confused?  DCC stands for 'Direct Client to Client'.  Basically, this means the files are transferred without going though any intermediate servers to slow up the process.  If you have a good connection to the Internet, then transfer speeds will be decent.  Also, unlike transfers from NewsGroups, the files are not encoded, so would be around 30% faster anyway.

Direct DCC transfer

-------------------

If there is no response to you request, try again.  If there is still no response, it could mean that everyone is busy, or they cannot help you.  In this situation, either wait for others to join the channel or try another method (see below).  If you feel you are being ignored, please contact a channel operator (@), or a channel voice (+).  We value your presence, so if an operator or voice does not answer you it means they are not physically there!  Please try someone else - don't give up.

DCC transfer via fserve

-----------------------

While you are following the chat in the channel, you may notice messages appear such as:

                 Yyz has a small fserv with all recently released #swa scans, + a few select others. use /ctcp Yyz !recent to enter

This means that Yyz (who is an operator on #SWA) has a fileserver running which you may access.  To get access, do exactly what it says in the message, i.e. type:

                /ctcp Yyz !recent to enter

CTCP, by the way, stands for "Client To Client Protocol", but is used prevent the channels being cluttered with requests of this type.  You will see it in your window, but no one else will!  The command will activate the fileserver on Yyz's computer, and will initiate a DCC Chat session.  This is here another box will appear on your screen saying 'Yyz wishes to Chat with you'.  This is misleading, as it is Yyz's fileserver that wants to initiate a chat.  When you accept the chat, you should be presented with a new window that is a very basic interface to Yyz's Hard Disc Drive on his computer.  Don't worry you can't break anything.  The interface is a sort of mixture between UNIX and DOS, but view it like another drive on your machine:

When you come in you are at the ROOT directory level of the drive, and will have a message that will explain how to move around while you're in the fserv.

DCC Chat session

Client: Yyz (32.100.85.101)

Acknowledging chat request...

DCC Chat connection established

[03:30] <Yyz> mIRC32 v5.51 File Server K.Mardam-Bey

[03:30] <Yyz> Welcome to my fserv.

[03:30] <Yyz> My bandwidth is very limited, please respect this

[03:30] <Yyz> and make only one request at a time. Making multiple

[03:30] <Yyz> requests will not be appreciated.

[03:30] <Yyz> *.* doesn't work, so don't even bother trying.

[03:30] <Yyz> trust me, you won't like what happens.

[03:30] <Yyz> available commands:

[03:30] <Yyz> cd (dir) to change to a dir, or...

[03:30] <Yyz> cd..        to move back to the previous dir

[03:30] <Yyz> dir or ls         will list dirs and files

[03:30] <Yyz> get (filename)    will retrive (filename)

[03:30] <Yyz> kill-send         can be used to kill a stalled send

[03:30] <Yyz> noop              can be used to keep a session open

[03:30] <Yyz>                   while a file is being retrieved

[03:30] <Yyz> read              isn't of much use here, used to view text files

[03:30] <Yyz> quit              is used to end your session

[03:30] <Yyz> ['C' for more, 'S' to stop]

so typing:

                dir

will list the contents of the directory.  If further directories are listed, you can change to them by using the normal DOS 'CD' command. e.g. if there is a directory for RipTorn_SWA, then just type:

                cd RipTorn_SWA

then type 'dir' again to list the files.  If there is a file listed which you want, just type (as an example):

                get r_velasquezn-01_bolmj97.jpg

and the file will be sent.  You can have several transfers going at once, but I suggest you limit the total number of GETS and SENDS (see below) to 3, until you become more confident of the capabilities of your connection.  This is because the transfers are done in parallel, too much traffic, and things will time-out.

To move back up a directory level, just type:

                cd..

While you are downloading these files, remember to keep chatting with others on the channel.  You may find out all sorts of things, not necessarily connected with scans.  These are real people like you, and can help in many ways with advice and tips.

FTP transfer

------------

There are other messages that appear in the channel, by those offering FTP sites.  For instance mine may say:

                Big_Oaf has a Playmate FTP open at 192.245.92.76 anonymous login password *your nick@swa

To access an FTP site, you will need an FTP client such as WS_FTP or CuteFTP.  Please read the information that comes with the FTP program to find out how to connect to the servers.  The setup for these is beyond the scope of this help file, but if you have problems, someone in the channel will help, but only if you ASK!

Triggers

--------

There are other advertisements which appear in the channel, by those offering triggers (triggers are preceded by the command "/ctcp".  For instance TwistofFate (who is a voice on #SWA) would be:

                TwistOfFate Offers Blackhat 2000 #83 & #84 to get type , /ctcp TwistOfFate !B2000_83 & !B2000_84 to fill in any of the holes you might have /ctcp TwistOfFate !BHat_2000 <filename>

Here you can get the files by typing or cutting and pasting /ctcp TwistOfFate !B2000_83 in the channel to get the first file that is offered.  Or there are advertisements that offer the trigger lists which show all the triggers that are available from the individual.

Lets SEND Some Files

====================

After a while, you'll start to feel guilty about taking files, but not giving them.  Or new people have joined and you are confident you can help them.  Basically you want to send someone something.

You could set up your own fserve or FTP site, but this is beyond the scope of this help file.  Lets stick to the basics, Direct DCC File Transfer.

In the #SWA window, click on the nick of the person to whom you wish to send the file, so that it is highlighted.  Now right click with your mouse, and up should pop a sub-menu.  On this menu should be 'DCC' which, when clicked or highlighted should show two options: SEND or CHAT.  Click SEND

Now the DCC SEND dialog box appears - for fast transfer of data, the default setup is inadequate.  Therefore, make sure the packet size is set to 4096, and the fast transfer checkbox is checked.  As most new files use long filenames, check the 'Replace spaces in Long Filenames' checkbox.  It will help.