IceChat is an open source IRC Client written in C# using WinForms.

It has been fully released, but always undergoing development and improvements.

It is RFC 1459 Compliant.

The primary website for IceChat is http://www.icechat.net and has a wiki page set up at http://wiki.icechat.net

IceChat uses .NET Framework v3.5 by default.

If you are experiencing connection problems to certain SSL Servers, run the BuildIceChat-4.5.cmd file in the build folder, to rebuild IceChat 9 with .NET 4.5 There are also just binaries of IceChat built with .NET 4.5 sitting in the Releases section.

Download the latest source code from the page, by clicking on the Download Zip button.

Unzip the file into any folder, for example a dedicated "C:\IceChatBuild". It is best not to use the %CommonProgramFiles%, because of permissions possible limitations.

The source tree has several text files in its root folder, a build folder and a src, where the actual code and resources are located in several sub-folders. There are several build options in the extracted root folder.

• BuildIceChat.cmd
  • which uses .NET 3.5, and should be used by XP users
• BuildIceChat-x86.cmd
  • which uses .NET 3.5 and a specific project for x86 computers. This too can be used by XP users.
• BuildIceChat.4.5.cmd
  • which uses .NET 4.5.
• BuildIceChat.4.5-x86.cmd
  • which uses .NET 4.5 and a specific project for x86 computers.
• BuildIceChat.latest.cmd
  • which uses .NET 4.7.1
• BuildIceChatLinux.sh
  • A script to build IceChat 9 under Linux. See IceChat on Linux for details.

If you are not sure which version to choose, and your OS is later then XP, use the BuildIceChat.4.5.cmd.

You can either double click on the BuildIceChat.4.5.cmd file or open a command line window (cmd.exe) and run the BuildIceChat.4.5.cmd at the prompt.

You will get at the end of the process the following lines:

    0 Error(s)

Time Elapsed 00:00:00.32
..\src\IceChat\bin\Debug\IceChat2009.exe
1 File(s) copied
..\src\IceChat\\bin\Debug\IPluginIceChat.dll
1 File(s) copied
..\src\IceChat\\bin\Debug\IRCConnection.dll
1 File(s) copied
..\src\IceChat\\bin\Debug\IThemeIceChat.dll
1 File(s) copied
IceChat files copied to the IceChatBuild folder
Press any key to continue . . .

A new folder is created called IceChatBuild, and once the batch file has completed, 4 files will be placed in this folder. A log file named Manual_MSBuild_ReleaseVersion_LOG.log is also created.

Copy these 4 files into your IceChat installation folder, or place them anywhere else you want.

To see all the changes from build to build, read the changelog.txt file in the root folder.

If the BuildIceChat.cmd returns errors, try instead to run the newer IceChatBuild.4.5.cmd which was specifically created for users who have errors with IceChatBuild.cmd.

If you experience problems connecting to servers with SSL, try build with IceChatBuild.4.5.cmd.