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I want to chat on a channel which is on freenode. I need to use Tor for anonymity. What IRC client should I use and how do I configure to connect to freenode?

3 Answers 3

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You can't.

Connection to chat.freenode.net established
!kornbluth.freenode.net *** Looking up your hostname...
!kornbluth.freenode.net *** Checking Ident
!kornbluth.freenode.net *** Found your hostname
!kornbluth.freenode.net *** No Ident response
-!- You are banned from this server- You have a host listed
          in the EFNet RBL. For more information, visit
          rbl.efnetrbl.org/?i=18.238.2.85  Please contact
          [email protected] with questions. (2014/7/18 19.54)
Closing Link: onions.mit.edu (*** Banned )
Connection lost to chat.freenode.net

Probably, you could find a couple of exits that not yet banned at Freenode.

If you are interested in using Tor with Freenode, look at proxychains. Take a couple of socks5 and use its as an exit points for your irc client to Freenode servers after Tor.

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Freenode has a separate page titled »Accessing Freenode via Tor«. They run an own hidden service at the address irc://frxleqtzgvwkv7oz.onion. Just set up your client to connect to this address via Tor. To successfully connect you need to have a NickServ account and SASL enabled.

However Freenode blocks this hidden service from time to time. If this happens there is no chance to connect to Freenode via the Tor network.

As it was written in the comments Freenode decided to shut down their onion service and won't provide this possibility again.

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  • I've noticed the hidden service hostname changes occasionally. Is this still the correct address? I can't seem to connect to it.
    – xloem
    Feb 28, 2016 at 17:13
  • 1
    Update: I asked in #freenode and was informed that tor is no longer allowed on freenode, and there is no .onion service anymore
    – xloem
    Feb 28, 2016 at 17:18
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This question is a few years old, but it came up in a search for how to do this and the answer is out of date. See this for the current state of things:

https://freenode.net/news/tor-online

The short version: you need to use a client which supports SASL EXTERNAL and connect using that to freenodeok2gncmy.onion. Instructions for setting up SASL vary by client. I spent ~2 days trying to coerce pidgin into it before realizing that wasn't really possible; I switched to Hexchat and it took <2 hours (while watching a movie). Make and register the certificate as instructed on the above page, and put it in $HOME/.config/hexchat/certs/client.pem (on Unix).

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