As Shishka, recently plucked from the fold of Bungiefen to have a chance to work with Bungie themselves, like Tyson "Ferrex" Green and Jaime "Case" Griesemer before him, posted in the Underground forum at Bungie.net, Subnova, HBO and Rampancy have opened up a connected network of IRC nodes, connected to Subnova's IRC hub, offering channels for fans of Bungie games, including Halo and the soon-to-be-released Halo 2.
Shishka's post does a good job of explaining what you need to connect to IRC if you don't already know. We've also written up a page to help users get connected. Both Subnova and Rampancy have nodes open now. You can connect to them at these server names:
- irc.subnova.com
- rampancy.net
Both use the standard port, 6667. Notice you don't need to connect to both of these, as they give access to the same channels; just pick one and use it, as each has a finite user capacity.
There are a number of permanent channels established so far, including:
- #7thColumn
- #hbo
- #rampancy
- #subnova
as well as many others. You can also easily establish one for your own Group, if you have one.
If you don't have an IRC client but just want to take a quick look around, try a web-based java client. Subnova and Rampancy both have them.
Keep in mind that #rampancy, unlike some other channels on the server, doesn't have a language filter, and thus is password-protected. Once you're on the server, look for me in #hbo and ask for the password.