Mibbit was a web chat client for web browsers
Design
Mibbit's
user interface operates entirely within a
web browser and does not require installation of any software on the user's computer. Most modern web browsers that support recent versions of JavaScript are supported, including
Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera,
Google Chrome, and Safari.
Mobile devices such as the Apple
iPhone,
and Nokia N800, and other platforms such as the Nintendo
Wii are also supported.
Unlike typical web-based , Mibbit makes use of a client–server design model.
Because the client–server design allows for a centralized Mibbit client server,
Mibbit supports the webirc (cgiirc) protocol
Features
The Mibbit client has the ability to connect to multiple IRC servers, including servers that use SSL/TLS,
can join multiple channels,
and can be configured auto-join often used channels.
Mibbit uses the UTF-8 character set by default
but can also be configured to use other
.
It supports nickname tab
auto-completion, an input history for each tab accessible with the up/down arrow keys, aliases, user menu commands,
and saving of user preferences. Mibbit can parse
smileys, links, channels, nicks, and
mIRC color codes,
and can automatically create
for image links and URLs. In addition, Mibbit offers an integrated
pastebin, an upload service, and can minify URLs.
Mibbit also offers typing notification for other Mibbit users, a recent chat buffer for IRC channels when other Mibbit users are already on the channel, and extended whois information with user profiles.
Mibbit supports the Google API which allows the client to support a number of Google Services.
In addition to the standard client, Mibbit also supports a widget client that can be embedded into a web page.
Reception
Mibbit has been praised
by
CNET and
Lifehacker for its ease of use.
Drupal administrators used it to add IRC widgets to sites, noting the benefits of its
modular design.
suggested Mibbit as an appropriate resource for those new to IRC.
Firefox support
Firefox 3.5 and beyond builds already supported Mibbit as the default IRC protocol handler
and support for
encrypted ircs:// SSL/TLS connections is also included. Support has discontinued in 2024 as a result of Mibbit's shutdown.
Abuse mitigation
Because Mibbit is effectively an IRC
Proxy server it has the potential to be abused or used to evade bans and blocks. This has resulted in the client being banned from accessing some IRC
IRC network and
IRC channel. Mibbit added support for
DNSBL checking via the DroneBL service as a means to help block access from abusive users and
.
Mibbit was listed as an
open proxy in the DroneBL DNS
blacklist in December 2008, and due to a database glitch mistakenly again listed in March 2009. This prevented Mibbit users from connecting to IRC networks that make use of the DroneBL service.
Mibbit was added to DroneBL's
whitelist to help prevent future service disruptions.
On June 19, 2009 it was banned permanently from
freenode, and a new officially supported open-source AJAX client was introduced.
See also
-
Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients
-
Web chat
Further reading
External links
