I have edited the link. It was the fault of the forum software ... :tongue:
The link I posted is the one that comes up first on a Google search for 'irc ctcp' ...
Notwithstanding that, I read the *other* document, and it says:
PING
====
Ping is used to measure the time delay between clients on the IRC
network. A ping query is encoded in a privmsg, and has the form:
\001PING timestamp\001
where `timestamp' is the current time encoded in any form the querying
client finds convienent. The replying client sends back an identical
message inside a notice:
\001PING timestamp\001
The querying client can then subtract the recieved timestamp from the
current time to obtain the delay between clients over the IRC network.
Note the section in bold.
Neither of the specifications say the timestamp must be a positive integer, which is what mIRC is assuming. It could just as well be 'BLAHBLAH' by either of those standards. It's up to the client how it sends the timestamp, and how it interprets the reply.
