just so I have a personal server that me and my friends can log into.
Something tells me, even if he is the world's most popular person, he doesn't have 8000 friends and therefore he wouldn't need to lease his own line, a Linux shell account would suffice. You can purchase a shell account from a number of locations, I'd recommend
www.lomag.net they charge $25/month, and they are in my opinion a very reliable company. As for the software I'd recommend UnrealIRCd (free)
www.unrealircd.com although I'll admit that I am biased seeing as how I'm one of the authors of UnrealIRCd.
