I think you miss the jist of what I am saying. I am not proposing to simply circumnavigate the firewall. I know how this is done. I am familiar with the reasons why IRC and especially DCC should be blocked at the firewall. I’m sure you are familiar with the instant messengers (AOL, Yahoo, MSN…), this has a similar function to IRC. I also know that the firewall can be set to block servers/ips but I have never seen one set to block the IM’s(Usually set to block file sharing). I have never heard of any malicious attacks being sent through IM’s, but I am not particularly familiar with them.
I just wonder why there is no software that allows you to connect to an IRC server from a web browser that gives you text only functionality. That is you would be able to send and receive text only, as in an IM, but have none of the scripting ability. I don’t think that this would make you particularly susceptible to attack.
