Forums General Discussion How Would One Go About Setting Up IRC Network

How would I go about setting up & running my own irc network like efnet or dalnet.

I'd recommend that you start by reading this post

I am looking to setup my own network not a server for dalnet efent how would I go about doing this.

First step is to find a company to host your network.
Some companies offer free hosting, however, there's usually (if not always) some conditions. From past experience, I know that most of the companies that offer free hosting state that IRC is not permitted, so you may have to look into buying access.

Alternatively, and under the right conditions, you can host your own server. For this you'd need a dedicated box running an IRCd and Services, a fast internet connection and a static IP. Then you will need a domain name so that people can find your server, though you'd need this regardless of where the server was hosted. Whether hosting the server yourself is more economical than hosting it elsewhere would depend on your circumstances.

to create a Network you will ne to have a server of your own set up and running on a host computer. You then must link your server to at least one other server so they are Networked together.
You are in the wrong place to learning networking or running a server.
though there are some IRCDs that run on a windows box, most Servers are hosted on a Unix OS box (Unix Sun Linux so on) so you are going to have to start with the server, learn how to set it up and maintain it and link it with another like minded person/group running their own server.
the IRCds have to match, you cant have a good network where the servers run non-matched IRCd, its just bad :P most servers follow the RFCs for server communication but bamahut wont work with say unreal, they dont match on all the codes that are sent back and forth

you have a lot to learn, and this isnt the place to learn it