i have just installed mirc. I cant connect to irc.spiderchat.org or vortex.spiderchat.org or any other of their servers. i can connect to other networks like Dalnet. it is enabled through my firewall. i am not sure what is going on, it just says connection refused.

I get no such error connecting there at port 6667. The fact that you're getting "connection refused" means the problem is not that /dns servername not finding anything.

I do get a different error message about an SSL certificate error when trying to connect to port +6697 because their certificate contains master.spiderchat.org instead of the actual round-robin address people connect to, so mirc thinks that a bait-and-switch is going on.

For the SSL issue, you can set mIRC to 'display invalid certificate', and you can selectively authorize mIRC to accept that certificate in the future. However that can be a problem waiting to happen, because whenever a future date happens that they add a new server to the round-robin address using a different certificate, or else their certificate expires or is replaced, then instead of auto-reconnecting while you're away from the keyboard you'll find yourself with the popup approval window again.

i have tried several things. mirc works for other servers on other networks. but i cannot connect to any of the spiderchat networks. i have even gone as far as reinstalling windows. nothing is working. it just says connection refused. i am running windows 11 home.

Do you still get this error when you try to connect like:

/server irc.spiderchat.org 6667

I still have no problem connecting, other than using +6697 instead of 6667 requires that I change options/connect/options/SSL for "server certificate" to "display invalid certificate or approval" because they created their certificates incorrectly by not including irc.spiderchat.org as one of the domains owned by the certificate.

You can try using their webchat interface at their spiderchat.org website then click on "chat now", then try to join #help

yes i still have the same issue when i connect like /server master.spiderchat.org i have also tried vortex.spiderchat.org and irc.spiderchat.org. on ports 6667, 6668. and 7000

I missed where you said whether you were able to connect via their webchat, where hopefully their #help would have someone who could help